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The Purge of the SA Reconsidered: “An Old Putschist Trick”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

Eleanor Hancock
Eleanor Hancock
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy
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Extract

Early in the morning of June 30, 1934, SA Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm and other leaders of the National Socialist storm troopers, the Sturmabteilung or SA, were arrested by Adolf Hitler in the Bavarian resort town, Bad Wiessee. Further arrests followed across Germany during the day. Many SA leaders, various German politicians, two generals, some dissident Nazis, and some of Röhm's friends were shot. Finally, Röhm himself was killed late the next day. This was the only violent internal party purge to occur in the entire history of Nazism. Some ninety people were killed, with the greatest proportion being in Berlin, Munich, and Silesia. At the time the purge was justified by the allegation that the SA leaders were plotting to overthrow Hitler, carry out a “second revolution,” and seize power in collusion with former Chancellor General von Schleicher (also shot) and with the aid of an unnamed foreign power (France). The need to rid the SA of corruption and decadence was emphasized; in this context Hitler's alleged discovery of Röhm's homosexuality was publicized.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 669 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2011

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References

1 Historians began by assuming that large numbers were killed in this purge. Figures of up to 150–200 were mentioned: Höhne, Heinz, Mordsache Röhm. Hitlers Durchbruch zur Alleinherrschaft 1933–1934 (Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag, 1984)Google Scholar, 319; Höhne gives a figure of eighty-five dead, 319–321. Gritschneder lists ninety dead: Gritschneder, Otto, “Der Führer hat Sie zum Tode verurteilt…” Hitlers “Röhm-Putsch”-Morde vor Gericht (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck, 1993), 60–2Google Scholar.

2 See the extracts in Domarus, Max, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945. Kommentiert von einem deutschen Zeitgenossen, Band I Triumph, Erster Halbband 1932–1934 (Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag, 1965), 397–402Google Scholar.

3 Frei, Norbert, National Socialist Rule in Germany: The Führer State 1933–1945 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993)Google Scholar, 17, 27; Bessel, Richard, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism: The Stormtroopers in Eastern Germany 1925–1934 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, 146, 147.

4 This overview of the lead-up to the purge is based on Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany, Part I; and Hancock, Eleanor, Ernst Röhm: Hitler's SA Chief of Staff (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008)Google Scholar, chap. 14 and 15.

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7 Höhne, Mordsache Röhm, 245–46, 260.

8 For the argument on Hitler's sexuality, see Machtan, Lothar, Hitlers Geheimnis. Das Doppelleben eines Diktators (Berlin: Alexander Fest Verlag, 2001)Google Scholar, passim; on the lead-up to the purge and the purge, see 238–49. On Machtan's use of evidence, see Reich, Walter, “All the Führer's Men” (review of Machtan, The Hidden Hitler), The New York Times, December 16, 2001Google Scholar, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/16/books/all-the-fuhrer-s-men.html (accessed January 17, 2010); Rosenbaum, Ron, “Queer as Volk? A new book claims Hitler was a closet case,” (review of Machtan, The Hidden Hitler), Slate, posted December 3, 2001Google Scholar, http://www.slate.com/id/2059222/ (accessed January 17, 2010); Giles, Geoffrey G., “Fuehrer Fantasy,” The Washington Post, November 25, 2001, 4–5Google Scholar. For an argument that blackmail would have been implausible behavior by Röhm, see Hancock, Röhm, 163.

9 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 209.

10 Browder, Foundations of the Nazi Police State, 142–43. See also Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, 132.

11 Sir Wheeler-Bennett, John, The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918–1945, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1964)Google Scholar, 320–21; O'Neill, Robert J., The German Army and the Nazi Party, 1933–1939, 2nd ed. (London: Cassell, 1968), 44–46Google Scholar, 53.

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13 Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, 74.

14 For the argument summarized in this paragraph, see Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany, 15–21; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 208, 211–15; Höhne, Heinz, Die Zeit der Illusionen. Hitler und die Anfänge des 3. Reiches 1933 bis 1936 (Düsseldorf: Econ Verlag, 1991), 209–212Google Scholar.

15 Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 411.

16 Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany, 17.

17 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 212–14.

18 For this argument, see Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany, 3–9; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 207–8.

19 Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 400, note 138; 402; 414, note 155.

20 See Balistier, Thomas, Gewalt und Ordnung. Kalkül und Faszination der SA (Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, 1989)Google Scholar; Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism; Campbell, Bruce, The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1998)Google Scholar; Fischer, Conan, Stormtroopers: A Social, Economic, and Ideological Analysis, 1929–35 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983)Google Scholar; Grant, Thomas D., Stormtroopers and Crisis in the Nazi Movement: Activism, Ideology, and Dissolution (London: Routledge, 2004)Google Scholar; Jamin, Mathilde, Zwischen den Klassen. Zur Sozialstruktur der SA-Führerschaft (Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1984)Google Scholar; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone; Merkl, Peter H., Making of a Stormtrooper (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Reichardt, Sven, Faschistische Kampfbünde. Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im italienischen Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA (Cologne: Böhlau, 2002)Google Scholar; Reiche, Eric G., Development of the SA in Nurnberg, 1922–1934 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Fischer, Stormtroopers, chap. 3; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 81–93, 144–46.

22 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 113; Brown, Timothy S., Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance (New York: Berghahn Books, 2009), 136–39Google Scholar.

23 Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, 125–6; Campbell, SA Generals, 120–21, 124–26; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 188–94, 199.

24 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 191–203, 206; Fischer, Stormtroopers, 166–67.

25 On Hitler in his July 13, 1934, Reichstag speech, see Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 416.

26 O'Neill, The German Army and the Nazi Party, 47.

27 See, for example, Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, 145–46; Koehl, R. L., The Black Corps: The Structure and Power Struggles of the Nazi SS (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1983)Google Scholar, 93, 95, 101.

28 Frei, National Socialist Rule in Germany, 13; Höhne, Die Zeit der Illusionen, 200; Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 203.

29 Koehl, Black Corps, 97.

30 Hancock, Röhm, 150.

31 Ibid., 80–1.

32 Dr. Thomsen, “Niederschrift über die Ministerbesprechung am 3. Juli 1934 vorm. 10 Uhr,” BAR R43I/1469, 5.

33 See, for example, Wheeler-Bennett's use of Otto Strasser in Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power, 318, 320, 322.

34 Irving, David, The War Path: Hitler's Germany 1933–1939 (London: Michael Joseph, 1978), 33–40Google Scholar.

35 BA MA RH57/9 and BHSA/KA Landespolizei Nürnberg-Fürth Kommando Bund 2.

36 Fischer, Stormtroopers, 167–68.

37 Irving, The War Path, 271, notes; O'Neill, The German Army and the Nazi Party, 50 and 267, note 267.

38 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 188, 193–94; Campbell, SA Generals, 120–21, 123–26.

39 The reactions of the Munich SA leaders on the evening of June 29–30 are evidence of this: Frau Martina Schmid to Staatsanwalt Weiss, August 12, 1949, Gritschneder Papiere Band 2, 1–2; “Vorgänge am 30.6.1934,” attachment to April 4, 1950, K. 7 B, “Vernehmungsniederschrift,” Gritschneder Papiere Band 2, 3.

40 Luetgebrune as reported by von Salomon in von Salomon, Ernst, The Answers of Ernst von Salomon to the 131 Questions in the Allied Military Government “Fragebogen” (London: Putnam, 1954), 273–74Google Scholar; Robert Bergmann, Altdorf to the Generalstaatsanwaltschaft München zu Händen des Herrn Staatsanwaltes Weiss, May 14, 1949, SAM STAW 28793, 3; Nyomarkay, Joseph, Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1967), 132–33Google Scholar, 134.

41 O'Neill, The German Army and the Nazi Party, 33, 39–41.

42 Browder, Foundations of the Nazi Police State, 66.

43 Quoted in May 17, 1949, K. 7B, Munich, signatures, “Vernehmungsniederschrift,” SAM STAW 28793, 5.

44 Most recently Brown, Weimar Radicals, 129–30.

45 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 147–48. Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 411–12.

46 Browder, Foundations of the Nazi Police State, 81. He always capitalizes Second Revolution; see ibid., 127, 138, 143.

47 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 180, and on Röhm's political ideas, see also 144–45.

48 Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 356, 371.

49 This is clear in Röhm's speeches from December 1933 to June 1934 as reported in the newspaper Der SA-Mann. See, for example, “Die S.A. ist die Ideenträgerin der deutschen Revolution. Die große fundamentale Rede des Stabschefs Röhm vor dem Diplomatischen Korps,” Der SA-Mann, April 28, 1934, 1, in which Röhm defines the National Socialist Revolution as “a process of ideological education.”

50 See, for example, Ernst Röhm, “Die S.A. im neuen Staat,” Der SA-Mann, December 16, 1933, 1, 5; “Die S.A. ist die Ideenträgerin der deutschen Revolution,” Der SA-Mann, April 28, 1934, 4.

51 Günther Hayo Hoffmann-Koepping, Ich überlebte die Röhm-Revolte. Ein Tatsachenbericht über die Vorgänge des 30. Juni 1934 (Hamburg, 1949), Institut für Zeitgeschichte MS 594, 132, 134.

52 Hans Betz's testimony at the Lippert-Dietrich trial quoted in Waldemar Schweitzer, “Die deutsche Bartholomäusnacht. Die Zeugenaussagen in Münchner Prozess gegen Dietrich und Lippert,” Deutsche Tagespost, no. 56, May 14, 1957, press clipping in Stadt Archiv München ZA Pers. Röhm.

53 Hancock, Röhm, 171–72; 227, note 5.

54 Hancock, Eleanor, The National Socialist Leadership and Total War, 1941–45 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991)Google Scholar, 137.

55 Here ex-communists may have played a role. See Brown, Weimar Radicals, 125–30, 136–39.

56 “Dietrich will peinliche Zeugen nicht erkennen,” 8 Uhr-Blatt, May 8, 1957, press clipping in Stadt Archiv München ZA Pers. Röhm.

57 On Diels as a witness, see Browder, Foundations of the Nazi Police State, 85, 119, 126.

58 Wildt, Michael, Generation des Unbedingten. Das Führungskorps des Reichsicherheitshauptamtes (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2003)Google Scholar, 306, note 74.

59 Gritschneder, “Der Führer hat Sie zum Tode verurteilt,” 88–90.

60 Hancock, Röhm, 173.

61 Gisevius, Hans Bernd, To the Bitter End (London: Jonathan Cape, 1948)Google Scholar, 178.

62 Telegrams in BA MA RH57/9, BHSA/KA Landespolizei München Kommando Bund I, BHSA/KA Landespolizei Inspektion Bund 7 Akt 7258a, Bund 54 Akt 7975a, BHSA/KA Landespolizei Nürnberg-Fürth Kommando Bund 2 and SAM LRA 734035. On the destruction of evidence relating to the purge, see also Wildt, Generation des Unbedingten, 220, note 35.

63 Ludecke, Kurt G. W., I Knew Hitler: The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge (London: Jarrolds, 1938), 672–89Google Scholar.

64 See Luetgebrune's comments on the background to the putsch reported by Ernst von Salomon in von Salomon, “Fragebogen,” 272–74.

65 See, for example, Wheeler-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power, 310, 322.

66 “He would, wouldn't he?,” Mandy Rice Davies, June 29, 1963, quoted in Knowles, Elizabeth, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)Google Scholar, 273.

67 Nyomarkay, Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party, 35–7, 40, 42–3, 46–7, 145–46.

68 July 4, 1956, Weiß, Erster Staatsanwalt, Im Auftrag, Der Generalstaatsanwalt, an die Strafkammer des Landgerichts München I, “VIII 3324/55(4) Betreff: Strafverfahren gegen Josef Dietrich und Michael Lippert wegen Beihilfe zum Mord (Mordaktion vom 30. Juni 1934). Schwurgerichtsanklage,” GP Bd. 10 (Institut für Zeitgeschichte [hereafter IfZ] Fa 442/5 X), passim.

69 Herbert's account of the causes of the purge is very conventional. See Herbert, Ulrich, Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, 1903–1989 (Bonn: Verlag J. H. W. Dietz Nachfolger, 1996), 138–40Google Scholar, 143–47.

70 “Niederschrift (Urschrift) über die Besprechung der Justizverwaltung mit dem Oberlandesgerichtspräsidenten und Generalstaatsanwälten am 5. und 6. April 1934,” BHSA/II MJu 16998, 22, 29, 37, 56, 69–70; “Vormerkung über die Besprechungen des Herrn Staatsministers Adolf Wagner mit den Herrn Reichsfinanzminister Graf Schwerin von Krosigk in Berlin am 13.4.1934 vorm. 10 Uhr,” BHSA/II Bayer. Gesandtschaft Berlin 1789, 5, 7.

71 Hans Doerr, Madrid, to Dr. Krausnick, June 15, 1954, IfZ ZS 28, 1.

72 Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism, viii, 193.

73 Dr. Freiherr von Siegler, “Niederschrift der Unterredung des früheren SA-Obergruppenführers Max Jüttner, geb. am 11. Januar 1888, wohnhaft in München-Solln, Josefinenstr. 15, durchgeführt am 2. April 1952 in München mit Dr. Freiherrn v. Siegler im Auftrag und in den Räumen des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte,” May 8, 1952, IfZ ZS 251 Bd. I, 3–4.

74 Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone, 221–23.

75 Eberstein, Karl Frhr. v., IFZ 539, 22.

76 Jellonnek, Burkhard, Homosexuelle unter dem Hakenkreuz. Der Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Dritten Reich (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1990)Google Scholar, sections 6.1.3–6.4.4.

77 Professor Derek Hastings at Oakland University is researching this. Personal communication from Professor Hastings.

78 Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 400, note 138; 402; 414, note 155.

79 For example, Höhne, Heinz, The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS (London: Pan, 1969)Google Scholar, 85.

80 Ludecke, I Knew Hitler, 672.

81 Reichstag speech of July 13, 1934, in Domarus, Hitler Reden und Proklamationen, Band I, Erster Halbband, 418.