Ernst Röhm

German homosexual commander of the Nazi Storm Troopers. His discontent and ambition in 1933-34 began to be a worry to the top echelon who closed ranks against him. A fat, stocky, red-faced little man, he had been wounded three times during the war and had half of his nose shot away. A comrade with Hitler from 1919 and one of the early Nazis, he took command of the S.A. on 14 September 1930, the core of Nazi force in the movement.

He antagonized dangerous rivals with his loutish indiscretions, drinking bouts and dissolute gay orgies while failing to gain powerful allies.

In early 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders became concerned that Röhm, as chief of the S.A., was planning a coup d'état. Hitler decided on 21 June that Röhm and the S.A. leadership had to be eliminated. The purge of the S.A. leadership and other enemies of the state began on 30 June in an action which became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

At dawn on 30 June 1934, Hitler flew to Munich and drove to Bad Wiessee, where he personally arrested Röhm and the other S.A. leaders, who were all consigned to Stadelheim Prison in Munich.

Hitler was hesitant in authorizing Röhm's execution, and gave him the option of suicide. On 1 July, SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke (then Kommandant of the Dachau concentration camp) and SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert walked into his cell, laid a pistol on the table, told Röhm he had ten minutes to use it and left. He refused, stating, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself." Having heard nothing in the allotted time, Eicke and Lippert returned to Röhm's cell at about 6 p.m. to find him standing, with his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance. Eicke and Lippert then shot Röhm, killing him.