1. Walter Buch was appointed chief judge of the Uschla in 1925, an important position for settling disputes within the party, despite having no formal legal training.
33 Facts About Walter Buch
1. 2.
Walter Buch was classified as a major regime functionary in the denazification proceedings in 1948 and released from prison 1949, committing suicide shortly afterwards.
3.
Walter Buch was born on 24 October 1883 in Bruchsal, Grand Duchy of Baden, the son of Hermann Buch, a Senate President at the Karlsruhe Regional Court.
4.
Walter Buch graduated from the gymnasium in Konstanz in 1902 and entered the Imperial German Army as an officer cadet.
5.
Walter Buch was promoted to Leutnant in 1904 and Oberleutnant in 1913.
6.
Walter Buch served in the First World War, first as a training officer, and then as a company commander, earning the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class.
7.
In November 1918, upon the end of the war, Walter Buch was released from the army as a major when he refused to swear allegiance to the new Weimar Republic.
8.
Walter Buch then ran a chicken farm near Gernsbach and was active in the Baden Veterans' League.
9.
Walter Buch was manager of the Baden branch of the Deutschvolkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest, most active, and most influential anti-semitic federation in post-war Germany.
10.
On 9 December 1922, Walter Buch joined the Nazi Party, attracted by its virulent anti-semitism, and soon became the Ortsgruppenleiter in Karlsruhe.
11.
Walter Buch participated in the Beer Hall Putsch on 9 November 1923, eluding capture as many other Nazi leaders fled Germany to avoid prosecution.
12.
Walter Buch built up ties with the now-outlawed SA groups, which could now only operate undercover, and briefly was charged with the leadership of the outlawed SA until arrested in February 1924.
13.
Walter Buch maintained regular contact between Hitler, who was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison, and the illegal Nazi leadership in Austria.
14.
Hitler re-established the Nazi Party on 27 February 1925 and Walter Buch rejoined, becoming the SA leader in Munich and serving in that capacity until November 1927.
15.
On 27 November 1927, Hitler named Walter Buch as Acting Chairman of this body, becoming permanent Chairman as of 1 January 1928.
16.
Walter Buch did not have any formal legal training and tried to avoid choosing professional lawyers as judges, preferring to rely on Alter Kampfer because he trusted them to share his outlook for the party.
17.
Walter Buch was retained as its chairman and given the title of Supreme Party Judge.
18.
In 1934, Walter Buch described the importance of Party tribunals thus:.
19.
Walter Buch supported the purge of the SA's leadership following the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, and acted in accordance by massing evidence against SA-Stabschef Ernst Rohm and his colleagues.
20.
Walter Buch felt that Rohm and his fellow SA leaders should have faced the Supreme Party Court, and was not informed of their summary executions until after the fact.
21.
Walter Buch believed that National Socialism should foster a revolution in morality as well as in politics, and he sought to use his position to spearhead a crusade against vice and corruption.
22.
Walter Buch did not confine himself merely to ruling in internal Party disputes, but had Party members investigated or sanctioned for personal moral failings.
23.
Walter Buch felt that marital fidelity and family stability were cornerstones of National Socialism, often demanding punishment for moral offenses by senior Party leadership which earned him many powerful enemies.
24.
Walter Buch tried to maintain his independence of action but eventually refused to preside over Court sessions and effectively withdrew from his position.
25.
Apart from his leadership of the Supreme Party Court, Walter Buch held several other high level positions in the Nazi Party and government.
26.
On 20 May 1928, Walter Buch was elected from electoral constituency 24 as one of the first 12 Nazi Party deputies to the Reichstag.
27.
Walter Buch served as the leader of the Youth Office in the Party's national leadership from June 1930 until 30 October 1931, when he was succeeded by Baldur von Schirach.
28.
Walter Buch served for a time up to 1933 as an editor at the Party newspaper Volkische Beobachter.
29.
On 1 July 1933, Walter Buch joined the SS and became an Honorary Leader with the rank of SS-Gruppenfuhrer.
30.
On 30 April 1945, near the end of the war in Europe, Walter Buch was arrested by American forces and held at Camp Ashcan in Luxembourg until August.
31.
Walter Buch was subjected to numerous interrogations by the American secret service and called as a witness at the Nuremberg trials.
32.
Walter Buch was categorized as a "major offender" by a denazification court on 3 July 1948 and sentenced to five years in a labor camp.
33.
On 12 September 1949, afew weeks after his release from prison, Walter Buch ended his own life by slitting his wrists and throwing himself into the Ammersee.