Branch: SA
Born: 28 November 1887 in Munich, Germany.
Died: 2 July 1934 in Stadelheim Prison, Munich, Germany.
Ranks:
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Other: Personnel
Articles:
Ernst Julius Günther Röhm, was born on 28 November
1887 and became a German officer in the Bavarian Army and
later an early Nazi leader. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung
(Storm Battalion SA), the National Socialist Party militia,
and later was its commander. In 1934, as part of the Night
of the Long Knives, he was executed on
Adolf
Hitler's orders as a potential rival.
Ernst Röhm was born in Munich, the youngest of three
children older sister and brother. His father, a railway official,
was described as a harsh man. Although the family had no military
tradition, Ernst Röhm entered the Royal Bavarian 10th
Infantry Regiment Prinz Ludwig at Ingolstadt as a cadet on
23 July 1906. He obtained his commission on 12 March 1908.
At the outbreak of war in August 1914, he was adjutant of
the 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment König. The
following month, he was seriously wounded in the face at Chanot
Wood in Lorraine, and carried the scars for the rest of his
life. He was promoted to senior lieutenant (Oberleutnant)
in April 1915. During an attack on the fortification at Thiaumont,
Verdun, on 23 June 1916, he sustained a serious chest wound.
As a result, he spent the remainder of the war in both France
and Romania as a staff officer. He was awarded the Iron Cross
First Class on 20 June 1916, just before he was wounded at
Verdun, and was promoted to captain (Hauptmann) in April 1917.
In October 1918, while serving on the Staff of the Gardekorps,
he contracted the deadly Spanish influenza and was not expected
to live however, he survived and recovered after a long period
of convalescence.
Following the armistice on 11 November 1918 that ended the
war, Ernst Röhm continued his military career as an adjutant
in the Reichswehr. He was one of the senior members in Colonel
Franz
von Epp's Bayerisches Freikorps für den Grenzschutz
Ost, formed at Ohrdruf in April 1919, which finally overturned
the Red Republic in Munich by force of arms on 3 May 1919.
In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party, which soon became
the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Ernst
Röhm met
Adolf
Hitler and they became political allies and close friends.
Ernst Röhm's resignation from the Reichswehr was accepted
in November 1923 during his time as a prisoner at Stadelheim
prison. Following the failed Beer Hall Putsch on 9 November
1923, Ernst Röhm,
Adolf
Hitler, General
Erich
von Ludendorff, Lt-Colonel Kriebel and six others were
tried in February 1924 on charges of treason. Ernst Röhm
was found guilty and received one year and three months in
prison. However, the sentence was suspended and he was granted
a conditional discharge.
Adolf
Hitler was also found guilty and was sentenced to five
years imprisonment, although he would only serve nine months.
In April 1924, Ernst Röhm became a Reichstag Deputy for
the völkisch National Socialist Freedom Party. He made
only one speech, urging the release from Landsberg of Lt-Colonel
Kriebel. At the 1925 elections the seats won by his party
were much reduced, and his name was too far down the list
for him to be returned to the Reichstag. While
Adolf
Hitler was in prison, Ernst Röhm helped to create
the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed
SA. At Landsberg prison in April 1924, Ernst Röhm had
also been given full powers by
Adolf
Hitler to rebuild the SA in any way he saw fit. When in
April 1925
Adolf
Hitler and
Erich
von Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which
Ernst Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong
Frontbann into the SA, on 1 May 1925 Ernst Röhm resigned
from all political movements and military brigades and sought
seclusion from public life. In 1928 he accepted a post in
Bolivia as adviser to the Bolivian Army where he was given
the rank of Lt-Colonel and took up his duties after six months'
acclimatisation and language tutoring. Following the 1930
revolt in Bolivia Ernst Röhm was forced to seek sanctuary
in the German Embassy. After the election results in Germany
that September, Ernst Röhm received a telephone call
from
Adolf
Hitler in which the latter said, I need you, thus provoking
Ernst Röhm's return to Germany.
In September 1930, as a consequence of the Stennes Revolt
in Berlin,
Adolf
Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new Oberster
SA-Führer. He sent a personal request to Ernst Röhm,
asking that he return to serve as the SA's chief of staff.
Ernst Röhm accepted this offer and commenced his new
assignment in early January 1931. Ernst Röhm brought
radical new ideas to the SA and appointed several of his close
friends to its senior leadership.
The SA now numbered over a million. Its traditional function
of party leader escort had been given to the SS, but it continued
its street battles with Reds and attacks on Jews. The SA also
attacked or intimidated anyone deemed hostile to the Nazi
programme: editors, professors, politicians, uncooperative
local officials or businessmen.
Under Ernst Röhm, the SA also often took the side of
workers in strikes and other labour disputes, attacking strike
breakers and supporting picket lines. SA intimidation contributed
to the rise of the Nazis, breaking down the electoral activity
of the left-wing parties. However, the SA's reputation for
street violence and heavy drinking was a hindrance.
Another hindrance was the more or less open homosexuality
of Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders such as his deputy
Edmund Heines (both of whom would later be sentenced to death
on
Adolf Hitler's
orders). In 1931, the Münchener Post, a Social Democratic
newspaper, obtained and published Ernst Röhm's letters
to a friend in which Ernst Röhm discussed his sexual
affairs with men.
By this time, Ernst Röhm and
Adolf
Hitler were so close that they addressed each other as
du (the German familiar form of you). Ernst Röhm was
the only top Nazi that
Adolf
Hitler addressed as such. In turn, Ernst Röhm was
the only Nazi who dared address
Adolf
Hitler as Adolf, rather than mein Führer.
As
Adolf Hitler
secured national power in 1933, SA men became auxiliary police,
and marched into local government offices to force officials
to hand over authority to Nazis.
Second revolution Ernst Röhm and the SA regarded themselves
as the vanguard of the National Socialist revolution. After
Adolf Hitler's
takeover, they expected radical changes in Germany, with power
and rewards for them. However,
Adolf
Hitler's use of the SA as storm troopers was a political
weapon he no longer needed.
Along with
Joseph
Goebbels, Gottfried Feder and Walther Darré, Ernst
Röhm was a prominent member of the party's socialist
faction. This group took the words Sozialistische and Arbeiter
(worker) in the party's name literally. They largely rejected
capitalism (which they associated with Jews) and pushed for
nationalisation of major industrial firms, expanded worker
control, confiscation and redistribution of the estates of
the old aristocracy and social equality. Ernst Röhm spoke
of a second revolution against reactionaries (the National
Socialist label for old-line conservatives), as the National
Socialists had previously dealt with the Communists and Socialists.
All this was threatening to the business community. So
Adolf
Hitler swiftly reassured businessmen that there would
be no second revolution. Many storm troopers were of working-class
origins and had expected a socialist programme. In fact, it
was often said at the time that members of the SA were like
a beefsteak brown on the outside and red on the inside. They
were now disappointed by the new regime's lack of socialist
direction and also failure to provide the lavish patronage
expected. Ernst Röhm even publicly criticised
Adolf
Hitler for his failure to carry through the National Socialist
revolution.
Furthermore, Ernst Röhm and his SA colleagues thought
of their force (now over three million strong) as the future
army of Germany, replacing the Reichswehr and its professional
officers. Although Ernst Röhm had been a member of the
officer corps, he viewed them as old fogies who lacked revolutionary
spirit. In February 1934, Ernst Röhm demanded that the
Reichswehr (which under the Treaty of Versailles was limited
to 100,000 men) be absorbed into the SA under his leadership
as Minister of Defence.
This horrified the army, with its traditions going back to
Frederick the Great. The army officer corps viewed the SA
as a brawling mob of undisciplined street fighters and were
also concerned by the perverseness of homosexuality and corrupt
morals within the ranks of the SA. Further, reports of a huge
cache of weapons in the hands of SA members gave the army
commanders even more concern. The entire officer corps opposed
Ernst Röhm's proposal, insisting that honour and discipline
would vanish if the SA gained control. However, it appeared
that Ernst Röhm and the SA would settle for nothing less.
Adolf Hitler
privately shared much of Ernst Röhm's animus toward the
traditionalists in the army. Nevertheless, he had gained power
with the army's support, and he wanted the army's support
to succeed the ailing 86-year-old
Paul
von Hindenburg as President.
Meanwhile,
Adolf
Hitler had already begun preparing for the struggle. In
February he told British diplomat Anthony Eden that he planned
to reduce the SA by two thirds. Also in February, he announced
that the SA would be left only a few minor military functions.
Ernst Röhm responded with further complaints about
Adolf
Hitler and began expanding the armed elements of the SA.
To many it appeared as if the SA was planning or threatening
a rebellion. In March, Ernst Röhm offered a compromise
in which a few thousand SA leaders would be taken into the
army, but the army promptly rejected it.
On 11 April 1934,
Adolf
Hitler met with German military leaders on the ship Deutschland.
By this time,
Adolf
Hitler had learned that the ailing
Paul
von Hindenburg would die before the year's end.
Adolf
Hitler informed them of
Paul
von Hindenburg's declining health and proposed the Reichswehr
support him as
Paul
von Hindenburg's successor. In exchange,
Adolf
Hitler offered to reduce the SA, suppress Ernst Röhm's
ambitions, and guarantee the Reichswehr would be Germany's
only military force. William L. Shirer asserts that
Adolf
Hitler also promised to expand the army and navy.
However, both the Reichswehr and business conservatives continued
their anti-SA complaints to
Paul
von Hindenburg. In early June 1934, defence minister
Werner
von Blomberg, on
Paul
von Hindenburg's behalf, issued an ultimatum to
Adolf
Hitler unless political tension ended in Germany,
Paul
von Hindenburg would likely declare martial law and turn
over control of the country to the army. Knowing such a step
could forever deprive him of power,
Adolf
Hitler decided to carry out his pact with the Reichswehr
to suppress the SA. This meant a showdown with Ernst Röhm.
In
Adolf Hitler's
view, the army and the SA constituted the only real remaining
power centres in Germany that were independent in his National
Socialist state.
The army was willing to submit.
Werner
von Blomberg had the swastika added to the army's insignia
in February and ended the army's practice of preference for
old army descent in new officers, replacing it with a requirement
of consonance with the new government.
Although determined to curb the power of the SA,
Adolf
Hitler put off doing away with his long-time comrade to
the very end. A political struggle within the party grew,
with those closest to
Adolf
Hitler, including Prussian premier
Hermann
Göring, Propaganda Minister
Joseph
Goebbels and SS Chief
Heinrich
Himmler positioning themselves against Ernst Röhm.
As a means of isolating Ernst Röhm, on 20 April 1934,
Hermann
Göring transferred control of the Prussian political
police (Gestapo) to
Heinrich
Himmler, who,
Hermann
Göring believed, could be counted on to move against
Ernst Röhm.
Heinrich
Himmler,
Reinhard
Heydrich and
Hermann
Göring used Ernst Röhm's published anti-
Adolf
Hitler rhetoric to support a claim that the SA was plotting
to overthrow
Adolf
Hitler.
Heinrich
Himmler and his deputy
Reinhard
Heydrich, chief of the SS Security Service (the SD), assembled
a dossier of manufactured evidence to suggest that Ernst Röhm
had been paid twelve million marks by France to overthrow
Adolf Hitler.
Leading officers were shown falsified evidence on June 24
that Ernst Röhm planned to use the SA to launch a plot
against the government (Ernst Röhm-Putsch).
By this time, these stories were officially recognised. Reports
of the SA threat were passed to
Adolf
Hitler and he felt it was time to act. Meanwhile
Hermann
Göring,
Heinrich
Himmler,
Reinhard
Heydrich and Victor Lutze (at
Adolf
Hitler's direction) drew up lists of people in and outside
the SA to be killed.
Heinrich
Himmler and
Reinhard
Heydrich issued marching orders to the SS, while Sepp
Dietrich went around showing army officers a purported SA
execution list.
Meanwhile, Ernst Röhm and several of his companions went
away on holiday at a resort in Bad Wiessee. On June 28,
Adolf
Hitler phoned Ernst Röhm and asked him to gather
all the SA leaders at Bad Wiessee on June 30 for a conference.
Ernst Röhm agreed, apparently unsuspicious
The date of June 30 marked the beginning of the Night of the
Long Knives. At dawn on 30 June,
Adolf
Hitler flew to Munich and then drove to Bad Wiessee, where
he personally arrested Ernst Röhm and the other SA leaders.
All were imprisoned at Stadelheim Prison in Munich. From 30
June to 2 July 1934, the entire leadership of the SA was purged,
along with many other political adversaries of the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler
was uneasy authorising Ernst Röhm's execution and gave
Ernst Röhm an opportunity to commit suicide. On July
2, Ernst Röhm was visited by SS-Brigadeführer Theodor
Eicke (then Kommandant of the Dachau concentration camp) and
SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert, who laid a pistol
on the table, told Ernst Röhm he had ten minutes to use
it and left. Ernst Röhm refused and stated If I am to
be killed, let Adolf do it himself.Having heard nothing in
the allotted time, Eicke and Lippert returned to Ernst Röhm's
cell to find him standing. Ernst Röhm had his bare chest
puffed out in a gesture of defiance as Lippert shot him in
the chest at point blank range. He was buried in the Westfriedhof
(Western Cemetery) in Munich.
The purge of the SA was legalised the next day with a one-paragraph
decree: the Law Regarding Measures of State Self-defence.
At this time no public reference was made to the alleged SA
rebellion instead there were generalised references to misconduct,
perversion, and some sort of plot. John Toland noted that
Adolf Hitler
had long been privately aware that Ernst Röhm and his
SA associates were homosexuals although he disapproved of
their behaviour, he stated that 'the SA are a band of warriors
and not a moral institution.'
A few days later, the claim of an incipient SA rebellion was
publicised and became the official reason for the entire wave
of arrests and executions. Indeed, the affair was labelled
the Ernst Röhm-putsch by German historians, though after
World War II it has usually been modified as the alleged Ernst
Röhm-putsch or known as the Night of the Long Knives.
In a speech on July 13,
Adolf
Hitler alluded to Ernst Röhm's homosexuality and
explained the purge as chiefly defence against treason.
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