On 20 September 1933, Höhler was taken on the orders of SA-Gruppenführer Karl Ernst by three detectives, including SA member Willi Schmidt. He was transferred from the police prison at Alexanderplatz on the basis of a Gestapo signed delivery order. Near Potsdamer Platz, several more vehicles approached the prisoner van. The vehicle column drove towards Frankfurt on the Oder. About 12 km from Frankfurt, the column stopped. Höhler was ordered to leave the transport and was led by a group of at least eight people away from the road to a nearby forest. There, Gruppenführer Ernst gave a short speech, in which he condemned Höhler to death as the murderer of Horst Wessel. Höhler was then shot by several of those present near the Berlin-Frankfurt Chaussee. The body was barely buried on the spot.
