Buch, Walter.

Buch, Walter, born on 24-10-1883, in Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, to, Jakob Wilhelm Hermann Buch, the Senate President at the Karlsruhe Regional Court, who was 29 and wife Elsa, born Pleuser, Buch who was 20. Hans married Elsa Pleuser in 1908, in Konstanz, Kreis Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter Gerda Buch.  She married  Bormann, Martin Ludwig. “God Almighty from Obersalzberg”

  on 02-09-1929, in Germany. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 5 daughters. Shortly before the collapse of the Third Reich, Gerda Bormann fled to South Tyrol, while her husband remained in the Führerbunker in Berlin. After a few weeks, she was taken to a military hospital (the children stayed behind in their home), where she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Gerda Bormann died on 23 March 1946 as a result of mercury poisoning, which she had contracted through chemotherapy. She left her children to the clergyman Theodor Schmitz, who later adopted the Bormann children. Her children are Adolf Martin Bormann 14-04-1930, called after his godfather Adolf Hitler.   These children aredolf Martin Bormann (* April 14, 1930, † March 11, 2013; known as “Krönzi”,  named after his godfather Adolf Hitler), Ilse Bormann (* July 9, 1931-1958; her twin sister Ehrengard died shortly after birth. As Ilse was named after her godmother Ilse Hess,  her name was changed to “Eike” after Rudolf Hess’ flight to Great Britain in 1941), Irmgard Bormann (* July 25 or July 28, 1933), Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (* August 31, 1934; named after Rudolf Hess, renamed “Helmut” in 1941), Heinrich Hugo Bormann (* June 13, 1936; called “Heiner”, named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler) Eva Ute Bormann (* May 4, 1938), Gerda Bormann (* August 4, 1940), Fritz Hartmut Bormann (* April 3, 1942) Volker Bormann (September 18, 1943-1946)

 Ilse Bormann (* 9. Juli 1931–1958; die Zwillingsschwester Ehrengard starb kurz nach der Geburt. Da Ilse nach ihrer Taufpatin Ilse Heß benannt wurde, änderte man ihren Namen nach Rudolf Heß’ Flite nach Großbritannien 1941 in „Eike“) Irmgart Bormann ( 25-07 or 28-07-1933), Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (* 31-08-1934; called after Rudolf Heß, 1941 renamed in „Helmut“).

Gerda Buch died on 23-04-1946, in Merano, Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy, at the age of 36 and was buried in Merano, Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy.

The father Hermann Buch was senate president of the Supreme Court of Baden. Walter Buch attended primary and secondary school at Bruchsal and Konstanz from 1890 to 1902. In 1902 he enlisted as an ensign in the 6th Badische Infanterieregiment at Konstanz. On 27-01-1904 he became Leutnant (second lieutenant) and on 27-01-1913 Oberleutnant (first lieutenant). In 1908 Buch married and he had two daughters and two sons.

From 1914 Walter fought in World War I as company commander, battalion commander and as commander of a section of machine gun snipers. In March 1918, he became an instructor at the training center at Döberitz. From September 1918, Buch worked in the Prussian War Ministry in Berlin. At the end of the war, Buch left service on 20-11-1918 with the rank of Major (Major)..

Buch raised chickens near Gernsbach in the Murgtal Valley. From 1919 to 1922 he was a member of the Deutschnationale Volkspartei. Until the movement was banned, he was leader of the Baden county for the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund. On Easter 1920 he became acquainted with Adolf Hitler, when he brought him a book by order of his father. On  09-12-1922,] he became member No. 13,726 of the NSDAP. On January 1, 1923, he became a member of the Sturmabteilung. From August 1923 to 1924 he organized the Frankish SA in Nuremberg. He participated in the failed Bierkellerputsch in November 1923. He became a dealer in wine and alcoholic beverages in Munich. After the re-establishment of the NSDAP, Buch became member No. 7,733 in 1925. Until 01-01- 1928 he led and organized the SA in Upper Bavaria-Schwabia.On 27-11-1927 Buch became leader of the Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungsausschuss (UschlA). On 20-05-1928 he was one of twelve elected members of the NSDAP in the Reichstag in which he remained until 1945. From June 1930 to October 1931, Buch was the leader of the youth team of the Reichsleitung der NSDAP. Until 1933 he was editor-in-chief of the Völkischer Beobachter. His eldest daughter Gerda married Martin Bormann on 02-09-1929.

On 01-07-1933, Buch became member No. 81,353 of the Schutzstaffel as SS-Gruppenführer . On 09-11-1934, he became SS-Obergruppenführer From October 03-10-1933 to 1944, he was a member of the Academy of German Law. At the same time he was a member of the Commission for Population and Racial Policy of the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

On 01-01-1934, UschlA was reappointed Oberstes Parteigericht der NSDAP (OPG). Walter Buch became leader of the OPG and president of the First Chamber. From 02-06-1933, he was Reichsleiter of the NSDAP reporting directly to Hitler.

In that position, Buch carried out purges within the NSDAP. In March 1932 he plotted assassination plots against homosexuals such as SS Sturmbannführer and Adjutant of the chief of the staff of the SA, Ernst Röhm, who was also a homosexual, Hans Erwin von Spreti-Weilbach    He approved the murders during the 1934 Night of the Long Knives. In 1936, Buch had the Gauleiter of Kurmark, Wilhelm Paul Richard Kube dismissed from all his posts. Kube had accused Buch in an anonymous letter that his wife had Jewish blood. Outbursts by party members during the 1938 Kristalnacht punished Buch lightly. On 09-11-1938, Buch wrote in Deutsche Justiz, “The Jew is not a human being. He is garbage.” In December 1940, Buch informed Heinrich Himmler, that the true purpose of the NS-Tötungsanstalt Grafeneck had become known and the Aktion T4 euthanasia program was no longer secret.

On 30-04-1945, near the end of the war in Europe, Buch was arrested by American forces and held at Camp Ashcan in Luxembourg   until August. He was subjected to numerous interrogations by the American secret service and also called as a witness at the Nuremberg trials. He was categorized as a “major offender” by a denazification court on 03-08-1948 and sentenced to five years in a labor camp. An appeal on 29-07-1949 reaffirmed his status as a major offender and the confiscation of all his assets, but reduced his sentence to three and a half years, and he was released on the basis of time served.

Hitler had dismissed the Silesian and South Westphalian district leader Josef Wagner Gauleiter of Gau Westphalia-South from all his offices on November 09-11-1941, after his wife opposed the marriage of their daughter to an SS man. A party court presided over by Walter Buch had ruled on 06-02-1942, that Wagner had done no damage to the party and was allowed to remain in the party. Hitler overturned that decision and threw Wagner out of the NSDAP. Starting in 1942, Buch had to have all his decisions signed by his son-in-law Martin Bormann.

Imprisonment In October 1944, his wife died. On 30-04-1945, American troops captured Walter Buch and held him in POW Camp No. 32 Ashcan at Mondorf-les-Bains from May to August 1945. He was interrogated by the U.S. Secret Service and was heard as a witness at the Nuremberg Trials. His daughter Gerda died in March 1946 while undergoing cancer treatment. Upon denazification, Buch was sentenced in August 1948 by a Spruchkammerverfahren in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to five years of hard labor and forfeiture of all his property. On 29-07-1949, the Munich Court of Appeals sentenced Buch as principal culprit category I, upheld the forfeiture, but reduced the prison term to 3.5 years. Because Buch had been imprisoned for so long, he was released.

On 12-09-1949, age 65, a few weeks after his release from prison, Buch ended his own life by slitting his wrists and throwing himself into the Ammersee. (Langener Zeitung, 16 September 1949) and he is buried at Friedhof/Cemetery St. Johannes Baptist, Inning am Ammersee, Bavaria, Germany.

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He died on 9 September 1949, in Schondorf am Ammersee, Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany, at the age of 65, and was buried in Inning am Ammersee, Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany.