He was a vigorous anti-communist and anti-Semite who was in office when Bavarian Minister President Gustav Ritter von Kahr had Ostjuden, or "Eastern Jews", expelled from Bavaria.

As part of an anti-Semitic campaign throughout Germany in 1920, Kahr ordered the mass expulsion from Bavaria of the so-called Eastern Jews, many of whom had lived there for generations.

[1] Pöhner was also instrumental in mounting terror and in supporting Organisation Consul death squads, which carried out politically motivated murders with the intent of destabilizing the country and installing a right-wing dictatorship.

Confronted with the charge that entire groups of right-wing political assassins were at large and working in and around Munich, he reportedly said: "Yes... but too few of them.

"[2] Pöhner was closely linked to Gustav von Kahr, who had his own plans for overthrowing the government of the Weimar Republic but who opposed the 1923 Hitler Beer Hall Putsch.