Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany.

Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934.

Brandt was later appointed the Reich Commissioner of Health and Emergency Services (Bevollmächtigter für das Sanitäts- und Gesundheitswesen).

[2] Brandt was born in Mulhouse in the then German Alsace-Lorraine territory (now in Haut-Rhin, France) into the family of a Prussian Army officer.

[6] In the context of the 1933 Nazi Germany law Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses (Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring), Brandt was one of the medical scientists who performed abortions in great numbers on women deemed genetically disordered, mentally or physically disabled or racially deficient, or whose unborn fetuses were expected to develop such genetic "defects".

[7] On 25 July 1939, Brandt authorized the first euthanization of the Nazi eugenics program, that of Gerhard Kretschmar, a 5-month-old disabled German infant.

[9] Additional power was afforded Brandt when on 28 July 1942, he was appointed Commissioner of Health and Emergency Services (Bevollmächtigter für das Sanitäts- und Gesundheitswesen) by Hitler and was thereafter only bound by the Führer's instructions.

[11] In addition to these considerations, Brandt's explanation at his trial for his criminal actions – particularly ordering experimentation on human beings – was that "... Any personal code of ethics must give way to the total character of the war".

[2] Historian Horst Freyhofer asserts that, in the absence of at least Brandt's tacit approval, it is highly unlikely that the grotesque and cruel medical experiments for which the Nazi doctors are infamous, could have been performed.

Brandt and Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer were good friends as the two shared technocratic dispositions about their work.

Despite Brandt's closeness to Hitler, the dictator was furious when he learned shortly before the end of the war that the doctor had sent Anni and their son toward the American lines in hopes of evading capture by the Russians.

As chief of counsel for the prosecution Telford Taylor put it:"The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures, and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science.

Amongst Brandt's advocates were numerous medical health professionals, such as surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch, renowned pathologist Robert Roesle, the pharmacologist Wolfgang Hübner, the gynaecologist Walter Stoeckel, and the historian of medicine Paul Diepgen.

[16] Clay stated:"Regardless of what inner convictions Dr Brandt may have held, he was directly responsible for much of the suffering and death caused to the unfortunate concentration camp victims chosen to be used as subjects in brutal medical experiments.