imported>Lightiggy at 18:14, 20 June 2025

2025-06-20T18:14:56Z

New page

{{Short description|German Nazi official (1904–1948)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox criminal
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Josef Bühler
| image = Bühler Josef.jpg
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Bühler in 1942
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|02|16|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Bad Waldsee]], [[Kingdom of Württemberg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1948|08|22|1904|02|16}}
| death_place = [[Montelupich Prison]], [[Kraków]], [[Polish People's Republic]]
| module = {{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes
| office = [[State Secretary]] [[General Government]]
| term_start = 8 March 1940
| term_end = 19 January 1945
| governor_general = [[Hans Frank]]
| predecessor = ''Position created''
| successor = ''Position abolished''
| office2 = Deputy to the Governor General (''de facto'') General Government
| term_start2 = 18 May 1940
| term_end2 = 19 January 1945
| governor_general2 = Hans Frank
| predecessor2 = [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]]
| successor2 = ''Position abolished''
| citizenship =
| nationality = German
| party = [[Nazi Party]]
| parents =
| education =
| alma_mater = [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]] [[University of Kiel]] [[Humboldt University of Berlin]] [[University of Erlangen]]
| occupation =
| profession = Lawyer
| known_for = [[Wannsee Conference]] participant
| signature =
| signature_alt = 
}}
| footnotes =
| trial = Supreme National Tribunal
| death_cause = [[Execution by hanging]]
| conviction = [[Crimes against humanity]]
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
| criminal_penalty = [[Capital punishment in Poland|Death]]
}}
'''Josef Bühler''' (16 February 1904 – 22 August 1948) was a German lawyer who, as the [[protégé]] of Governor General [[Hans Frank]], rose to become his deputy as the [[State Secretary]] in the [[Nazi Germany]]-controlled [[General Government]] in [[Kraków]] during the [[Second World War]]. He participated in the January 1942 [[Wannsee Conference]], at which the genocidal [[Final Solution to the Jewish Question]] was planned. He was convicted of crimes against peace, [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]], and was executed.

== Early life and education ==
Bühler was born in [[Bad Waldsee]] into a Catholic family, the son of a baker. He attended boarding school and obtained his ''[[Abitur]]'' in 1922. He went on to study law at the universities in [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich|Munich]], [[University of Kiel|Kiel]], [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Berlin]] and [[University of Erlangen|Erlangen]]. He earned a [[Doctor of Law]] degree and passed the state law examination in 1930. That year, he joined the Munich law firm of [[Hans Frank]], who regularly defended [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party]] in court. From this point on, his professional life was closely linked with that of Frank. On 1 October 1932, he was made a probationary judge at the Munich district court.{{sfn|Loose|2017|pp=152–153}}

== Career in Nazi Germany ==
Shortly after the [[Nazi seizure of power]] at the end of January 1933, Frank was appointed as the [[Minister of Justice]] for [[Bavaria]] on 10 March and Bühler became a member of his staff as a state attorney. He joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1933 (membership number 1,663,751). He also was given a senior position in the [[National Socialist Association of German Legal Professionals]]. Bühler also joined Frank's [[Academy for German Law]], was made a member of its [[presidium]] and contributed articles to the academy journal.{{sfn|Loose|2017|p=153}}

In October 1934, after the process of ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' (coordination) transferred sovereignty from the states to the central government, Bühler moved from Bavaria to become a prosecutor in the Reich Ministry of Justice in [[Berlin]]. In 1935, he became the senior prosecutor at the Munich ''Oberlandesgericht'' (Higher Regional Court). After Frank was appointed as a [[minister without portfolio]] in Hitler's cabinet, he brought Bühler into his ministerial office as a ''Ministerialrat'' (Ministerial Counselor) in 1938.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080806182554/http://www.ghwk.de/engl/cateng6a.htm Dr. Josef Bühler (1904–1948)] in the [https://www.ghwk.de/de Wanssee Conference House Memorial and Educational Institute]</ref> Unlike many other high-ranking Nazi officials, Bühler was never a member of the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] or the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]].<ref>[https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-23-46.asp Transcript of Bühler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, p.65]</ref>

Just before the outbreak of the war, Bühler was conscripted into the [[German Army (1935–1945)|German Army]] in August 1939 but Frank obtained his release within days. After the [[invasion of Poland]] by [[Nazi Germany]] in September 1939, Frank was appointed Governor General for [[General Government|the occupied Polish territories]] at the end of October and Bühler accompanied him to [[Kraków]]. On 8 December, he was made head of the Governor General's office with the rank of ''Ministerialdirektor'' and, on 8 March 1940, he advanced to the position of [[State Secretary]].{{sfn|Loose|2017|p=154}} After [[Arthur Seyss-Inquart]], Frank's Deputy Governor General, departed to become the ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' of the [[Reichskommissariat Niederlande|occupied Netherlands]] in May 1940, Bühler functioned as Frank's deputy, a designation that was made permanent in June 1941.{{sfn|Klee|2007|p=81}} Though not given the formal title of Deputy Governor General, as State Secretary he was Frank's chief deputy and represented him during his absences.<ref>[https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-23-46.asp Transcript of Bühler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp.89–90]</ref>

=== Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution ===
[[File:Wannsee Protokoll januar 1942.pdf|thumb|The meeting minutes of the [[Wannsee Conference]] identifying "''Staatssekretär'' Dr. Bühler" as a participant.]]
Bühler attended the [[Wannsee Conference]] on 20 January 1942 as the representative of the Governor General's office. This conference was called to discuss the implementation of the [[Final Solution of the Jewish Question]]. The minutes of the meeting document Bühler stating that the General Government would welcome the launch of the Final Solution in its territory, and he stressed the importance of solving "the Jewish Question in the General Government as quickly as possible". He also stated that "of the two-and-a-half million Jews concerned, the majority are unfit for work". When his fellow conference participant [[Adolf Eichmann]] was asked at his 1961 trial in Israel what was meant by this statement, he answered that Bühler had wanted to intimate "that they should be killed".{{sfn|Loose|2017|pp=157–160}}

== Arrest, trial and execution ==
Bühler fled from Kraków back to Germany on 18 January 1945, the day before the [[Red Army]] entered the city. He was arrested in [[Schrobenhausen]] on 30 May 1945 by American forces and [[internment|interned]] in Nuremberg. He testified in Frank's defense at the [[Nuremberg Trials]] on 23 April 1946, denying all knowledge of the [[Holocaust]] and trying to deflect all blame onto the SS, in particular, ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] and SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' [[Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger]], the [[SS and Police Leader|Higher SS and Police Leader]] for the General Government.<ref>[https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-23-46.asp Transcript of Bühler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp.64–113]</ref>

Shortly afterward, on 25 May 1946, in accordance with the [[Moscow Declarations]] that established the principle that war criminals were to be transferred for trial to the nations where their crimes took place, Bühler was [[extradition|extradited]] to the [[Polish People's Republic]]. His trial opened before the [[Supreme National Tribunal]] on 17 June 1948. Bühler was found guilty on 10 July of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and ordered to forfeit all of his property.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080918203746/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/buhler1.htm Trial of Dr. Joseph Bühler, Staatssekretär and Deputy Governor-General, Law Report, United Nations War Crimes Commission, 1949]</ref> Clemency pleas were filed by Bühler, his attorney, his wife and [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Michael von Faulhaber]] of Munich. All were rejected by Polish President [[Bolesław Bierut]], and Bühler was executed by [[hanging]] on 22 August 1948 at [[Montelupich Prison]] in Kraków.{{sfn|Loose|2017|pp=160–164}}

== Portrayals in popular media ==
Bühler's death is the [[inciting incident]] in the 1992 [[alternate history]] novel ''[[Fatherland (novel)|Fatherland]]'' by [[Robert Harris (novelist)|Robert Harris]]. The novel postulates a long war between Nazi Germany and the [[Soviet Union]], and a cold war with the United States. The novel's protagonist investigates Bühler's murder in 1964, which is part of a [[Gestapo]] effort to conceal the (by then completed) Final Solution.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Robert|title=Archangel; Fatherland.|date=2000|location=Cresset Editions|isbn=0-09187-209-X}}</ref>

Bühler was portrayed by [[Reinhard Glemnitz]] in the German film [[The Wannsee Conference (film)|''Die Wannseekonferenz'']] (1984), by [[Ben Daniels]] in the [[BBC]]/[[Home Box Office|HBO]] film ''[[Conspiracy (2001 film)|Conspiracy]]'' (2001) and by {{ill|Sascha Nathan|de}} in the German film [[Die Wannseekonferenz (2022 film)|''Die Wannseekonferenz'']] (2022).

== See also ==
* [[General Government administration]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Sources ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080806182554/http://www.ghwk.de/engl/cateng6a.htm Dr. Josef Bühler (1904–1948)] in the [https://www.ghwk.de/de Wanssee Conference House Memorial and Educational Institute]
* {{cite book |last=Klee |first=Ernst |title=Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 |publisher=Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag |location=Frankfurt-am-Main |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-596-16048-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Loose |first=Ingo |chapter=Josef Bühler: State Secretary for the General Government. A Behind-the-Scenes Perpetrator |editor-last1=Jasch |editor-first1=Hans-Christian |editor-last2=Kreutzmüller |editor-first2=Christoph |title=The Participants: The Men of the Wannsee Conference |publisher=Berghahn Books |location= |year=2017 |page= |isbn=978-1-785-33671-3}}
* [https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-23-46.asp Transcript of Bühler's testimony, 23 April 1946, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp.64–113]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080918203746/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/buhler1.htm Trial of Dr. Joseph Bühler, Staatssekretär and Deputy Governor-General, Law Report, United Nations War Crimes Commission, 1949]

== Further reading ==
* [[David Cesarani|Cesarani, David]]: ''Eichmann: His Life and Crimes'', London: Vintage (2005) {{ISBN|978-0-099-44844-0}}.
* Friedman, Towiah: ''Die höchsten Nazi-Beamten im General-Gouvernement in Polen in den Kriegs-Jahren 1939–45''. Haifa: Institute of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes (2002).
* Grimm, Hans: ''Dr. Josef Bühler – Impusgeber bei der Wannsee-Konferenz''. In: Wolfgang Praske: ''Täter Helfer Trittbrettfahrer. Band 4. NS-Belastete aus Oberschwaben''. Gerstetten: Kugelberg Verlag (2015) pp. 70–83, {{ISBN|978-3-945893-00-5}}.
* [[Bogdan Musiał|Musiał, Bogdan]]: ''Deutsche Zivilverwaltung und Judenverfolgung im Generalgouvernement''. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag (2000) {{ISBN|978-3-447-05063-0}}.

== External links ==
* {{DNB portal|969665296}}
* [https://prorevnews.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/minutes-of-the-wannsee-conference/ Minutes from the Wannsee Conference], archived by the Progressive Review

{{Holocaust Poland}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bühler, Josef}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German civil servants]]
[[Category:Executed German mass murderers]]
[[Category:Executed people from Baden-Württemberg]]
[[Category:Executions by the Supreme National Tribunal]]
[[Category:General Government]]
[[Category:German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States]]
[[Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Poland]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:Lawyers in the Nazi Party]]
[[Category:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni]]
[[Category:People extradited to Poland]]
[[Category:People from Bad Waldsee]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Württemberg]]
[[Category:University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni]]
[[Category:University of Kiel alumni]]
[[Category:Wannsee Conference attendees]]

Josef Bühler - Revision history

imported>Lightiggy at 18:14, 20 June 2025