Ernst Rohm (28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was an important leader of the Nazi Party and the co-founder and commander of the Sturmabteilung (SA) militia of the Nazis. In 1934, he was killed in the Night of the Long Knives due to the threat that he posed to Adolf Hitler along with all the other SA leaders.
Biography[]
Rohm in 1919
Ernst Rohm was born on 28 November 1887 in Munich, Bavaria to a harsh father, and in 1906 he joined the Royal Bavarian 10th Infantry Regiment as a cadet. In September 1914 he was scarred in the face while fighting the army of France at Chanot Wood in Lorraine during World War I, and on 23 June 1916 he was wounded in the chest at the Battle of Verdun, forcing him to become a staff officer for the rest of the war. In 1918, he narrowly survived the outbreak of Spanish flu. Rohm served under Franz Ritter von Epp's Freikorps after the fall of the German Empire and the end of the war, and on 3 May 1919 he helped in the overthrowing of the Munich Soviet Republic before joining the Nazi Party. Rohm was known as a thug, a bully, and an arms smuggler, being nicknamed "the Machinegun King" for his activities. In the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, his men occupied the Ministry of War for sixteen hours before it was put down. Rohm was sentenced to a year and three months in prison, but released early. Rohm's initial relationship with Adolf Hitler was uneasy, as he left Germany when Hitler and Erich von Ludendorff refused to allow him to merge his 30,000-strong Frontbann militia into the outlawed Sturmabteilung (SA), and he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Bolivian Army in South America. The 1930 uprising in Bolivia forced him to seek sanctuary at the German embassy, where Hitler contacted him and told him that he needed him.
SA commander[]
After SA Berlin commandant Walter Stennes led the SA in rebellion against Hitler in 1931, Hitler assumed supreme command over the SA, and on 5 January 1931 Rohm was given command of the Sturmabteilung. The group engaged in street battles with the Red Front Fighters League of the German Communist Party and harassed Jews, and the SA gained popularity by supporting strikes (they beat up strikebreakers and supported picket lines). Rohm, his deputy Edmund Heines, and almost all of Rohm's chiefs were homosexual, and Rohm was the only member of the Nazi Party who could call Adolf Hitler by his first name; Hitler was aware of Rohm being gay, leading to rumors that Hitler himself was gay. In 1933, Rohm led the SA in the takeover of Germany, forcing local government offices to surrender power to the Nazi Party. In 1934 the Reichswehr was absorbed into the SA, horrifying traditional army men who saw the SA as a mob of undisciplined street fighters. The army had the ear of President Paul von Hindenburg, who threatened to declare martial law if Hitler did not suppress the SA; Werner von Blomberg delivered the ultimatum to Hitler. Hitler knew this meant a showdown with Rohm, so he decided to purge his enemies.
Death[]
Rohm before his death
On 30 June 1934, Hitler personally arrested Rohm during the "Night of the Long Knives" purge of the leftist factions of the Nazi Party, anti-Nazi politicians, and SA leaders, and from 30 June to 2 July all the SA leaders were purged by Hitler. Rohm was given the option of suicide by Hitler, who was hesitant in killing Rohm, but Rohm stated that if Hitler wanted to do it, he could do it himself. SS member Michael Lippert left a pistol in his cell and told him that he had ten minutes to kill himself, but after ten minutes, Rohm puffed out his chest in defiance as Lippert returned. Lippert in turn used the pistol and killed Rohm himself, shooting him three times in the chest and once in the head.