However, due to his insistence on prosecuting major Party figures on moral issues, he alienated Adolf Hitler, and his power and influence gradually diminished into insignificance.

Born in Bruchsal, the son of a Senate President at the Baden High Court, Buch graduated from the gymnasium in Konstanz and entered military service in 1902 as an officer cadet.

Buch came back to Munich as early as 13 November, sent by Hermann Göring – who had fled to Innsbruck – to ensure that the shaken Party troops' cohesion would not weaken.

Buch maintained regular contact between Hitler, who was incarcerated in Landsberg Prison, and the illegal Party leadership in Austria.

[2] The Inquiry and Mediation Committee (Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss or USCHLA), had been established in December 1925 by Hitler to settle intra-party problems and disputes.

The Party magistrates are bound only to their National Socialist conscience, and are no political leader's subordinates, and they are subject only to the Führer.Buch acted in accordance with this belief in the purge of the SA leadership following the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.

[8] Buch felt that Röhm and his fellow SA leaders should have faced the Supreme Party Court and was not informed of their summary executions until after the fact.

[11] Buch believed that National Socialism should foster a revolution in morality as well as in politics, and he sought to use his position to spearhead a crusade against vice and corruption.

These moral crusades earned him many enemies among his Party colleagues, including powerful Gauleiters such as Joseph Goebbels, Julius Streicher and Wilhelm Kube.

In addition, Hitler had no strong reservations about leaders’ private lives so long as they remained personally loyal and avoided open scandal.

Buch tried to maintain his independence of action but eventually refused to preside over Court sessions and effectively withdrew from his position.

Buch served as the leader of the Youth Office (Jugendamt) in the Party's national leadership (Reichsleitung) from June 1930 until 30 October 1931 when he was succeeded by Baldur von Schirach.

On 1 July 1933, Buch joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) and became an Honorary Leader (Ehrenführer) with the rank of SS-Gruppenführer; he would be promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer on 9 November 1934.

An appeal on 29 July 1949 reaffirmed his status as a major offender but reduced his sentence to three and a half years and he was released on the basis of time served.