Ernst Röhm
28.11.1887 - 1.7.1934




Ernst Roehm was born in Munich on 28th November, 1887. He joined the German Army in 1906 and during the First World War was wounded three times and reached the rank of major.

After the war Roehm joined the Freikorps and served under Franz Epp in Munich in 1919. He remained active in right-wing politics and in 1921 he recruited Adolf Hitler to spy on the German Worker's Party (GWP). Soon afterward Roehm also joined the GWP. The arrival of Roehm was an important development as he had access to the army political fund and was able to transfer some of the money into the party.

Roehm took part in the Beer Hall Putsch and after its failure was one of those imprisoned and put on trial. Although found guilty of treasonable acts, he was released and dismissed from the German Army. He now moved to Bolivia where he worked as a military instructor.

In January, 1931, Adolf Hitler recalled Roehm to Germany and placed him in charge of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). In just over a year he expanded it from 70,000 to 170,000 members. By 1934 the SA had grown to 4,500,000 men

In 1933, General Werner von Blomberg, Hitler's minister of war, and Walther von Reichenau, chief liaison officer between the German Army and the Nazi Party, became increasingly concerned about the growing power of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). Roehm had been given a seat on the National Defence Council and began to demand more say over military matters. On 2nd October 1933, Roehm sent a letter to Reichenau that said: "I regard the Reichswehr now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilization as well, in the future is the task of the SA.

Werner von Blomberg and Walther von Reichenau began to conspire with Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler against Roehm and the SA. Himmler asked Reinhard Heydrich to assemble a dossier on Roehm. Heydrich, who also feared him, manufactured evidence that suggested that Roehm had been paid 12 million marks by the French to overthrow Hitler.

Adolf Hitler was also aware that Roehm and the SA had the power to remove him as leader. Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler played on this fear by constantly feeding him with new information on Roehm's proposed coup. Their masterstroke was to claim that Gregor Strasser, whom Hitler hated, was part of the planned conspiracy against him. With this news Hitler ordered all the SA leaders to attend a meeting in the Hanselbauer Hotel in Wiesse.

On 29th June, 1934. Hitler, accompanied by the Schutzstaffel (SS), arrived at Wiesse, where he personally arrested Ernst Roehm. During the next 24 hours 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on the way to Wiesse. Many were shot as soon as they were captured but Hitler decided to pardon Roehm because of his past services to the movement. However, after much pressure from Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, Hitler agreed that Roehm should die. At first Hitler insisted that Roehm should be allowed to commit suicide but, when he refused, Ernst Roehm was killed by two SS men.

The purge of the SA was kept secret until it was announced by Hitler on 13th July. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). Hitler claimed that 61 had been executed while 13 had been shot resisting arrest and three had committed suicide. Others have argued that as many as 400 people were killed during the purge. In his speech Hitler explained why he had not relied on the courts to deal with the conspirators: "In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I become the supreme judge of the German people. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason."






http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERroehm.htm

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Yes indeed, he was killed by two men from the SS in order of Hitler. Although Röhm was one of Hitlers biggest supporters.

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Also and supposing--Hitler and Goring were both supposedly there when Rohm was shot.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I don't think they were actually in the cell when he was shot. Maybe in the same builiding.

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Historyt has also always judged Rohm poorly simply because of his homosexuality.

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"GARRY OWEN"-Traditional war-cry of the US 7th Cavalry.
"CURRAHEE"-War-cry of the US 506th PIR.
"Everybody thinks that they are going to get the chance to punch some Nazi in the face at Normandy-and those days are over, they are long gone"-Lt Chris Burnett

I don't think that has been the only reason. Perhaps because Hitler wanted to take over the SA with its 3.4 million members.

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Hi Erwin--Hitler was supposedly standing near Rohm when he was shot. Some say Hitler actually shot him.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I thought it were 2 SS men who went into the cell and one of them shot him. He even said that he had always been loyal to Hitler.

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Right but, Hitler had no love lost for homosexuals. Also, more than just Rohm died in order for Hitler to get where he got.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Carl:

ONLY these two men were present in the building where Ernst Röhm was shot:



Theodor Eicke (the one who actually shot Röhm)



Josef Dietrich (who commanded the SS men in charge the murders, the Leibstandarte).

And Röhm was killed because his threaten to Hitler himself by saying that: "Hitler is where he is because the SA, therefore, because of myself". That fact, which he said openly and even published, along with his attempts of making the SA a mighter power than the Army, taking the latter's men and resources for the SA.

His homosexuality was ONLY an excuse to murder him. Hitler didn't care about people's private lifes.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Now that's the correct explenation.

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Fried, I KNOW that Eicke and Dietrich were there at the shooting. All I said was that Hitler was supposedly ((which means that: Its possible that--not that it was a fact that Hitler was there when Rohm was shot.

Read my posting again if it isnt clear. Nowhere did I say that it was a fact that Hitler was there--he was Supposedly there.

DOH!!

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

OK, Carl! Don't get mad at me! Believe it or not, I DID read your post. And I understood the word supposedly, I just said that that posibility was not possible...

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Im not angry--I use the Bold to better emphasize the point.

Small question requiring a small answer: Why do you think it wasnt possible for Hitler to have been there when Rohm was shot? He Could have been in Timbuktu, Africa as well.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

He could. But he wasn't! [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Hey, You never know?!

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Fried--please tell me how you know for sure that Hitler was not there.

See if you can convince me of your findings

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

NO! Tell me where do you know from sure that he was there! Probability shows that there are many more posibilities that he was elsewhere than there!

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

NO! Tell me where do you know from sure that he was there! Probability shows that there are many more posibilities that he was elsewhere than there! And I also Have not heard anything about it. I have read many things about that night and there is not any mention of Hitler being there.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

My last posting to your banter.

When did I ever say that Hitler was Positively for sure in the room with Dietrich and Eicke?

"F" you Really need to read my postings correctly if your going to read them and make sad replies about them.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

OK. Here is the story. Carl is partially right and I am partially right:

The 'Long Knives Night' was caused by two warnings made by Goebbels and Göring to Hitler; Goebbels said by phone that "the SA is on alert in Berlin instead of weekend-leave" and Göring pointed out that: "the SA in Munich are loading rifles on lorries". Those two informs made Hitler to make a decision. He had already had problems with Röhm and the SA because the SA contained the 'left' or 'red' side of the party, along with the undisciplined men of the movement. Also, the time for political terrorism and violence had passed, Hitler needed now to rule Germany with less evident terror policies. But the major reason was that Röhm dared to publish his comments against Hitler, pointing out that "Hitler was were he was because of Röhm and his SA"... This was untolerable for Hitler.

Goebbels phone call was not very true, he just wanted Röhm out of his way. And about the SA loading rifles in lorries at Munich, this was true, but what Göring didn't tell Hitler was that those rifles were WWI obsolete rifles which had been dropped and abandoned by the Bavarian police...

Hitler then flew immediately to Munich, where he arrested at the very airport the SA chief in Munich and sent him to the Stadelheim prison. Hitler and Dietrich, along with an escort of the 'Leibstandarte' headed to Bad Wiesse, where all the SA leaders that had gathered there for a conference were arrested, including Röhm and his male-lover, who was shot in the spot. The rest of the men were taken to Stadelheim while the rest of the 'Leibstandarte' in Berlin made some arrests and sent the prisoners to Bad Lichterfelde. Along with the elements of the 'Leibstandarte', there were men from the 'Totenkopf Verbände' leaded by Theodor Eicke. On the morning of July 1st 1934 he was ordered to kill Röhm, who was in a cell in Stadelheim. Eicke had some problems in entering the prison, because the mayor of the prison didn't want to leave Röhm on the hands of the SS, but Eicke managed to enter Röhm's cell. Hitler had ordered to allow Röhm a honourful death, so Eicke left a pistol on a desk in front of Röhm. After 10 minutes without hearing the shot, Eicke, annoyed got into the cell and shot Röhm's head off himself. This action earned Eicke his promotion to SS Gruppenführer.

So, Hitler was present the night of the arrests, in the site of the arrests. But he was not there where Röhm was killed and even less, he shot Röhm himself.

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Good enough