Background
Bohle was born in Bradford, England, the son of Hermann Bohle (1877–1943), a college teacher and engineer who emigrated to England.
Bohle was born in Bradford, England, the son of Hermann Bohle (1877–1943), a college teacher and engineer who emigrated to England.
Bohle studied political sciences and business administration in Cologne and Berlin and graduated in business management at the Handelshochschule, Berlin, in December 1923.
In December 1931 he became a volunteer assistant of Hans Nieland, the leader of the Foreign Organisation of the NSDAP (NSDAP Auslands-Organisation; NSDAP/AO), responsible for South and Southwest Africa and later North America. This organisational unit was founded on 1 May 1931, in Hamburg and "Reich Organisation Leader" Gregor Strasser appointed Nieland as the chief. Nieland resigned from office on 8 May 1933 (because he had become head of the Hamburg police authorities and later on was a member of the Hamburg provincial government), Bohle was charged with the leadership of the Auslands-Organisation in the party rank of a Gauleiter. Bohle's father Hermann was NSDAP/AO Landesgruppenleiter (Leader of the National Committee) in the Union of South Africa from 1932 until 1934 and he was president of the Berlin-based Deutsch-Südafrikanischen Gesellschaft (German South-African Society).
From 12 November 1933 till the end of the Nazi Germany, he was a member of the Reichstag for the constituency "Württemberg" and from 1937 to 1945 he was State Secretary in the Foreign Office. The influence of the Foreign Office was greatly exaggerated to the extent that the subject was mentioned in the foreign press as a likely successor to Joachim von Ribbentrop. He was also a confidant and on staff of Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Führer until Hess' failed peace mission to England in May 1941.
Bohle joined the NSDAP on 1 March 1932 (membership number 999,185) and on 13 September 1933 he joined the SS (membership number 276,915) at the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. Bohle was promoted SS-Gruppenführer on 20 April 1937 and SS-Obergruppenführer on 21 June 1943.
He married Gertrud Bachmann on November 14, 1925.