ROHM, ERNST

born Nov. 28, 1887, Munich, Ger. died June 30, 1934, Munich-Stadelheim Rhm also spelled Roehm German army officer and chief organizer of Adolf Hitler's storm troops (Sturmabteilung, or SA; Brownshirts). Feared as a rival by Hitler, he was murdered at the Fhrer's order. A soldier from 1906, Rhm was wounded three times in World War I, during which he attained the rank of major. After the war he helped to found, before Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers' Party. He helped Hitler win the support of the army in Bavaria and made available to him his private strong-arm force, which, in October 1921, became the Sturmabteilung. For his part in the Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch of Nov. 89, 1923, Rhm was briefly imprisoned. Rhm wanted the SA to absorb or supplant the Wehrmacht (regular army) and to secure equality with the Nazi Party, contrary to Hitler's wishes. In 1925 Rhm went to Bolivia, returning late in 1930 at Hitler's request to reorganize the SA. After Hitler had become chancellor in 1933, he temporized by including Rhm in his Cabinet but then definitely subordinated the SA to the party and the Wehrmacht. Persuaded by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, the Fhrer finally decided to purge the SA chief. Rhm was taken by Hitler personally from a hotel near Munich on the pretext that he and the SA were preparing a putsch. He was shot without trial.