Everyone called Adolf Hitler Mein Fuhrer, everyone except one man, one man who called him by his first name, a trusted comrade from the earliest days of the Nazi Party. That man was Ernst Rohm and in 1934 Hitler conspired to have him murdered.

Rohm – World War One

Born 28 November 1887, Ernst Rohm fought with distinction throughout the First World War, winning an Iron Cross, First Class, and attaining the rank of captain. Twice he was wounded, on one occasion shot in the face, and he carried the scars for the rest of his life. In 1918, as the war drew to its close, Rohm contracted the Spanish Flu which killed millions across Europe. Rohm was lucky to have survived.

Rohm’s Early Years

In 1919, Ernst Rohm joined the newly-formed German Workers’ party, forerunner to the National Socialist Workers Party, nicknamed by its opponents as the Nazi Party. Rohm was the ultimate Nazi thug, relishing his role of street revolutionary. There he met the young Adolf Hitler. Four years later he would march alongside Hitler during the failed Munich Putsch (or revolution). Rohm, along with Hitler, was arrested and charged with high treason, a charge that carried the death penalty. But the Bavarian court, sympathetic to the Nazi cause, showed leniency and sentenced Hitler to the minimum punishment, and merely handed Rohm a suspended sentence.

In 1925, following a disagreement with Hitler, Ernst Rohm resigned from the party and found employment in Bolivia. Six years later, Hitler wrote to Rohm asking him to return to Germany and to head the SA. Rohm accepted the challenge.

Rohm’s ‘Second Revolution’ Continue reading →