Portrait of Chef der Kanzlei des Fuehrers Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler.
Overview
- Caption
- Portrait of Chef der Kanzlei des Fuehrers Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler.
One of a collection of portraits included in a 1939 calendar of Nazi officials. - Date
-
1939
- Locale
- Germany
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Geoffrey Giles
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Geoffrey Giles
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Philipp Bouhler (1899-1945), SS-Obergruppenfuehrer who served as chief of Hitler's chancellery and head of the T-4 Euthanasia program. Born in Munich, Bouhler was one of the earliest members of the NSDAP (Nazi party). In 1922 he left the department of philosophy at the University of Munich to help edit the Voelkische Beobachter, the NSDAP newspaper. The following year he took part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. After a brief period of incarceration, Bouhler became business manager of the NSDAP, a position he held from 1925 to 1934. In 1933 he became a Reich leader of the Nazi party and was elected to the Reichstag from the district of Westphalia. On September 17, 1934, Bouhler became Hitler's Chief of the Chancellery. In addition he was appointed chief of the NSDAP Censorship Committee for the Protection of National Socialist Literature and of the Study Group for German History Books and Educational Material. In September 1939 Bouhler, along with Karl Brandt, was tasked by Hitler to develop the T-4 Euthanasia program. When a public outcry put a halt to the program in August 1941, he helped secure the reassignment of T-4 personnel to the concentration camps. At the end of the war Bouhler sought protection from Hermann Goering, and was at the Reichsmarschall's headquarters in Zell-am-See in May 1945 when Bouhler and his wife committed suicide shortly before the arrival of the Americans. Bouhler wrote two books: "Struggle for Germany," a chronicle of the NSDAP, and "Napoleon: the Comet Path of a Genius," a biography of the French leader that was one of Hitler's favorite books.
[Sources: Wistrich, Robert. "Who's Who in Nazi Germany." MacMillan, 1982; Zentner, Christian. "Encyclopedia of the Third Reich." MacMillan, 1991.]
- Record last modified:
- 2001-08-13 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1133350
