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141-712: The rank of Obergruppenführer was created in 1932 by Ernst Röhm and was intended as a seniormost rank of the Nazi stormtroopers for use by Röhm and his top SA generals. In its initial concept, the rank was intended to be held by members of the Oberste SA-Führung (Supreme SA Command) and also by veteran commanders of certain SA-Gruppen (SA groups). Some of the early promotions to the rank included Ernst Röhm , Viktor Lutze , Edmund Heines , August Schneidhuber , and Fritz Ritter von Kraußer . The rank of SA- Obergruppenführer

282-744: A Reichsleiter , the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. He was made a member of the Prussian State Council on 14 September and a member of the Academy for German Law on 3 October, advancing to its Leadership Council ( Führerrat ) in November. On 12 November, Röhm was elected to the Reichstag . Finally, on 2 December 1933, he was named to the Reich cabinet as a Reichsminister without portfolio by

423-543: A Totenkopfring from Himmler for his SS service. On 1 August 1931, Heydrich began his job as chief of the new 'Ic Service' (intelligence service). He set up office at the Brown House , the Nazi Party headquarters in Munich . By October he had created a network of spies and informers for intelligence-gathering purposes and to obtain information to be used as blackmail to further political aims. Information on thousands of people

564-545: A false flag plan code-named Operation Himmler . It involved a fake attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz on 31 August 1939. Heydrich masterminded the plan and toured the site, which was about four miles (6 km) from the Polish border. Wearing Polish uniforms, 150 German troops carried out several attacks along the border. Hitler used the ruse as an excuse to launch his invasion. On Himmler's instructions, Heydrich formed

705-530: A blow at both the Soviet Army and Admiral Canaris of Germany's Abwehr , Heydrich decided that the Soviet officer should be "unmasked". He discussed the matter with Himmler and both in turn brought it to Hitler's attention. Hitler approved Heydrich's plan to act immediately. But the "information" Heydrich had received was actually misinformation planted by Stalin himself in an attempt to legitimise his planned purges of

846-455: A car with an open roof – a show of his confidence in the occupation forces and in his government's effectiveness. By 3 October 1941, Czechoslovak military intelligence in London had made the decision to kill Heydrich. Historians regard Heydrich as the most fearsome member of the Nazi elite. Hitler called him "the man with the iron heart". He was one of the main architects of

987-613: A census, and promoted Aryanization plans for Jewish-owned businesses and farms, among other measures. The Einsatzgruppen units followed the army into Poland to implement the plans. Later, in the Soviet Union, they were charged with rounding up and murdering Jews via firing squad and gas vans. Historian Raul Hilberg estimates that between 1941 and 1945 the Einsatzgruppen and related auxiliary troops murdered more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. Heydrich ensured

1128-551: A close associate of Adolf Hitler. Using his military connections, he helped build up several paramilitary groups in service of Hitler, one of which became the SA. In 1923, he took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch to seize governmental power in Munich and was given a suspended prison sentence. After a stint as a Reichstag deputy, Röhm broke with Hitler in 1925 over the future direction of

1269-401: A compromise in which "only" a few thousand SA leaders would be taken into the army, but the army promptly rejected that idea. On 11 April 1934, Hitler met with German military leaders on the ship Deutschland . By that time, he knew President Paul von Hindenburg would likely die before the end of the year. Hitler informed the army hierarchy of Hindenburg's declining health and proposed that

1410-556: A consequence of the Stennes Revolt in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new Oberster SA-Führer . He sent a personal request to Röhm, asking him to return to serve as the SA's Chief of Staff . Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on 5 January 1931. He brought radical new ideas to the SA and appointed several close friends to its senior leadership. Previously,

1551-774: A contract with a term of service from January 1, 1929 to December 31, 1930, and the German-born Bolivian Chief of General Staff Hans Kundt assured Röhm the rank of lieutenant colonel and a monthly salary of 1,000 Bolivianos, which would give him a high standard of living given the low cost of living in Bolivia. Röhm arrived in La Paz in January 1929 and began work as a professor at the Bolivian military college so that he could first "learn Spanish." From June to September 1929, Röhm served as

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1692-677: A leading member of the Nazi Party . Initially a close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler , Röhm was the co-founder and leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing, which played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power . He served as chief of the SA from 1931 until his murder in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives . Born in Munich , Röhm joined

1833-400: A non-issue after a common ground was found amongst SS leaders in their general hatred of the SA. Udo von Woyrsch and Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger were promoted to SS- Obergruppenführer in 1935 while Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont , and Max Amann received the rank a year later along with Karl von Eberstein and Philipp Bouhler . The year 1936 saw several promotions to

1974-690: A provision in the Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State aimed at interlocking the leadership of the Party and the government. At the same time, he also was made a member of the Reich Defense Council. Along with other members of the more radical faction within the Nazi Party, Röhm advocated a "second revolution" that was overtly anti-capitalist in its general disposition. These radicals rejected capitalism and they intended to take steps to curb monopolies and promoted

2115-501: A radical transformation of German society. They were disappointed by the new regime's lack of socialistic direction and its failure to provide the lavish patronage they had expected. Furthermore, Röhm and his SA colleagues thought of their force as the core of the future German Army, and saw themselves as replacing the Reichswehr and its established professional officer corps. By then, the SA had swollen to over three million men, dwarfing

2256-479: A railway official, as strict, but once Julius realized that his son responded better without exhortation, he allowed him significant freedom to pursue his interests. In 1906, Röhm entered the 10th Bavarian Infantry Division "King Ludwig" at Ingolstadt as a cadet, even though his family had no military tradition. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on 12 March 1908. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he

2397-578: A result of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles as well as Germany's large war debt, hyperinflation spread across Germany and many lost their life savings. Halle was not spared. By 1921, few townspeople there could afford a musical education at Bruno Heydrich's conservatory. This led to a financial crisis for the Heydrich family. In 1922, Heydrich joined the German Navy ( Reichsmarine ), taking advantage of

2538-452: A right-wing paramilitary unit was formed and ordered to "recapture" Halle. Heydrich, then 15 years old, joined Maercker's Volunteer Rifles (a paramilitary Freikorps unit). This was largely symbolic, as Heydrich was too young for military service. There is no evidence that he participated in the fighting, and when the skirmishes ended, he was part of the force assigned to protect private property. Heydrich began to form positive opinions about

2679-617: A rival and liability, and made the decision to eliminate him with the assistance of SS leaders Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich . On 30 June 1934, the entire SA leadership were purged by the SS during an event known as the Night of the Long Knives. Röhm was taken to Stadelheim Prison and shot on 1 July. Ernst Röhm was born in 1887 in Munich , Bavaria , German Empire as the youngest of three children—he had an elder sister and brother—of Emilie and Julius Röhm. Ernst Röhm described his father Julius,

2820-437: A rival for party leadership. At this point, the SS was still part of the SA, the early Nazi paramilitary organisation which now numbered over 3 million men. At Hitler's direction, Heydrich, Himmler, Göring, and Viktor Lutze drew up lists of those who should be killed, starting with seven top SA officials and including many more. On 30 June 1934 the SS and Gestapo acted in coordinated mass arrests that continued for two days. Röhm

2961-406: A rowing-club ball and met Lina von Osten . They became romantically involved and soon announced their engagement. Lina was already a Nazi Party follower and antisemite; she had attended her first rally in 1929. Early in 1931 Heydrich was charged with "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" for a breach of promise , having been engaged to marry another woman he had known for six months before

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3102-622: A series of decrees became Germany's Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). The first concentration camps , which were originally intended to house political opponents, were established in early 1933. By year's end there were over fifty camps. Hermann Göring founded the Gestapo in 1933 as a Prussian police force. When Göring transferred full authority over the Gestapo to Himmler in April 1934, it immediately became an instrument of terror under

3243-571: A signed article in Völkischer Beobachter by Blomberg appeared in which Blomberg stated with great fervour that the Reichswehr stood behind Hitler. On 30 June 1934, Hitler and a large group of SS and regular police flew to Munich and arrived between 06:00 and 07:00 at Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee, where Röhm and his followers were staying. With Hitler's early arrival, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. SS men stormed

3384-526: A step that historian Robin Cross contended in 2009 was done by Hitler to cover his own tracks. The Law declared, "The measures taken on 30 June, 1 and 2 July to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State." At the time no public reference was made to the alleged SA rebellion, but only generalised references to misconduct, perversion and some sort of plot. In a nationally broadcast speech to

3525-549: A troop inspector, then until August 1930 he was chief of staff of the division command of the Bolivian Army headquartered in Oruro . While some historians claim Röhm played a prominent role in Bolivia in this period, more recent research suggests his role during this period of Bolivian history was relatively minor. In the autumn of 1930, Röhm received a telephone call from Hitler requesting his return to Germany. In September 1930, as

3666-571: A year later. All five promotions were honorary SS ranks with the first promotion of an active SS officer occurring in September 1941 when the rank was granted to Reinhard Heydrich . The Waffen-SS commander, Paul Hausser was promoted to the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer on 1 October 1941. Waffen-SS commander Theodor Eicke was promoted to SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS on 20 April 1942. Sepp Dietrich remained senior, having served as General der SS-VT ( SS-Verfügungstruppe ) upon

3807-603: Is estimated to be 7,000. Heydrich created the "Zentralstelle IIP Polen" unit of the Gestapo to coordinate the ethnic cleansing of Poles in " Operation Tannenberg " and the Intelligenzaktion , two codenames for extermination actions directed at the Polish people during the German occupation of Poland. Among the 100,000 people murdered in the Intelligenzaktion operations in 1939–1940, approximately 61,000 were members of

3948-511: The Reichswehr headquarters, Röhm awaited news, barricaded inside. The subsequent march into the city center led by Hitler, Hermann Göring , and General Erich Ludendorff with banners flying high, was ostensibly undertaken to "free" Röhm and his forces. While crowds cheered, egged on by Gregor Strasser shouting "Heil" , Hitler's armed assembly, wearing red swastika armbands, encountered Bavarian State Policemen, who were prepared to counter

4089-547: The Reichswehr . Additionally, it was Röhm who persuaded his former army commander, Franz Ritter von Epp, to join the Nazis, an important development, since Epp helped raise the sixty-thousand marks needed to purchase the Nazi periodical, the Völkischer Beobachter . In early 1923, he took part in the establishment of a federation of paramilitary organizations that was titled Arbeitsgemeinschaft and aimed at strengthening

4230-455: The Einsatzgruppen (task forces) to travel in the wake of the German armies at the start of World War II. On 21 September 1939, Heydrich sent out a teleprinter message on the "Jewish question in the occupied territory" to the chiefs of all Einsatzgruppen with instructions to round up Jewish people for placement into ghettos, called for the formation of Judenräte (Jewish councils), ordered

4371-620: The Völkisch movement and anti-communism , as well as a distaste for the Treaty of Versailles and the positioning of the German-Polish border. Heydrich stated he joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (National German Protection and Shelter League), an antisemitic organisation. However, there is very little documentation of this, beyond a single postcard he received. As

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4512-459: The Berlin Police . While holding SA membership, Helldorff was never actually an SS member although for administrative purposes he held SS rank and was ranked as the 15th most senior SS officer. A total of 107 men would eventually hold the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer with 97 such officers listed on the SS seniority list in 1944. Several men with the rank would die during World War II; some of

4653-535: The Bolivian Army . The Bolivians were looking for a capable German officer with war experience who, as a military instructor, would play a leading role in the reorganization of the Bolivian army. In addition to army reform, ongoing tensions between Bolivia and Paraguay, which later erupted in the Chaco War , were probably also a reason why the Bolivian government was interested in recruiting German experts. Röhm signed

4794-580: The Czech resistance . He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen , the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing including 1.3 million Jews. Heydrich was mortally wounded in Prague on 27 May 1942 as a result of Operation Anthropoid . He was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by

4935-720: The Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive . Heydrich died from his injuries on 4 June. Nazi intelligence falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky . Both villages were razed ; the men and boys age 14 and above were shot and most of the women and children were deported and murdered in Nazi concentration camps . Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich

5076-689: The Imperial German Army in 1906 and fought in the First World War . He was wounded in action three times and received the Iron Cross First Class . After the war, he continued his military career as a captain in the Reichswehr and provided assistance to Franz Ritter von Epp 's Freikorps . In 1919, Röhm joined the German Workers' Party , the precursor of the Nazi Party, and became

5217-600: The Munich Soviet Republic by force of arms on 3 May 1919. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), which the following year became the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). His membership number was 623. Not long afterward he met Adolf Hitler, and they became political allies and close friends. Throughout the early 1920s, Röhm remained an important intermediary between Germany's right-wing paramilitary organizations and

5358-563: The Naval Academy Mürwik . In 1926 he advanced to the rank of ensign ( Leutnant zur See ) and was assigned as a signals officer on the battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein , the flagship of Germany's North Sea Fleet. With the promotion came greater recognition. He received good evaluations from his superiors and had few problems with other crewmen. He was promoted on 1 July 1928 to the rank of first lieutenant. Heydrich became notorious for his numerous affairs. In December 1930 he attended

5499-518: The Nazi Party via arrests, deportations, and murders. He helped organise Kristallnacht , a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938. The attacks were carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians and presaged the Holocaust. Upon his arrival in Prague , Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of

5640-647: The Night of the Long Knives in July 1934, Sepp Dietrich was promoted to the rank. On 9 September 1934, so as to prevent a power struggle within the SS, Hitler further promoted Kurt Daluege who commanded most of the SS in the Berlin region. Daluege's promotion was to avoid the SS splitting into two separate entities, one based in Northern Germany under Daluege and the other in Bavaria under Himmler. This early SS disunity became

5781-502: The Red Army 's high command. Stalin ordered one of his best NKVD agents, General Nikolai Skoblin , to pass Heydrich false information suggesting that Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky and other Soviet generals were plotting against Stalin. Heydrich's SD forged documents and letters implicating Tukhachevsky and other Red Army commanders. The material was delivered to the NKVD. The Great Purge of

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5922-548: The Reichswehr on the highest level of alert. On 27 June, Hitler moved to secure the army's cooperation. Blomberg and General Walter von Reichenau , the army's liaison to the party, gave it to him by expelling Röhm from the German Officers' League. On 28 June, Hitler went to Essen to attend Josef Terboven 's wedding celebration and reception; from there he called Röhm's adjutant at Bad Wiessee and ordered SA leaders to meet with him on 30 June at 11:00 a.m. On 29 June,

6063-428: The Reichswehr support him as Hindenburg's successor. In exchange, he offered to reduce the SA, suppress Röhm's ambitions, and guarantee the Reichswehr would be Germany's only military force. According to war correspondent William L. Shirer , Hitler also promised to expand the army and navy. Although determined to curb the power of the SA, Hitler put off doing away with his long-time ally. A political struggle within

6204-420: The Reichswehr , which was limited to 100,000 men by the Treaty of Versailles . Although Röhm had been a member of the officer corps, he viewed them as "old fogies" who lacked "revolutionary spirit". He believed that the Reichswehr should be merged into the SA to form a true "people's army" under his command, a pronouncement that caused significant consternation within the army's hierarchy and convinced them that

6345-647: The Stiftung Nordhav Foundation to obtain real estate for the SS and Security Police to use as guest houses and vacation spots. The Wannsee Villa , which Stiftung Nordhav acquired in November 1940, was the site of the Wannsee Conference (20 January 1942). Heydrich was the lead speaker. At Wannsee, senior Nazi officials formalised plans to deport and exterminate all Jews in German-occupied territory and those countries not yet conquered. This action

6486-477: The Waffen-SS , the rank of SS- Gruppenführer was equivalent to a Generalleutnant , and an SS- Obergruppenführer came to be considered the equivalent of a General ; holders were titled in full SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS . Ernst R%C3%B6hm Ernst Julius Günther Röhm ( German: [ɛʁnst ˈʁøːm] ; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer and

6627-697: The 1933 propaganda film The Victory of Faith ( Der Sieg des Glaubens )—in which Röhm appeared—were destroyed in 1934, probably on Hitler's order; however, at least one copy has survived destruction. A new film called Triumph of the Will ( Triumph des Willens ) was shot in its place in 1935, with Victor Lutze replacing Röhm and the SA playing a much lesser role. Informational notes Citations Bibliography Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( / ˈ h aɪ d r ɪ k / HY -drik , German: [ˈʁaɪnhaʁt ˈtʁɪstan ˈʔɔʏɡ(ɘ)n̩ ˈhaɪdʁɪç] ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942)

6768-577: The Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg resisted Hitler's proposed merger with Germany, Heydrich intensified the pressure on Austria by organising Nazi demonstrations and distributing propaganda in Vienna emphasising the common Germanic blood of the two countries. In the Anschluss on 12 March, Hitler declared the unification of Austria with Nazi Germany. In mid-1939, Heydrich created

6909-430: The Czech gymnastics organisation Sokol to organise events for workers. Food rations and free shoes were distributed, pensions were increased, and (for a time) free Saturdays were introduced. Unemployment insurance was established for the first time. The black market was suppressed. Those associated with it or the resistance movement were tortured or executed. Heydrich labelled them "economic criminals" and "enemies of

7050-488: The Czechs have nothing to expect here." Eventually up to two-thirds of the populace were to be either removed to regions of Russia or exterminated after Nazi Germany won the war. Bohemia and Moravia faced annexation directly into the German Reich. The Czech workforce was exploited as Nazi-conscripted labour. More than 100,000 workers were removed from "unsuitable" jobs and conscripted by the Ministry of Labour . By December 1941, Czechs could be called to work anywhere within

7191-429: The Halle Conservatory of Music, Theatre, and Teaching and his mother taught piano there. As the oldest son, Reinhard was expected to inherit his father's music conservatory and was trained in music by his father. He learned the piano and violin by the time he was six years old. Heydrich developed a passion for the violin and carried that interest into adulthood; he impressed listeners with his musical talent. His father

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7332-404: The Halle Conservatory, and its cellar was rented out to a Jewish salesman. Heydrich was friends with Abraham Lichtenstein, son of the cantor . In 1918, World War I ended with Germany's defeat. In late February 1919, civil unrest—including strikes and clashes between communist and anti-communist groups—took place in Heydrich's home town of Halle. Under Defense Minister Gustav Noske 's directives,

7473-431: The Holocaust during the early war years, answering to and taking orders from only Hitler, Göring, and Himmler in all matters pertaining to the deportation, imprisonment, and extermination of Jews. Heydrich was one of the organisers of Kristallnacht , a pogrom against Jews throughout Germany on the night of 9–10 November 1938. Heydrich sent a telegram that night to various SD and Gestapo offices, helping to coordinate

7614-509: The January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the " Final Solution to the Jewish question "—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe . Many historians regard Heydrich as one of the darkest figures within the Nazi regime, and Adolf Hitler described him as "the man with the iron heart." He was the founding head of the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service, SD), an intelligence organisation charged with seeking out and neutralising resistance to

7755-454: The Lina von Osten engagement. Admiral Erich Raeder dismissed Heydrich from the navy in April. He received severance pay of 200 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €755 in 2021) a month for the next two years. Heydrich married Lina in December 1931. On 30 May 1931, Heydrich's discharge from the navy became legally binding, and either the following day or on 1 June he joined the Nazi Party in Hamburg . Six weeks later, on 14 July, he joined

7896-463: The London-based Czech resistance. Almost all avenues by which Czechs could express the Czech culture in public were closed. Although small disorganised cells of Central Leadership of Home Resistance (Ústřední vedení odboje domácího, ÚVOD) survived, only the communist resistance was able to function in a coordinated manner (although it also suffered arrests). The terror also served to paralyse resistance in society, with public and widespread reprisals by

8037-446: The Nazi Party. He resigned from all positions and emigrated to Bolivia , where he served as an advisor to the Bolivian Army . In 1930, at Hitler's request, Röhm returned to Germany and was officially appointed chief of staff of the SA in 1931. He reorganised the SA, which numbered over a million members, and continued its campaign of political violence against communists, rival political parties, Jews and other groups deemed hostile to

8178-415: The Nazi agenda. At the same time, opposition to Röhm intensified as his homosexuality gradually became public knowledge . Nevertheless, he retained the trust of Hitler for a time. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Röhm was named a Reichsleiter , the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party, and appointed to the Reich cabinet as a Reichsminister without portfolio . As

8319-437: The Nazi government began to consolidate its rule, the tension between Röhm and Hitler escalated. Throughout 1933 and 1934, Röhm's rhetoric became increasingly radical as he called for a "second revolution" that would transform German society, alarming Hitler's powerful industrial allies. He also demanded more power for the SA, which the Reichswehr saw as a growing threat to its position. Hitler came to see his long-time ally as

8460-496: The Nazi regime, and keep up production quotas of Czech motors and arms that were "extremely important to the German war effort". He viewed the area as a bulwark of Germandom and condemned the Czech resistance's "stabs in the back". To realise his goals, Heydrich demanded racial classification of those who could and could not be Germanized . He explained, "Making this Czech garbage into Germans must give way to methods based on racist thought." Heydrich started his rule by terrorising

8601-426: The Nazis against any action resisting German rule. Heydrich's brutal policies during that time quickly earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Prague". The reprisals are referred to by Czechs as the Heydrichiáda . As Acting Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia , Heydrich applied carrot-and-stick methods. Labor was reorganised on the basis of the German Labour Front . Heydrich used equipment confiscated from

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8742-430: The Polish intelligentsia: scholars, clergy, former officers, and others, whom the Germans identified as political targets in the Special Prosecution Book-Poland , compiled before the war began in September 1939. On 27 September 1941, Heydrich was appointed Deputy Reich Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the part of Czechoslovakia incorporated into the Reich on 15 March 1939) and assumed control of

8883-480: The Putsch. Around the time the marchers reached the Feldherrnhalle near the city center, shots were fired, scattering the participants. By the end of the gunfire, fourteen Nazis and four policemen had been killed; the putsch had failed and the Nazis' first bid for power had lasted less than twenty-four hours. In February 1924, following the failed putsch, Röhm, Hitler, Ludendorff, Lieutenant Colonel Hermann Kriebel and six others were tried for high treason . Röhm

9024-497: The Red Army followed on Stalin's orders. While Heydrich believed they had deluded Stalin into executing or dismissing 35,000 of his officer corps, the importance of Heydrich's part is a matter of conjecture. Soviet military prosecutors did not use SD forged documents against the generals in their secret trial; they instead relied on false confessions extorted or beaten out of the defendants. By late 1940, German armies had invaded most of Western Europe. The following year, Heydrich's SD

9165-419: The Reich. Between April and November 1942, 79,000 Czech workers were taken in this manner for work within Nazi Germany. Also, in February 1942, the work day was increased from eight to twelve hours. Heydrich was, for all intents and purposes, military dictator of Bohemia and Moravia. His changes to the government's structure left President Emil Hácha and his cabinet virtually powerless. He often drove alone in

9306-543: The Reichstag on 13 July, Hitler justified the purge as a defence against treason. Before the events of the Night of the Long Knives concluded, not only was Röhm dead, but more than 200 additional people had been killed, including Nazi official Gregor Strasser, former chancellor General Kurt von Schleicher , and Franz von Papen 's secretary, Edgar Jung . Most of those murdered had little to no affiliation with Röhm but were killed for political reasons. In an attempt to erase Röhm from German history, almost all known copies of

9447-415: The SA formations were subordinate to the Nazi Party leadership of each Gau . Röhm established new Gruppe , which had no regional Nazi Party oversight. Each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by an SA- Gruppenführer who answered only to Röhm or Hitler. The SA by this time numbered over a million members. Their initial assignment of protecting Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies

9588-403: The SA was a serious threat. At a February 1934 cabinet meeting, Röhm then demanded that the merger be made, under his leadership as Minister of Defence . This horrified the army, with its traditions going back to Frederick the Great . The army officer corps viewed the SA as an "undisciplined mob" of "brawling" street thugs, and was also concerned by the pervasiveness of "corrupt morals" within

9729-420: The SA, to which the SS was still subordinated. Although Himmler usually referred to himself as Reichsführer-SS , before the summer of 1934, this was simply a title for the SS commander, and not yet an actual rank. Shortly after Himmler's promotion, Hitler further promoted Franz Xaver Schwarz , with Himmler's date of rank backdated to 1 January 1933 in order to confirm his seniority as the top officer within

9870-477: The SA. Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. The crowd, which included party members and many SA members fortunate enough to escape arrest, shouted its approval. Joseph Goebbels, who had been with Hitler at Bad Wiessee, set

10011-470: The SS's purview. Himmler named Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Also in April, Göring made Heydrich an advisor to the Prussian government with an appointment to the Prussian State Council . On 9 June 1934, Rudolf Hess declared the SD the official Nazi intelligence service. Beginning in April 1934, and at Hitler's request, Heydrich and Himmler began building a dossier on Sturmabteilung (SA) leader Ernst Röhm in an effort to remove him as

10152-514: The SS. His party number was 544,916 and his SS number was 10,120. Those who joined the party after Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933 faced suspicions from the Alte Kämpfer (Old Fighters; the earliest party members) that they had joined for reasons of career advancement rather than a true commitment to Nazi ideology . Heydrich's date of enlistment in 1931 was early enough to quell suspicion that he had joined only to further his career, but

10293-423: The SS. Shortly after Rudolf Hess was appointed as his deputy in April 1933, Hitler promoted him to SS- Obergruppenführer . However, in September, Hitler decreed that Hess should no longer use the title of Obergruppenführer but only use the title of Deputy Führer. A number of men were promoted to SS- Obergruppenführer in 1934, these being Fritz Weitzel , Richard Walther Darré and Walter Buch . After

10434-615: The Second World War, there were 88 promotions to the rank, of which 22 were considered regular officers of the Waffen-SS and the rest members of the Allgemeine SS . The first wartime promotions to SS- Obergruppenführer occurred in April 1940 when the rank was granted to Joachim von Ribbentrop , Martin Bormann and Hans Lammers ; Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Otto Dietrich were promoted

10575-413: The allotted time, Eicke and Lippert returned to Röhm's cell at 14:50 to find him standing, with his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance. Eicke and Lippert then shot and killed Röhm. SA- Obergruppenführer Viktor Lutze , who had been spying on Röhm, was named as the new Stabschef (SA). While some Germans were shocked by the killings of 30 June to 2 July 1934, many others saw Hitler as

10716-562: The army and combating Marxist influences. During early September 1923, when the Nazi Party held its "German Day" celebration at Nuremberg, it was Röhm who helped bring together some 100,000 participants drawn from right-wing militant groups, veterans' associations, and other paramilitary formations—which included the Bund Oberland , Reichskriegsflagge , the SA, and the Kampfbund —all of them subordinate to Hitler as "political leader" of

10857-478: The arrests have been carried out, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted to place the Jews into camps as quickly as possible." Twenty thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps in the days immediately following; historians consider Kristallnacht the beginning of the Holocaust. When Hitler asked for a pretext for the invasion of Poland in 1939, Himmler, Heydrich, and Heinrich Müller masterminded

10998-429: The authority to arrest citizens on the suspicion that they might commit a crime, and the definition of a crime was at their discretion. The Gestapo Law, passed in 1936, gave police the right to act extra-legally. This led to the sweeping use of Schutzhaft —"protective custody", a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. The courts were not allowed to investigate or interfere. The Gestapo

11139-649: The collective alliance. Röhm resigned or retired from the Reichswehr on 26 September 1923. In November 1923, Röhm led the Reichskriegsflagge militia at the time of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch . He rented the cavernous main hall of the Löwenbräukeller , supposedly for a reunion and festive comradeship. Meanwhile, Hitler and his entourage were at the Bürgerbräukeller. Röhm planned to start

11280-460: The conservative business community continued to complain to Hindenburg about the SA. In early June, defence minister Werner von Blomberg issued an ultimatum to Hitler from Hindenburg: unless Hitler took immediate steps to end the growing tension in Germany, Hindenburg would declare martial law and turn over control of the country to the army. The threat of a declaration of martial law from Hindenburg,

11421-625: The deadly Spanish influenza and was not expected to live, but recovered after a lengthy convalescence. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the war, Röhm continued his military career as a captain in the Reichswehr . He was one of the senior members in Franz Ritter von Epp 's Bayerisches Freikorps für den Grenzschutz Ost ("Bavarian Free Corps for Border Patrol East"), formed in Ohrdruf in April 1919, which finally overturned

11562-643: The details of their crimes against the Reich. This questionnaire was placed in an envelope inscribed with a seal reading "Nacht und Nebel" and submitted to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). In the WVHA "Central Inmate File", as in many camp files, these prisoners would be given a special "covert prisoner" code, as opposed to the code for POW, Felon, Jew, Gypsy , etc. The decree remained in effect after Heydrich's death. The exact number of people who vanished under it has never been positively established, but it

11703-449: The established professional military forces. In February 1934, Hitler told British diplomat Anthony Eden of his plan to reduce the SA by two-thirds. That same month, Hitler announced that the SA would be left with only a few minor military functions. Röhm responded with complaints, and began expanding the armed elements of the SA. Speculation that the SA was planning a coup against Hitler became widespread in Berlin. In March, Röhm offered

11844-612: The execution of an important lieutenant; he eventually did so, and agreed that Röhm should have the option of suicide . On 1 July 1934, SS- Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke (later commandant of the Dachau concentration camp ) and SS- Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert visited Röhm. Once inside Röhm's cell, they handed him a Browning pistol loaded with a single cartridge and told him he had ten minutes to kill himself or they would do it for him. Röhm demurred, telling them, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself." Having heard nothing in

11985-697: The familiar German du (the German familiar form of "you" ) when conversing with Hitler. Röhm was the only Nazi leader who dared to address Hitler by his first name "Adolf" or his nickname "Adi" rather than " mein Führer ". Their close association led to rumors that Hitler himself was homosexual . Unlike many in the Nazi hierarchy, Röhm never fell victim to Hitler's "arresting personality" nor did he come fully under his spell, which made him unique. As Hitler rose to national power with his appointment as chancellor in January 1933, SA members were appointed auxiliary police and ordered by Göring to sweep aside "all enemies of

12126-454: The final phase of the plan in motion. Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Göring at 10:00 with the codeword kolibri ("hummingbird") to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims. Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler commander Sepp Dietrich received orders from Hitler to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim Prison in Munich where Röhm and other SA leaders were being held under arrest. There in

12267-535: The games' success, Heydrich was awarded the Deutsches Olympiaehrenzeichen or German Olympic Games Decoration (First Class). In January 1937, Heydrich directed the SD to secretly begin collecting and analysing public opinion and report back its findings. He then had the Gestapo carry out house searches, arrests, and interrogations, thus in effect exercising control over public opinion. In February 1938 when

12408-481: The government of France to overthrow Hitler. Leading officers in the SS were shown falsified evidence on 24 June that Röhm planned to use the SA to launch a plot against the government ( Röhm-Putsch ). At Hitler's direction, Göring, Himmler, Heydrich, and Victor Lutze drew up lists of people in and outside the SA to be killed. One of the men Göring recruited to assist him was Willi Lehmann , a Gestapo official and NKVD spy. On 25 June, General Werner von Fritsch placed

12549-469: The hero from his father's opera Amen , and "Tristan" stems from Richard Wagner 's Tristan und Isolde . Heydrich's third name, "Eugen", was his late maternal grandfather's forename ( Eugen Krantz had been the director of the Dresden Royal Conservatory ). Heydrich's family held social standing and substantial financial means. Music was a part of Heydrich's everyday life; his father founded

12690-410: The hotel and Hitler personally placed Röhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. According to Erich Kempka , Hitler turned Röhm over to "two detectives holding pistols with the safety catch off". The SS found Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines in bed with an unidentified eighteen-year-old male SA senior troop leader . Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent Nazi propaganda , justifying

12831-603: The internal administration of Germany. Himmler immediately reorganised the police into two groups: the Ordnungspolizei (Order Police; Orpo), consisting of both the national uniformed police and the municipal police, and the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo), consisting of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police; Gestapo) and Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police; Kripo ). At that point, Heydrich

12972-477: The last days of the war. Approximately fifteen SS generals were ranked as SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS . SS- Obergruppenführer was considered the highest rank of the Allgemeine SS until April 1942; equivalent to a lieutenant general (three-star general) in the American and British armies. It was only outranked by Himmler's special rank of Reichsführer-SS . However, within

13113-447: The more notable being Heydrich, Eicke, and Artur Phleps . The last promotion was made in March 1945 to Hans Kammler . The rank of Obergruppenführer was used by four major paramilitary groups of the Nazi Party, these being the SA, SS, National Socialist Motor Corps , and National Socialist Flyers Corps . The rank would remain the highest SS general officer rank until April 1942, when

13254-487: The nationalization of land and industry. Such plans were threatening to the business community in general, and to Hitler's corporate financial backers in particular—including many German industrial leaders he would rely upon for arms production. In order to keep from alienating them, Hitler swiftly reassured his powerful industrial allies that there would be no such revolution as espoused by these Party radicals. Many SA "storm troopers" had working-class origins and longed for

13395-481: The one who restored "order" to the country. Goebbels's propaganda highlighted the "Röhm-Putsch" in the days that followed. The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders was made public to add "shock value" , even though it had been known to Hitler and other Nazi leaders for years. On 3 July 1934 the purge of the SA was legalised with a one-paragraph decree: the Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence ,

13536-456: The only person in Germany with the authority to potentially depose the Nazi regime, put Hitler under pressure to act. Hitler decided the time had come both to destroy Röhm and to settle scores with old enemies. Both Himmler and Göring welcomed Hitler's decision, since both had much to gain by Röhm's downfall—the independence of the SS for Himmler, and the removal of a rival for Göring. Röhm was known to be homosexual , which Hitler tolerated. Röhm

13677-491: The outbreak of World War II in 1939. Two SS officers would be demoted from the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer : Rudolf Hess and Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff . Hess was stripped of his rank and expelled from both the SS and Nazi Party after his abortive flight to Scotland in 1941. Helldorff was stricken from the SS rolls in 1944 after the 20 July plot against Hitler. Helldorff was a unique case, in that his SS rank had been bestowed for technical reasons in order to command

13818-406: The paper obtained and published some private letters of his in which Röhm described himself as "same-sex oriented" ( gleichgeschlechtlich ). These letters had been confiscated by the Berlin police back in 1931 and subsequently passed along to the journalist Helmuth Klotz. Hitler was aware of Röhm's homosexuality. Their friendship shows in that Röhm remained one of the few intimates allowed to use

13959-469: The party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including Prussian premier Hermann Göring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , and Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , positioning themselves against Röhm. To isolate Röhm, on 20 April 1934, Göring transferred control of the Prussian political police ( Gestapo ) to Himmler, who he believed could be counted on to move against Röhm. Both the Reichswehr and

14100-512: The people", which helped gain him support. Conditions in Prague and the rest of the Czech lands were relatively peaceful under Heydrich, and industrial output increased. Still, those measures could not hide shortages and increasing inflation; reports of growing discontent multiplied. Despite public displays of goodwill towards the populace, privately Heydrich was very clear about his eventual goal: "This entire area will one day be definitely German, and

14241-548: The pogrom with the SS, SD, Gestapo, uniformed police (Orpo), SA, Nazi party officials, and even the fire departments. In the telegram, Heydrich granted permission for arson and destruction of Jewish businesses and synagogues, and ordered the confiscation of all "archival material" from Jewish community centres and synagogues. The telegram ordered that "as many Jews – particularly affluent Jews – are to be arrested in all districts as can be accommodated in existing detention facilities ... Immediately after

14382-427: The political police forces of all 17 German states. They began with Bavaria . In 1933, Heydrich gathered some of his men from the SD and together they stormed police headquarters in Munich and took over the organisation using intimidation tactics. Himmler became the Munich police chief and Heydrich became the commander of Department IV, the political police . In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany , and through

14523-563: The population: he proclaimed martial law , and 142 people were executed within five days of his arrival in Prague. Their names appeared on posters throughout the occupied country. Most of them were the members of the resistance that had previously been captured and were awaiting trial. According to Heydrich's estimate, between 4,000 and 5,000 people were arrested and between 400 and 500 were executed by February 1942. Those who were not executed were sent to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp , where only four per cent of Czech prisoners survived

14664-615: The post appealed to him. At first he had to share an office and typewriter with a colleague, but by 1932 Heydrich was earning 290 Reichsmarks a month (equivalent to €1,191 in 2021), a salary he described as "comfortable". As his power and influence grew throughout the 1930s, his wealth grew commensurately; in 1935 he received a base salary of 8,400 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €38,766 in 2021) and an allowance of 12,000 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €55,379 in 2021) and by 1938 his income increased to 17,371 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €77,580 in 2021), annually. Heydrich later received

14805-463: The prison courtyard, the Leibstandarte firing squad shot five SA generals and an SA colonel. Several of those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde , given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. Röhm himself, however, was kept prisoner. Hitler was hesitant in authorising Röhm's execution, perhaps because of loyalty or embarrassment about

14946-412: The purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude . Kempka said in a 1946 interview that Hitler ordered both Heines and his partner taken outside of the hotel and shot. Meanwhile, the SS arrested the other SA leaders as they left their train for the planned meeting with Röhm and Hitler. Although Hitler presented no evidence of a plot by Röhm to overthrow the regime, he nevertheless denounced the leadership of

15087-435: The railway station and took him to see Himmler. Himmler asked Heydrich to convey his ideas for developing an SS intelligence service. Himmler was so impressed that he hired Heydrich immediately. Although the starting monthly salary of 180 Reichsmarks (equivalent to €679 in 2021) was low, Heydrich decided to take the job because Lina's family supported the Nazi movement, and the quasi-military and revolutionary nature of

15228-497: The rank of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer was created. Standard practice for SS generals serving as an SS and police leader , as well as those senior SS personnel of the RSHA , was to hold dual police rank as SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei . SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS was the equivalent in the armed SS; in 1944, most active SS generals received this designation in order to command military troops during

15369-481: The rank, including Friedrich Jeckeln who would become one of the most infamous SS and police leaders on the Eastern Front during World War II . The last pre-war promotion to the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer was in April 1939 for Friedrich Graf von der Schulenburg who died the following month. Upon the outbreak of World War II, there were seventeen men who held the rank of SS- Obergruppenführer . During

15510-437: The ranks of the SA. Reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA members caused additional concern to the army leadership. Unsurprisingly, the officer corps opposed Röhm's proposal. They insisted that discipline and honor would vanish if the SA gained control, but Röhm and the SA would settle for nothing less. In addition the army leadership was eager to co-operate with Hitler given his plan of re-armament and expansion of

15651-570: The release of Kriebel. In the December 1924 election the seats won by his party were much reduced, and his name was too far down the list to return him to the Reichstag . While Hitler was in prison, Röhm helped to create the Frontbann as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed Sturmabteilung (SA). Hitler did not fully support Röhm's ambitious plans for this organization, which proved problematic. Hitler

15792-464: The remainder of the war in France and Romania as a staff officer. He was awarded the Iron Cross First Class before being wounded at Verdun, and was promoted to captain ( Hauptmann ) in April 1917. Among his comrades, Röhm was considered a "fanatical, simple-minded swashbuckler" who frequently displayed contempt for danger. In his memoirs, Röhm reported that during the autumn of 1918, he contracted

15933-629: The revolution and use the units at his disposal to obtain weapons from secret caches with which to occupy crucial points in the centre of the city. When the call came, he announced to those assembled in the Löwenbräukeller that the Kahr government had been deposed and Hitler had declared a "national revolution" which elicited wild cheering. Röhm then led his force of nearly 2,000 men to the War Ministry, which they occupied for sixteen hours. Once in control of

16074-489: The rise of the Nazis and the violent suppression of rival parties during electoral campaigns, but its reputation for street violence and heavy drinking was a hindrance, as was the rumored homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders such as his deputy Edmund Heines . In June 1931, the Münchener Post , a Social Democratic newspaper, began attacking Röhm and the SA regarding homosexuality in its ranks and then in March 1932,

16215-495: The rumours were baseless. Even so, Heydrich privately engaged SD member Ernst Hoffmann to further investigate and dispel the rumours. In mid-1932, Himmler appointed Heydrich chief of the renamed security service—the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). Heydrich's counterintelligence service grew into an effective machine of terror and intimidation. With Hitler striving for absolute power in Germany, Himmler and Heydrich wished to control

16356-512: The safety of certain athletes, such as Paul Sommer, a Jewish German champion fencer he knew from his pre-SS days, and the Polish Olympic fencing team that competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics . ... the planned total measures are to be kept strictly secret ... the first prerequisite for the final aim ("Endziel") is the concentration of the Jews from the countryside into the larger cities. Heydrich, September 1939 By order of

16497-484: The secular "Reformgymnasium", especially in the sciences. A talented athlete, he became an expert swimmer and fencer. He was shy, insecure, and was frequently bullied for his high-pitched voice and rumoured Jewish ancestry. These rumours increased after his maternal uncle Hans Krantz married a Hungarian Jew named Iza Jarmy. However, the family maintained cordial relations with the Jewish community; many Jewish students attended

16638-526: The security, structure, and pension it offered. He became a naval cadet at Kiel , Germany's primary naval base. Many of Heydrich's fellow cadets falsely regarded him as Jewish. To counteract these rumours, Heydrich told people he had joined several antisemitic and nationalist organisations, such as the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund . On 1 April 1924 he was promoted to senior midshipman ( Oberfähnrich zur See ) and sent to officer training at

16779-436: The state". Röhm and the SA regarded themselves as the vanguard of the "National Socialist revolution". After Hitler's national takeover they expected radical changes in Germany, including power and rewards for themselves, unaware that, as Chancellor, Hitler no longer needed their street-fighting capabilities. Nevertheless, Hitler did name Röhm to numerous important Party and State positions. On 2 June 1933, Hitler named him

16920-505: The territory. The Reich Protector, Konstantin von Neurath , remained the territory's titular head, but was sent on "leave" because Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich felt his "soft approach" to the Czechs had promoted anti-German sentiment and encouraged anti-German resistance via strikes and sabotage. Upon his appointment, Heydrich told his aides: "We will Germanize the Czech vermin." Heydrich came to Prague to enforce policy, fight resistance to

17061-403: The war. Czech prime minister Alois Eliáš was among those arrested the first day. He was put on trial in Berlin and sentenced to death, but was kept alive as a hostage. He was later executed in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination. In March 1942, further sweeps against Czech cultural and patriotic organisations, the military, and the intelligentsia resulted in the practical paralysis of

17202-414: The year before. Heydrich not only felt he could no longer be a member, but came to consider the church's political power and influence a danger to the state. On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united, following Hitler's appointment of Himmler as Chief of German Police. With this appointment by Hitler, Himmler and his de facto deputy, Heydrich, became two of the most powerful men in

17343-450: Was adjutant of the 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment König. The following month, he was seriously wounded in the face at Chanot Wood in Lorraine and carried the scars for the rest of his life. He was promoted to first lieutenant ( Oberleutnant ) in April 1915. During an attack on the fortification at Thiaumont, Verdun , on 23 June 1916, he sustained a serious chest wound and spent

17484-474: Was a German nationalist with loyalties to the Kaiser , who instilled patriotic ideas in his three children but was not affiliated with any political party until after World War I . The household was strict. Heydrich, initially a frail and sickly youth, was encouraged by his parents to exercise to build up his strength. He engaged his younger brother, Heinz , in mock fencing duels. He excelled in his schoolwork at

17625-596: Was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust . Heydrich was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo , Kripo , and SD ). He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia . He served as president of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC, now known as Interpol ) and chaired

17766-618: Was also known for being a good organizer, a strong leader and having a brutal, unscrupulous manner; all of which served Hitler well politically, before the Nazis obtained national power in 1933 . In June 1934, in preparation for the purge known as the Night of the Long Knives , both Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich , chief of the SS Security Service, assembled a dossier of manufactured evidence to suggest that Röhm had been paid 12 million  ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €57 million 2021) by

17907-619: Was born in 1904 in Halle an der Saale to composer and opera singer Richard Bruno Heydrich and his wife, Elisabeth Anna Maria Amalia Heydrich (née Krantz). His father came from a Protestant family, but converted to Elisabeth's Roman Catholic faith upon marriage. Reinhard was an altar boy , attending evening prayers and Mass every week with his mother as part of the Catholic minority in Halle. Two of his forenames were musical references: "Reinhard" referred to

18048-444: Was conferred on Heydrich on 1 October. Heydrich became the president of the International Criminal Police Commission (later known as Interpol ) on 24 August 1940, and its headquarters were transferred to Berlin. He was promoted to SS- Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei on 24 September 1941. In 1936, Heydrich learned that a top-ranking Soviet officer was plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin . Sensing an opportunity to strike

18189-510: Was considered to be acting legally as long as it was carrying out the leadership's will. People were arrested arbitrarily, sent to concentration camps, or killed. Himmler began developing the notion of a Germanic religion and wanted SS members to leave the church. In early 1936, Heydrich left the Catholic Church in favour of the Gottgläubig movement. His wife, Lina, had already done so

18330-583: Was distrustful of these paramilitary organizations because competing groups like the Bund Wiking , the Bund Bayern und Reich , and the Blücherbund were all vying for membership and he realized from the failed putsch that these groups could not be legitimated so long as the police and Reichswehr stayed loyal to the government. When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm

18471-444: Was found guilty and sentenced to fifteen months in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation. Hitler was found guilty and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but served only nine months at Landsberg Prison (under permissively lenient conditions). In April 1924, Röhm became a Reichstag deputy for the völkisch (racial-national) National Socialist Freedom Party . He made only one speech, urging

18612-481: Was given responsibility for carrying out the Nacht und Nebel (Night-and-Fog) decree. According to the decree, "persons endangering German security" were to be arrested in a maximally discreet way: "under the cover of night and fog". People disappeared without a trace with no one told of their whereabouts or fate. For each prisoner, the SD had to fill in a questionnaire that listed personal information, country of origin, and

18753-506: Was head of the SiPo and SD. Heinrich Müller was the Gestapo's operations chief. Heydrich was assigned to help organise the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The games were used to promote the propaganda aims of the Nazi regime. Goodwill ambassadors were sent to countries that were considering a boycott. Anti-Jewish violence was forbidden for the duration, and news stands were required to stop displaying copies of Der Stürmer . For his part in

18894-407: Was not a pure Aryan . Within the Nazi organisation such innuendo could be damning, even for the head of the Reich's counterintelligence service. Gregor Strasser passed the allegations on to the Nazi Party's racial expert, Achim Gercke , who investigated Heydrich's genealogy. Gercke reported that Heydrich was "... of German origin and free from any coloured and Jewish blood". He insisted that

19035-461: Was not early enough for him to be considered an Old Fighter. In 1931, Heinrich Himmler began setting up a counterintelligence division of the SS. Acting on the advice of his associate Karl von Eberstein , who was Lina's friend and Heydrich's godbrother, Himmler agreed to interview Heydrich, but cancelled their appointment at the last minute. Lina ignored this message, packed Heydrich's suitcase, and sent him to Munich . Eberstein met Heydrich at

19176-458: Was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong Frontbann into the SA, Röhm resigned from all political groups and military brigades on 1 May 1925. He felt great contempt for the "legalistic" path the party leaders wanted to follow and sought seclusion from public life. In 1928, Röhm was recruited by Wilhelm Kaiser, nominally the Bolivian military attaché in the Netherlands, to serve as an advisor to

19317-467: Was recorded on index cards and stored at the Brown House. To mark the occasion of Heydrich's December wedding, Himmler promoted him to the rank of SS- Sturmbannführer (major). In 1932, rumours were spread by Heydrich's enemies of his alleged Jewish ancestry. Wilhelm Canaris said he had obtained copies of documents proving Heydrich's Jewish ancestry. Nazi Gauleiter Rudolf Jordan claimed Heydrich

19458-464: Was shot without trial, along with the leadership of the SA. The purge became known as the Night of the Long Knives . Up to 200 people were killed in the action. Lutze was appointed SA's new head and it was converted into a sports and training organisation. With the SA out of the way, Heydrich began building the Gestapo into an instrument of fear. He improved his index-card system, creating categories of offenders with colour-coded cards. The Gestapo had

19599-487: Was taken over by the Schutzstaffel (SS) in relation to the top leaders. The SA did continue its street battles against the communists, forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews and others deemed hostile to the Nazi agenda. Under Röhm, the SA often took the side of workers in strikes and other labor disputes, attacking strikebreakers and supporting picket lines . SA intimidation contributed to

19740-465: Was the most senior rank of the Sturmabteilung until the spring of 1933, when Röhm made the title position of Stabschef (SA Chief of Staff) into a rank and promoted himself accordingly. Also in the summer of 1933, Heinrich Himmler was promoted by Adolf Hitler to the newly created rank of SS- Obergruppenführer with the intent being to make Himmler the equivalent of the senior commanders of

19881-538: Was to be coordinated among the representatives from the Nazi state agencies present at the meeting. On 27 September 1939, the SD and SiPo—made up of the Gestapo and the Criminal Police, or Kripo—were folded into the new Reich Security Main Office or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), which was placed under Heydrich's control. The title of Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Chief of Security Police and SD) or CSSD

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