Philipp Bouhler

Philipp Bouhler (11 September 1899 - 19 May 1945) was a Nazi German government official, SS-Obergruppenführer, head of the Führer's Chancellery and leader of the euthanasia programme, the so-called "Aktion T4".

Bouhler was born in Munich to a retired colonel and spent five years in the Royal Bavarian Cadet Corps. He took part in the First World War and was badly wounded. [ [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=106998 Axis History Forum • View topic - SS-Ogruf. Philipp Bouhler in the 1914/18 War ] at forum.axishistory.com] From 1919 to 1920, he studied philosophy for four semesters and in 1921 became a contributor in the publishing house that put out the "Völkischer Beobachter". Already by autumn 1922 he had become second secretary of the NSDAP. After the failed Beerhall Putsch in Munich and the subsequent refounding of the Party in 1925, he became Reich Secretary of the NSDAP. After the seizure of power in 1933, he became Reich Leader and Member of the Reichstag for Westphalia.

One year later, Bouhler became Police Chairman of Munich, and only a month later, he was appointed head of Adolf Hitler's Chancellery, a post specially created on 17 November 1934 that was first and foremost set aside for Party business. In this job, for instance, secret decrees might be prepared, or internal business managed, before being brought before Adolf Hitler. Bouhler was moreover Chairman of the Official Party Inspection Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Literature (Official German title: Der Chef der Kanzlei des Führers und Vorsitzender der Parteiamtlichen Prüfungskommission zum Schutze des NS-Schrifttums), which determined which writings were suitable for Nazi society, and which were not.

Bouhler's post was one of the internal communication points through which Hitler handled correspondence. He took care of letters from ordinary people containing requests for material help, godfatherhood, job procurement, clemency, readmittance to the NSDAP, or birthday wishes for Hitler. Furthermore, he was responsible for Hitler's private correspondence.

Bouhler was also responsible for activities involving the killing of people. He supervised the development and implementation of the Nazi's early euthanasia program in which mentally ill and physically handicapped people were murdered. Various methods of killing were tried out. The first killing station was Schloss Hartheim in Upper Austria. The knowledge gained from the euthanasia program was later applied to the industrialized annihilation of other groups of people, such as Jewish people.

In 1942, Bouhler published the book "Napoleon – Kometenpfad eines Genies" ("Napoleon – A Genius's Cometary Path"), which would become a favorite of Hitler's. He had also published a National Socialist publication "Kampf für Deutschland" (Fight for Germany) in 1938.

Bouhler and his wife committed suicide on 19 May 1945, just after they were apprehended by American troops and were being transported to Dachau Concentration Camp, which was used as a facility to imprison Nazis after it was liberated by American forces toward the end of the war.

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External links

* [http://www.polunbi.de/pers/bouhler-01.html Text in German, picture]
* [http://www.archive.org/details/AdolfHitlerAShortSketchOfHisLife "Adolf Hitler: A Short Sketch of His Life" by Bouhler ]