Background
Wilhelm Keppler was born in Heidelberg on 14 December 1882.
Wilhelm Keppler was born in Heidelberg on 14 December 1882.
An industrialist, engineer and early member of the NSDAP, Keppler was introduced to Hitler by Heinrich Himmler and was used by the Nazi leader to secure financial support from business circles during his rise to power. He was the intermediary in contacts with the wealthy banker, Baron Kurt von Schröder, and conservative circles designed to bring down General von Schleicher.
On 5 March 1933 Keppler was elected to the Reichstag for the electoral district of Baden and in July of the same year he was appointed Reich Commissioner for Economic Affairs. In 1936 Keppler became personal adviser to Goering in the implementation of the Four Year Plan, with special responsibility for securing raw materials for industry. During the preparations for the Anschluss with Austria, Keppler was secretary at the Vienna embassy, and from March to June 1938 acted as Reich Commissioner in Austria.
He was sent on similar missions to Slovakia and Danzig to pave the way for their incorporation into the Reich. Keppler, who had entered the SS on 21 March 1935, was the founder of the Freundeskreis Heinrich Himmler (Circle of Friends of Heinrich Himmler), the source of enormous contributions from the business world to the SS, especially during World War II. In return, Keppler, who was chairman of numerous industrial firms controlled by the Third Reich, was employed by Himmler to administer confiscated industries for the SS in occupied Poland and Russia. During World War II, Keppler was Secretary of State with special duties in the Foreign Office and on 30 January 1942 he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenfuhrer.
At the end of the war, Keppler was interned and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment at the Wilhelmstrasse trial on 14 April 1949. He was released on 1 February 1951 as a result of the clemency action by the American High Commissioner.
Keppler died on 13 June 1960.