The death of his father derailed plans for the 20-year-old Barbie to study theology or otherwise become an academic, as his peers had expected. He was passably intelligent without being brilliant, and reasonably popular without being considered a leader. While unemployed, Barbie was drafted into the Nazi labour service, the Reichsarbeitsdienst.On September 26, 1935 at the age of 22, Barbie became member 272,284 of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the special security branch service of the SS, which acted as the intelligence-gathering arm of the National Socialist Party. On May 1, 1937 he also became member 4,583,085 of the Nazi Party. In April 1939, Barbie became engaged to Regina Margaretta Willms, a 23-year-old daughter of a postal clerk.