He was the most powerful man in Nazi Germany after Hitler: Who is Himmler?
He made the SS the most powerful armed force in Germany after the army. He destroyed Jews and those who were against the regime in the concentration camps he established in Eastern Europe during the Second World War.
Nazi Germany politician. By taking the SS (Schutzstaffel) and the Police Service under his control and a part of the army towards the end of the Second World War, he became the most powerful man in Nazi Germany after Hitler. He was born on October 7, 1900, in Munich. He committed suicide on May 23, 1945. He was the son of a Catholic middle school principal. He graduated from Munich Technical School, which he started before the First World War, as an agricultural engineer after the war. In 1923, he participated in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Coup. He joined the Nazi Party in 1925. A few years later he was appointed head of the SS (Schutzstaffel), and after Hitler came to power in 1933, he became head of the Munich Police Service. He established the Nazis' first concentration camp in Dachau. He was appointed vice president of the Gestapo in 1934. While in this position, he played an important role in the murder of the leader of the SAS, Ernest Röhm, and his friends. In 1936 he was appointed head of the Gestapo. In the same year, he also assumed the presidency of the Police Service. He set to work to make the SS the most powerful armed force in Germany after the army.
He destroyed Jews and those who were against the regime in the concentration camps he established in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. He was appointed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1943. After the unsuccessful assassination of Hitler on 20 July 1944, he established control over all the security forces in the country as well as the SS Service. When it became clear that he was trying to replace Hitler in the last months of the war and that he was negotiating with the Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte in order to have Germany surrender to the Allies and enter the war with them against the Soviet Union, he was dismissed from all his posts and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He tried to escape disguised as an ordinary soldier but was captured by the Allies and imprisoned. He committed suicide by drinking poison in prison a short time later.