Paul Strasser was the second of five children of the
Bavarian state official Peter Strasser (1855–1928) and his wife Pauline Strobel (1873–1943). His siblings included the politicians
Gregor Strasser (1892–1934) and
Otto Strasser (1897–1974). After attending school, Paul Strasser participated in the
World War I from 1915 to 1918. After returning from the war, Strasser entered the Bavarian
Benedictine Abbey of Metten in 1919 or 1920 and adopted the
religious name Bernhard. In the following years, he studied
Catholic theology at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the
University of Würzburg. After receiving his priestly ordination in 1923, he was assigned from 1924 onwards as a
chaplain in the
parishes administered by the
monastery and as a prefect in the monastery's
boarding school. Bernhard Strasser participated only marginally, and mostly as an observer, in the political activities of his brothers Gregor and Otto, who were among the leading figures of the
NSDAP until the early 1930s. However, as a contemporary witness, he later provided numerous details and assessments regarding potentially hidden views, actions, and political aspirations of his brothers. His
memoirs—which are strongly colored by personal perspective and were previously sometimes used too uncritically—are therefore utilized by historians to research the early history of the NSDAP. While Strasser's older brother Gregor was shot by
SS men during the
Night of the Long Knives in the early summer of 1934, and his younger brother Otto had gone into exile in May 1933 as the leader of the
Black Front (which had been banned by Nazi authorities), Strasser himself fled
Germany in July 1935. Prior to this, indications had mounted that the
Gestapo was interested in him, although the exact reasons remained unclear. There are suspicions that the National Socialist mayor of Aufhausen, Franz Xaver Froschhammer, who was known to be
anti-clerical, was involved in denunciations against Strasser. After brief stays in
Austria,
Switzerland, and
France, Strasser initially lived in a Benedictine abbey in
Luxembourg. At the outbreak of the
World War II, he went to France. Following the
German occupation of France, Strasser fled to
Portugal—after being briefly arrested in
Le Havre as a suspected German
spy. There, he helped his brother Otto, who was also in hiding in the country at the time, to find a hiding place in a monastery. From Portugal, Bernhard Strasser emigrated to the
United States in the autumn of 1940. Bernhard Strasser was classified as an important target by National Socialist police organs in the late 1930s. In the spring of 1940, the
Reich Security Main Office in
Berlin, which mistakenly believed him to be in
United Kingdom, placed him on the
Sonderfahndungsliste G.B. (Special Search List Great Britain). This was a list of persons who, in the event of a successful
German invasion of Great Britain, were to be located and arrested with special priority by the special commandos of the
SS-Einsatzgruppen. In the United States, Strasser worked as a teacher at the
Benedictine monastery of Saint John in
Collegeville,
Minnesota, until 1950. Subsequently, he served as a pastor in Primrose (1950–1963) and St. Henry's Church in Howell, Nebraska (1963–1968). From 1968 until his death, he was the resident chaplain at St. Joseph's Nursing Home in
Norfolk,
Nebraska. In the early
post-war period, Bernhard Strasser participated from the United States in the unsuccessful attempts of his brother Otto to establish a Catholic People's Party in West Germany. In Germany, Strasser published a memoir about his brothers. He also corresponded with prominent contemporary figures such as
Heinrich Brüning and historians such as . == Bibliography ==