Keppler attended
Karlsruhe Technical School from 1901 to 1905. He then served in the army between 1903 and 1904 before attending
Königliche Technische Hochschule zu Danzig from 1905 to 1910, where he earned his degree in
engineering. He was commissioned by the army as a reserve second
lieutenant in 1910. Keppler became an engineer in the chemical industry starting in 1911. He fought in the
First World War. Keppler was an engineer and chemical manufacturer at the time that he joined the
NSDAP in February 1927 as member #62,424. He co-owned Odin Works, a small photographic gelatin factory, and was chairman of the
I. G. Farben subsidiary Braunkohle-Benzin AG. Hitler appointed him as the Nazi Party's economics adviser in December 1931. He was elected to the
Reichstag on 5 March 1933, from the Nazi
electoral list. At the
November 1933 election, he was returned from electoral constituency 32,
Baden, a seat that he held until May 1945. In July 1933 he was appointed Reich Commissioner for Economic Affairs (). This position granted Keppler charge of all party organizations involved with economic policy. After 1934, Keppler faced the problem of securing and utilizing raw materials. In October 1933, he was a founding member of
Hans Frank's
Academy for German Law and was named to its
präsidium, or executive committee. To strengthen the Nazi Party's ties with business and industry, Keppler founded the Circle of Friends of the Economy (
Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, which is sometimes referred to as the "Keppler Circle"). Keppler joined the
SS (#50,816) in August 1932 and founded the
Circle of Friends of Heinrich Himmler, which was a continuation of the Keppler Circle. Considered weak and slow, Keppler's role was supplanted in 1936 by the
Four Year Plan. He served as a personal adviser to
Hermann Göring on the Four Year Plan. He was given a new title of "general expert of German raw and industrial materials". He went to
Austria in 1938 to prepare the ground for
Anschluss. He served as Secretary at the German Embassy in
Vienna in 1938, Reich Commissioner in
Austria from March to June 1938, then Reich Commissioner in
Slovakia in 1939, and finally Reich Commissioner in
Danzig in August 1939. Keppler became
Secretary of State with special duties in the Foreign Office during
World War II, during which he administered SS confiscated industries in Poland and Russia. On 30 January 1942 he became an honorary
Obergruppenführer (General) of the
SS. Keppler was sentenced to ten years in prison during the
Ministries Trial on 14 April 1949. He was pardoned early on 1 February 1951 by the U.S. High Commission and released from prison. He died on 13 June 1960. ==See also==