Wilhelm Brückner

Who was Wilhelm Brückner?

Wilhelm Brückner was until 1940 Adolf Hitler's chief adjutant.

Brückner grew up in Baden-Baden and also did his Abitur there. Afterwards he studied law and economics in Strasbourg, Freiburg, Heidelberg and Munich.

In the First World War, Brückner was an officer in a Bavarian infantry regiment and was discharged as a lieutenant. After the war, he joined the Freikorp Epp and participated in Schützenregiment 42 as a member of the Reichswehr in suppressing the Bavarian Soviet Republic.

Towards the end of 1919 Brückner was once again going to university, but became for three years a film recording technician. Already in late 1922 he joined the NSDAP and a few months later, on 1 February 1923, became leader of the Munich SA Regiment. He was among those who were active in spurring on the Putsch. He also delivered the quote: "The day is coming when I cannot hold the people. If nothing happens now, then the people will slip away."

On 9 November 1923 Brückner took part in the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, as a result of which he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. He was, however, released only four and a half months later and once again took over his old SA regiment's leadership. Shortly thereafter, he worked until 1927 as the third general secretary at the Association for the German Community Abroad. Over the next few years he lived on his income as a sales representative, until 1929 when he found a steady job at the German Foreign Institute.