A member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP),[2] he died in an unexplained plane crash, 1944.

[3][4] Brugmann led the Nuremberg Office of Structural Engineering of the massive Party Rally Grounds project devised by Adolf Hitler, consisting of a marching field for military exercises, stadium, arena, congress hall, and zeppelin field.

Brugmann handled stone supplies delivered by concentration camp prisoners.

The project took off in 1940, when the slave labor brought in from across Europe delivered 19,075 cubic meters of quality stone to Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds for Brugmann’s construction.

Work came to a complete stop in 1943 due to looming German defeat at the front.