Ernst Wilhelm Bohle

Ernst Wilhelm Bohle (28 July 1903 – 9 November 1960) was the leader of the Foreign Organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) from 1933 until 1945.

Ernst Wilhelm Bohle
Bohle on trial, 1947.
Gauleiter of Auslands-Organisation (AO)
In office
17 February 1934 – 8 May 1945
Preceded byPosition created
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Head of Department for Germans Abroad
In office
8 May 1933 – 17 February 1934
State Secretary in the Reichsministry of Foreign Affairs
In office
21 December 1937 – 8 May 1945
Personal details
Born(1903-07-28)28 July 1903
Bradford, England
Died9 November 1960(1960-11-09) (aged 57)
Düsseldorf

Early life

Bohle was born in Bradford, England, the son of Hermann Bohle (1876–1943), a college teacher and engineer who emigrated to England. In 1906 Bohle moved to Cape Town, where his father was appointed to a professorship of electrical engineering, and attended a high school there. Bohle studied political sciences and business administration in Cologne and Berlin and graduated in business management at the Handelshochschule, Berlin, in December 1923. He married Gertrud Bachmann on November 14, 1925. Bohle was employed as branch manager and agent in the import-export business for several enterprises in the Rheinland from 1924 until 1930 and established and thereafter directed a large automotive firm in Hamburg from 1930 to June 1933.

Nazism

Bohle joined the NSDAP on 1 March 1932 (membership number 999,185) and on 13 September 1933 he joined the SS (membership number 276,915) at the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. Bohle was promoted SS-Gruppenführer on 20 April 1937 and SS-Obergruppenführer on 21 June 1943.

In early 1932 he became adjutant to Hans Nieland, the leader of the Foreign Organisation of the NSDAP (NSDAP Auslands-Organisation; NSDAP/AO), responsible for South and South-West Africa and later North America. This organisational unit was founded on 1 May 1931 in Hamburg and "Reich Organisation Leader" Gregor Strasser had appointed Nieland as the chief. Nieland resigned from office on 8 May 1933 (because he had become head of the Hamburg police and later a member of the Hamburg provincial government). Bohle was charged with the leadership of the party Department for Germans Abroad (Abteilung für Deutsche im Ausland) which then reported to Deputy-Führer Rudolf Hess. However, on 17 February 1934 the office was redesignated Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP and Bohle was raised to the rank of Gauleiter.[1] Bohle's father Hermann was NSDAP/AO Landesgruppenleiter (Leader of the National Committee) in the Union of South Africa from 1932 until 1934 and he was president of the Berlin-based Deutsch-Südafrikanischen Gesellschaft (German South-African Society).

From 12 November 1933 till the end of Nazi Germany, Bohle was a member of the Reichstag for the constituency "Württemberg" and from December 1937 to May 1945 he was a State Secretary in the Foreign Office.[2] The influence of the Foreign Office was greatly exaggerated to the extent that Bohle was mentioned in the foreign press as a likely successor to Joachim von Ribbentrop.[3] He was also a confidant and on the staff of Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Führer until Hess' failed peace mission to England in May 1941.

Trial and conviction

Bohle surrendered to US forces on 23 May 1945 at Falkenau and was interned with other high ranking Nazi officials.[4] Bohle was tried as a defendant in the "Ministries Trial" ("Wilhelmstraßen-Prozeß"), one of the Nuremberg follow-up trials. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on 11 April 1949. However, he was pardoned by U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy on 21 December 1949. Subsequent to his release, he worked as a merchant in Hamburg. He also advocated for the reformation of an organization for the development of German South-African interstate commerce. He died in Düsseldorf.

See also

References

Notes

  1. Miller and Schulz, 2012, pp. 59-60.
  2. Miller and Schulz, 2012, p.58.
  3. McKale, Donald M. (1977). The Swastika Outside Germany. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. p. 118. ISBN 0-87338-209-9.
  4. Miller and Schulz, 2012, p.69.

Bibliography

  • Literature by Ernst Wilhelm Bohle in the catalogue of the "Deutsche Bibliothek" (the German National Library in Frankfurt on the river Main and Leipzig)
  • Ehrich, Emil: Die Auslands-Organisation der NSDAP. - Berlin: Junker u. Dünnhaupt, 1937. - 32 pp. - (Schriften der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik : 2, Der organisatorische Aufbau des Dritten Reiches; 13)
  • Jong, Louis de: The German fifth column in the Second World War / translated from the Dutch by C.M. Geyl. - Rev. ed. - London : Routledge, 1956. - 308 p. : maps. - (Translation of: De duitse vijfde colonne in de tweede wereldoorlog)
  • McKale, Donald M.: The swastika outside Germany. - Kent, Ohio : Kent State Univ. Press, 1977. - xvi, 288 p. - ISBN 0-87338-209-9
  • Miller, Michael D. and Schulz, Andreas: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders Of The Nazi Party And Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Volume 1 (Herbert Albrecht-H. Wilhelm Huttmann), R. James Bender Publishing, 2012, ISBN 1-932970-21-5
  • Müller, Jürgen: Nationalsozialismus in Lateinamerika : die Auslandsorganisation der NSDAP in Argentinien, Brasilien, Chile und Mexiko, 1931 - 1945. - Stuttgart : Akademischer Verlag Heinz, 1997. - 566 p. : ill. - (Historamericana ; 3). - ISBN 3-88099-672-5. - (Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral) - Heidelberg, 1994/95). - EUR 34,50
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