Jordan was born in Großenlüder, Hesse-Nassau. His family's background was in farming, although his father was also a salesman. After finishing Volksschule, Jordan became a worker in the armament industry between 1916 and 1918. He earned so much money doing this that after the First World War, he found himself able to begin training as a teacher in Fulda. He nevertheless got involved in the military, serving from 1920 to 1922 as a temporary volunteer in the Reichswehr. In 1922, Jordan became a member of the Freikorps Oberland, and alongside this service ended his teacher training in 1924. At 22, he was already a Volksschule teacher. The high joblessness rate in Germany at that time, kept him from finding a teaching job, leading him to take such jobs as workman, office worker or freelancer, among others, at publishing houses and in advertising. Only in 1927 was he able to obtain a teaching job. He worked as a teacher at, among other schools, the "Army Vocational School for Economics and Administration" in Fulda. Already by 1924, Jordan was active as a speaker for the Völkisch-Sozialer Block and the Deutsch-Völkischer Reichspartei, without ever becoming a member of either one. Through these rather nationalistically oriented groups, Jordan came into contact with the NSDAP, which he joined on 15 May 1925. In 1925, he was the founder and editor of the völkisch monthly Notung. Jordan's first writings came out:
"Der wissenschaftliche Sozialismus", 1925
"Deutschland als Kolonie der Wallstreet", 1925
In 1926 he emigrated to Australia, returning to Germany in 1927. on 17 November 1929 Jordan got into Hesse-Nassau's Provinziallandtag for the NSDAP, and in December of the same year he got elected as Fulda's only NSDAP city councillor. Owing to this appointment, he was dismissed from his teaching job on 22 December 1929. Also in November 1929, Jordan founded the party newspaperDer Fuldaer Beobachter, whose name was freely borrowed from the Party's official paper, the Völkischer Beobachter. In 1930, Jordan was made Aussenpolitischer Schriftleiter of the NSDAP Gau newspaper Der Sturm, whose offices were in Kassel. On 19 January 1931, Jordan was summoned to Munich by Gregor Strasser, and was personally met by Adolf Hitler who appointed him Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg. He then began rising within the Party ranks, acting as member of the Prussian Landtag between 24 April 1932 and 14 October 1933 and being appointed to the Prussian State Council and made an SAGruppenführer. He was also the editor of the Mitteldeutschen Nationalzeitung and the weekly Der Kampf. In March 1933 came his appointment as Plenipotentiary for the Province of Saxony in the Reichsrat and in November 1933 his election as a member of the Reichstag. On 20 April 1937, Adolf Hitler personally appointed him Reichsstatthalter in the Free State of Brunswick and the Free State of Anhalt and NSDAP Gauleiter of Magdeburg-Anhalt. Jordan was succeeded as Gauleiter of Halle-Merseburg by Joachim Albrecht Eggeling. On 9 November of the same year came Jordan's promotion to SA-Obergruppenführer. On 6 June 1932, he wrote to Gregor Strasser concerning the alleged Jewish origins of Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence service of the SS. Strasser passed Jordan's letter to the NSDAP's chief racial inverstigator, Dr Achim Gercke, who dismissed the allegation. On 1 September 1939, Jordan became Reichsverteidigungskommissar in Defence District XI and on 1 January 1940, Minister-President of the Anhalt Provincial Government. On 1 July 1944 came Jordan's last leap up the career ladder when he was appointed Oberpräsident of the Province of Magdeburg, thus united under his control all the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdictions. In the war's dying days, on 2 May 1945, Jordan dissolved the Gau staff, disbanded the local Volkssturm and managed to go underground with his family under a false name.
Post-war
On 30 May 1945, he was arrested by the British, and in July of the next year, the Western Allies handed him over to the Soviets. Late in 1950 – after four years in custody in the Soviet occupation zone – Jordan was sentenced to serve 25 years in a Soviet Union labour camp. Only Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow managed to persuade the Soviets to reconsider Jordan's sentence, and then he was released on 13 October 1955. In the years to come, Jordan earned a living as a sales representative, and worked as an administrator for an aircraft manufacturing firm. He died in Munich. He published his autobiography about his time as Gauleiter and in captivity, "Experienced and Suffered. A Gauleiter's Way from Munich to Moscow", which showed no indication that he was willing to take responsibility for the events in Nazi Germany.
