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Philipp BouhlerNSDAP party leader, head of the Office of the Party Leader
Date of Birth: 11.11.1899
Country:  Germany |
Biography of Philipp Bouler
Philipp Bouler was a party official of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and the head of the Party Chancellery (November 17, 1934 - April 23, 1945). He was born in Munich into a family of a retired colonel. In 1912, he joined the Royal Bavarian Cadet Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army in July 1916. During World War I, he served as a junior officer in the 1st Bavarian Artillery Regiment and was promoted to lieutenant on July 17, 1917. He was severely wounded in August 1917 and discharged from the army with the rank of senior lieutenant. He was awarded the Prussian "Iron Cross" 2nd class and the Bavarian Order of Military Merit 4th class with swords for his distinguished service.
In 1919-1920, Bouler studied philosophy at the University of Munich. In 1919, he became a member of the nationalist German People's Rifle and Assault Union. In 1921, he joined the NSDAP and started working at the party's main newspaper, the "Völkischer Beobachter". From 1922, he served as the deputy head of the NSDAP's administrative offices under Max Amann. After the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1924, he became the manager of the Greater German People's Community. From 1925 to 1934, he held the position of the party's imperial executive officer (Reichsgeschäftsführer der NSDAP). In 1932, he published a biography of Hitler. In June 1933, he was elected as a member of the Reichstag from South Westphalia.
On April 20, 1933, Bouler joined the SS (membership number 54,932) and was promoted to the rank of SS-Gruppenführer. In 1933, he was appointed the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in the Deputy Führer's Party Staff. From September 1, 1934, he became the Police President of Munich. On November 17, 1934, after the establishment of the Party Chancellery, he was appointed its head. Bouler also led the Commission for the Protection of National Socialist Literature in the Deputy Führer's Party Staff. This commission determined which works were suitable for Nazi society and which were not. From April 4, 1936, Bouler was a member of the Imperial Senate for Culture. The Party Chancellery provided for Hitler's personal needs, handled party matters addressed to him (if they were outside the competence of other departments), and dealt with requests for clemency from Nazis convicted by party courts or regular courts. The Chancellery also processed correspondence addressed to Hitler from ordinary Germans, which contained requests for material or other assistance, various proposals, as well as congratulations and birthday wishes.
During the war, Bouler's influence on Hitler was surpassed only by that of Martin Bormann. On September 1, 1939, Hitler entrusted him with the implementation of the euthanasia program, which involved the extermination of mentally ill and physically disabled people. According to approximate estimates, around 70,000 people were killed during the Nazi euthanasia program. The experience and knowledge gained during the implementation of the euthanasia program were later applied in the mass extermination of people in Nazi concentration camps.
On April 23, 1945, while in southern Germany, Bouler, along with Hermann Göring and General Karl Koller, supported Hermann Göring's initiative to assume the functions of the Head of State, as Hitler was unable to lead the country from Berlin. On the same day, on the orders of Martin Bormann, Bouler, Göring, Lammers, and Koller were arrested by an SS unit on charges of treason. Bormann instructed Heinrich Himmler's RSHA to execute the traitors, but the order was not carried out. On May 5, 1945, the SS unit handed over the custody of the conspirators to Luftwaffe units, and they were immediately released.
Bouler and his wife committed suicide on May 19, 1945, by ingesting potassium cyanide after they were captured by American troops and transferred to the Dachau concentration camp.
