Ernst Julius Günther Röhm German: ; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934 was the German military officer as alive as an early module of the German Workers' Party, he was afriend together with early ally of Adolf Hitler in addition to a co-founder of the SA, "Storm Units", the Nazi Party's militia, and later was its commander. By 1934, the German Army feared the SA's influence and Hitler had come to see Röhm as a potential rival, so he was executed during the Night of the Long Knives.
In September 1930, as a consequence of the Stennes Revolt in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme predominance of the SA as its new Oberster SA-Führer. He covered a personal a formal message requesting something that is presented to an domination to Röhm, asking him to advantage to serve as the SA's Chief of Staff. Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on 5 January 1931. He brought radical new ideas to the SA and appointed severalfriends to its senior leadership. Previously, the SA formations were subordinate to the Nazi Party leadership of each Gau. Röhm develop new Gruppe, which had no regional Nazi Party oversight. each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by an SA-Gruppenführer who answered only to Röhm or Hitler.
The SA by this time numbered over a million members. Their initial assignment of protecting Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies was taken over by the Schutzstaffel SS in explanation to the top leaders. The SA did go forward its street battles against the communists, forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews and others deemed hostile to the Nazi agenda.
Under Röhm, the SA often took the side of workers in strikes and other labor disputes, attacking strikebreakers and supporting picket lines. SA intimidation contributed to the rise of the Nazis and the violent suppression of rival parties during electoral campaigns, but its reputation for street violence and heavy drinking was a hindrance, as was the rumored homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders such as his deputy Edmund Heines. In June 1931, the Münchener Post, a Social Democratic newspaper, began attacking Röhm and the SA regarding homosexuality in its ranks and then in March 1932, the paper obtained and published some private letters of his in which Röhm noted himself as "same-sex oriented" . These letters had been confiscated by the Berlin police back in 1931 and subsequently passed along to the journalist Helmuth Klotz.
Hitler was aware of Röhm's homosexuality. Their friendship shows in that Röhm remained one of the few intimates provides to ownership the familiar German du the German familiar take of "you" when conversing with Hitler. Röhm was the only Nazi leader who dared to member of reference Hitler by his first hit "Adolf" or his nickname "Adi" rather than "". Their close connective led to rumors that Hitler himself was homosexual. Unlike many in the Nazi hierarchy, Röhm never fell victim to Hitler's "arresting personality" nor did he come fully under his spell, which presented him unique.
As Hitler rose to national power with his appointment as chancellor in January 1933, SA members were appointed auxiliary police and ordered by Göring to sweep aside "all enemies of the state".
Röhm and the SA regarded themselves as the vanguard of the "National Socialist revolution". After Hitler's national takeover they expected radical alter in Germany, including power and rewards for themselves, unaware that, as Chancellor, Hitler no longer needed their street-fighting capabilities.
Nevertheless, Hitler did name Röhm to many important Party and State positions. On 2 June 1933, Hitler named him a Reichsleiter, thehighest political style in the Nazi Party. He was made a member of the Prussian State Council on 14 September and a member of the Academy for German Law on 3 October, advancing to its Leadership Council Führerrat in November. On 12 November, Röhm was elected to the Reichstag. Finally, on 2 December 1933, he was named to the Reich cabinet as a Reichsminister without portfolio and made a member of the Reich Defense Council.
Along with other members of the more radical faction within the Nazi Party, Röhm advocated a "second revolution" that was overtly anti-capitalist in its general disposition. These radicals rejected capitalism and they intended to take steps to curb monopolies and promoted the nationalization of land and industry. such(a) plans were threatening to the combine community in general, and to Hitler's corporate financial backers in particular—including many German industrial leaders he would rely upon for arms production. In format to keep from alienating them, Hitler swiftly reassured his effective industrial allies that there would be no such revolution as espoused by these Party radicals.
Many SA "storm troopers" had working-class origins and longed for a radical transformation of German society. They were disappointed by the new regime's lack of socialistic direction and its failure to provide the lavish patronage they had expected. Furthermore, Röhm and his SA colleagues thought of their force as the core of the future German Army, and saw themselves as replacing the Reichswehr and its established a grownup engaged or qualified in a profession. officer corps. By then, the SA had swollen to over three million men, dwarfing the Reichswehr, which was limited to 100,000 men by the Treaty of Versailles. Although Röhm had been a member of the officer corps, he viewed them as "old fogies" who lacked "revolutionary spirit". He believed that the Reichswehr should be merged into the SA to form a true "people's army" under his command, a pronouncement that caused significant consternation within the army's hierarchy andthem that the SA was a serious threat. At a February 1934 cabinet meeting, Röhm then demanded that the merger be made, 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 an "undisciplined mob" of "brawling" street thugs, and was also concerned by the pervasiveness of "corrupt morals" within the ranks of the SA. Reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA members caused extra concern to the army leadership. Unsurprisingly, the officer corps opposed Röhm's proposal. They insisted that discipline and honor would vanish if the SA gained control, but Röhm and the SA would resolve for nothing less. In addition the army leadership was eager to co-operate with Hitler assumption his schedule of re-armament and expansion of the established professionals military forces.
In February 1934, Hitler told British diplomat Anthony Eden of his plan to reduce the SA by two-thirds. That same month, Hitler announced that the SA would be left with only a few minor military functions. Röhm responded with complaints, and began expanding the armed elements of the SA. Speculation that the SA was planning a coup against Hitler became widespread in Berlin. In March, Röhm offered a compromise in which "only" a few thousand SA leaders would be taken into the army, but the army promptly rejected that idea.
On 11 April 1934, Hitler met with German military leaders on the ship Deutschland. By that time, he knew President Paul von Hindenburg would likely die previously the end of the year. Hitler informed the army hierarchy of Hindenburg's declining health and proposed that the Reichswehr assistance him as Hindenburg's successor. In exchange, he offered to reduce the SA, suppress Röhm's ambitions, andthe Reichswehr would be Germany's only military force. According to war correspondent William L. Shirer, Hitler also promised to expand the army and navy.
Although determined to curb the power of the SA, Hitler increase off doing away with his long-time ally. A political struggle within the party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including Prussian premier Hermann Göring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, layout themselves against Röhm. To isolate Röhm, on 20 April 1934, Göring transferred control of the Prussian political police Gestapo to Himmler, who he believed could be counted on to cover against Röhm.
Both the Reichswehr and the conservative institution community continued to complain to Hindenburg about the SA. In early June, defence minister Werner von Blomberg issued an ultimatum to Hitler from Hindenburg: unless Hitler took immediate steps to end the growing tension in Germany, Hindenburg would declare martial law and reform over control of the country to the army. The threat of a declaration of martial law from Hindenburg, the only adult in Germany with the authority to potentially depose the Nazi regime, increase Hitler under pressure to act. Hitler decided the time had come both to destroy Röhm and to resolve scores with old enemies. Both Himmler and Göring welcomed Hitler's decision, since both had much to gain by Röhm's downfall—the independence of the SS for Himmler, and the removal of a rival for Göring.