Ernst Julius Röhm, (1934) Nazi leader
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Rohm served in the German army in the First World War, then joined the Freikorps, one of many private militias that sprang up to combat "Communist insurrection." In 1920 he joined the Nazi party and helped organise the Sturmabteilung (Stormtroopers or SA). The SA was a political army, protecting the party leadership, battling opponents, and terrorising Jews. Rohm was a close associate of Hitler, and after the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 he spent fifteen months in prison, where he strengthened his friendship with the Nazi leader. After his release, he worked with Hitler to rebuild the Nazi Party. He then served in the Reichstag as a member of the renamed National Socialist Freedom Party.
Differences quickly arose between the two, and Röhm resigned from the Reichstag, emigrating to Bolivia. Six years later, he returned to Germany at the request of Hitler, and again assumed a leadership role in the SA. With over a million members, the SA, with its proclivities for street violence and brutality was a feared political force, but it was also becoming something of an embarrassment. Its reputation for heavy drinking, open homosexuality and a perceived radicalism were creating concerns, even as Hitler and the Nazi's consolidated power.
Rohm and his associates expected radical changes and personal benefits when Hitler came to power. As the so called "left wing" of the Nazi party, they largely rejected capitalism (which they associated with Jews), and desired nationalisation of industry, confiscation and redistribution of the estates of the aristocracy, and worker control. Röhm spoke of a "second revolution" against "reactionaries," as the Nazis had previously dealt with the Communists and Socialists. Furthermore, Röhm wanted the SA to replace the Reichswehr, which he claimed lacked "revolutionary spirit," and demanded that it be merged into the SA. This kind of talk was anathema to the business community and the army, both of which had supported Hitler's rise to power. Hitler reassured them, at the cost of disappointing Rohm and the SA, who were denied the social change they expected and the lavish patronage the thought they deserved.
Faced with pressures from two sides, and concerned that Rohm and the SA were growing dangerously independent, Hitler decided to act. "Evidence" was gathered of Rohm's and the SA's crimes and intentions, and on June 30, 1934 the entire leadership of the SA was purged in the event that became known as the "Night of the Long Knives." Rohm survived the event by two days, being taken prisoner. Hitler, apparently unwilling to have his old comrade murdered out of hand, gave him the opportunity to commit suicide, but Rohm refused and was murdered by two SS officers. His death, and the decapitation of the SA removed the last obstacles to Hitler consolidating total power in Germany. As such, while it can certainly be seen as a falling out of thieves, it has significant political and historical importance.
