Ernst Wilhelm Bohle
Encyclopedia
Ernst Wilhelm Bohle was the leader of the Foreign Organization of the German Nazi Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...

 (NSDAP) from 1933 until 1945.

Early life

Bohle was born in Bradford, England, the son of Hermann Bohle (1877–1943), a college teacher and engineer who emigrated to England. In 1906 Bohle came to Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, 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
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 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
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 from 1930 to June 1933.

Nazism

Bohle joined the NSDAP on March 1, 1932 (membership number 999.185) and on September 13, 1933 he entered additionally the SS (membership number 276.915) at the rank of SS Major General . Bohle was promoted SS Lieutenant General on April 20, 1937 and SS General on June 21, 1943.

In December 1931 he became a volunteer assistant of Hans Nieland
Hans Nieland
Hans Heinrich Nieland was a politician of the German Nazi-Party and Lord Mayor of Dresden from 1940 until 1945.- Life :...

, the leader of the Foreign Organisation of the NSDAP (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: NSDAP Auslands-Organisation (NSDAP/AO
NSDAP/AO
The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...

)
), responsible for South and Southwest Africa and later North America. This organisational unit was founded on May 1, 1931, in Hamburg and Reich Organisation Leader Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser was a politician of the National Socialist German Workers Party...

 appointed Nieland as the Chief. After Nieland resigned from office on May 8, 1933 (because he had become head of the Hamburg police
Hamburg Police
The Hamburg Police is the German Landespolizei force for the city-state of Hamburg. Law enforcement in Germany is divided between federal and state agencies...

 authorities in the meantime and later on a member of the Hamburg provincial government), Bohle was charged with the leadership of the Auslands-Organisation in the party rank of a Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...

. Bohle's father Hermann was NSDAP/AO Landesgruppenleiter (Leader of the National Committee) in the Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...

 from 1932 until 1934 and he was president of the Berlin based Deutsch-Südafrikanischen Gesellschaft (German South-African Society).

From November 12, 1933, till the end of the Third Reich he was member of the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...

 for the constituency "Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

" and from 1937 to 1945 he was State Secretary in the Foreign Office. He was also a confidant and staff of Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...

, the Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 until Hess' arrest and imprisonment by Britain after a failed peace mission in 1941.

Post war

Bohle was tried as a defendant in the "Ministries Trial
Ministries Trial
The Ministries Trial was the eleventh of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S...

"
(German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: "Wilhelmstraßen-Prozeß"), one of the
Nuremberg follow-up trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

. He was sentenced to five years confinement on April 11, 1949. However, he was pardoned by U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy
John J. McCloy
John Jay McCloy was a lawyer and banker who served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, president of the World Bank and U.S. High Commissioner for Germany...

 on December 21, 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
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

.

Decorations

  • Kriegsverdienstkreuz (KVK) I. Klasse ohne Schwerter (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "War Merit Cross, 1st Class without Swords
    )
  • Kriegsverdienstkreuz (KVK) II. Klasse ohne Schwerter (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "War Merit Cross, 2nd Class without Swords
    )
  • Goldenes Parteiabzeichen der NSDAP (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "Golden Party Award of the NSDAP
    )
  • Dienstauszeichnung der NSDAP für 10 Dienstjahre (Bronze) (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "Long-Service Award in the NS-Party, 10 years, Bronze"
    )
  • SS-Ehrenring (Totenkopfring) (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "SS Honour Ring - Death's head ring"
    )
  • Ehrendegen des Reichsführers-SS (Engl.
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

    : "Honor Sword of the SS Field Marshal"
    )

See also

  • NSDAP/AO
    NSDAP/AO
    The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation...

     (Foreign Organization of the Nazi Party)
  • List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
  • List of SS Personnel
  • Nazi Germany: Nazi Party and Nazi government leaders and officials

Literature

  • 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 p. - (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
  • 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

External links

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