
Hitler's Chancellery, officially known as the ''Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP'' ("
Chancellery of the
Führer
( , spelled ''Fuehrer'' when the umlaut is unavailable) is a German word meaning "leader" or " guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially cal ...
of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
"; abbreviated as KdF) was a
Nazi Party organization. Also known as the ''Privatkanzlei des Führers'' ("Private Chancellery of the Führer") the agency served as the private chancellery of
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, handling different issues pertaining to matters such as complaints against party officials, appeals from party courts, official judgments,
clemency
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
petitions by NSDAP fellows and Hitler's personal affairs. The Chancellery of the Führer was also a key player in the Nazi euthanasia program.
Organization
The chancellery was established in November 1934 in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
as a separate agency, which was parallel to the German
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery () was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared since 1875, was the fo ...
under
Hans Heinrich Lammers and the
Nazi Party Chancellery (until 1941: "Staff of the
Deputy Führer
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician, convicted war criminal and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer (''Stellvertreter des Führers' ...
"), led by
Martin Bormann
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, and a war criminal. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler ...
. The ''Kanzlei des Führers'' was headed by
SS-''
Obergruppenführer
(, ) was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank after ...
''
Philipp Bouhler
Philipp Bouhler (11 September 1899 – 19 May 1945) was a German senior Nazi Party functionary who was both a (National Leader) and Chief of the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP. He was also the SS official responsible for the euthana ...
, who bore the title of ''Chef der Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP''. His adjutant was SS-''
Sturmbannführer
__NOTOC__
''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to Major (rank), major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, and the National Socialist Flyers Corps, NSFK ...
''
Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling. Originally the KdF operated out of their Berlin office at Lützow Ufer.
As chief of the KdF, Bouhler also held the rank of a Nazi ''
Reichsleiter
(, ) was the second-highest political rank in the Nazi Party (NSDAP), subordinate only to the office of . also functioned as a paramilitary rank within the NSDAP and was the highest rank attainable in any Nazi organisation.
Each reported d ...
''. He was appointed as chief on 17 November 1934 and held that position until 23 April 1945. Hitler selected Bouhler for this role due to his intense loyalty and deferential nature. Bouhler was also known for his tenacious efficiency and ideological fanaticism. In 1939, the KdF moved its seat close to the New
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery () was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared since 1875, was the fo ...
building at
Voßstraße
(also sometimes: ''Voss Strasse'' or ''Vossstrasse'' (see also ß); ) is a street in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. It runs east–west from Ebertstraße to Wilhelmstraße in the borough of Mitte, one street north of Leipziger Stra� ...
No. 8. At this time, the KdF had twenty-six employees, which increased "five-fold by 1942." Practically speaking, the KdF or "Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP" as Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw terms it, was originally designed to deal with correspondence between the Führer and Party officials, and so he could stay "in direct touch with the concerns of the people." Much of the correspondence that came to the KdF consisted of "trivial complaints, petty grievances, and minor personal squabbles of Party members." Bouhler's KdF worked in-tandem with the offices of Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
to "check Nazi Party publications for their ideological correctness."
The KdF consisted of the following five main offices (''Hauptämter''), all subordinated directly to Hitler:
*Hauptamt I: ''Privatkanzlei'' (Personal Affairs of the Führer); chief:
Albert Bormann
Albert Bormann (2 September 19028 April 1989) was a German Nazi Party official who served as a personal adjutant to Adolf Hitler and as the chief of a main office in Hitler's Chancellery. He reached the general rank of '' Gruppenführer'' in t ...
.
*Hauptamt II: ''Angelegenheiten betr. Staat und Partei'' (State and Party Affairs); chief:
Viktor Brack
Viktor Hermann Brack (9 November 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a member of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and a convicted Nazi war criminal and one of the prominent organisers of the involuntary euthanasia programme Aktion T4; this Nazi initiative result ...
.
**IIa: ''Stellvertretender Leiter des Hauptamtes II'' (Deputy chief Hauptamt II); head of section:
Werner Blankenburg
*Hauptamt III: ''Gnadenamt für Parteiangelegenheiten'' (Pardon Office for Party Affairs); chief: Hubert Berkenkamp; later from 1941 forward: Kurt Giese.
*Hauptamt IV: ''Sozial- und Wirtschaftsangelegenheiten'' (Social and Economic Affairs); chief: Heinrich Cnyrim.
*Hauptamt V: ''Internes und Personal'' (Internal Affairs and Personnel Matters); chief: Herbert Jaensch.
After 1941, Bouhler's influence and that of the KdF declined and he was largely disempowered by Martin Bormann. Eventually the KdF was absorbed into the Reich Chancellery headed by Lammers during the war.
Action T4
''Hauptamt II'' officials under Viktor Brack played a vital role in organizing the killing of
mentally ill
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...
and
physically handicapped people in the
Action T4
(German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...
"euthanasia" programme, especially the
child "euthanasia" from 1939. By a (backdated) decree of 1 September, Hitler appointed his personal physician,
Karl Brandt, along with Bouhler to manage the euthanasia program, where they would oversee the murder of physically and/or mentally disabled persons. The implementation of the killing operations were left to subordinates such as Brack and SA-''Oberführer'' Werner Blankenburg. Besides Hitler's Chancellery, only a handful of personnel were privy to the inner workings of the euthanasia program so as to maintain secrecy, which is part of the reason Hitler chose Bouhler, as he knew the KdF "could direct the killings without involving too many people and without becoming too visible." To facilitate the program, Bouhler assembled a select team of 15 to 20 physicians, where he announced the "euthanasia" programme, justifying its implementation with "the need to free up hospital space and nurses for the coming war."
In accordance with the Chancellery-directed plan, physicians were required to report any newborn with abnormalities or congenital defects to the local health department; doctors were likewise required to register children under three-years of age suffering from any such conditions. During the killing phase related to euthanizing children, the KdF chose the cover title, Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Severe Hereditary Ailments, which only actually existed on paper; code names were also employed by members of the KdF for matters dealing with euthanasia. To provide some additional semblance of legitimacy to the operation, three doctors or "certifiers" also had to concur over any diagnosis before a "merciful death" could be administered, which included the final signature of a psychiatrist—all of which really boiled down to the economic considerations regarding the person's ability to work. To execute the
deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people by a state from its sovereign territory. The actual definition changes depending on the place and context, and it also changes over time. A person who has been deported or is under sen ...
s, the ''
Gemeinnützige Krankentransport GmbH'' camouflage organization was established, residing on
Tiergartenstraße
Tiergartenstraße, or Tiergartenstrasse (see ß), is a street in the Tiergarten district in central Berlin, the capital of Germany. The street runs east-west along the southern edge of the Großer Tiergarten park from Kemperplatz and Ben-Gu ...
No. 4. Just like earlier euthanasia operations, secrecy was again paramount, as Hitler explicitly told Bouhler concerning Aktion T4, "the Führer's Chancellery must under no circumstances be seen to be active in this matter." Many KdF employees who participated in T4 later joined
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...
, the Nazi plan under
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lothar Ludwig Globocnik (21 April 1904 – 31 May 1945) was a Nazi Party official from Austria and a perpetrator of the Holocaust. A high-ranking member of the SS, Globocnik was the leader of Operation Reinhard, the organized murder of ar ...
to exterminate
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jews, Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the long pe ...
in the
General Government
The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...
district of German-
occupied Poland
' (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV 2 (Norway), TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. ...
during World War II.
Notes
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{{Authority control
Adolf Hitler
Government of Nazi Germany
Nazi Party