Editing Ernst Röhm (section)

==Personal life and death==
{{main|Röhm scandal}}

Röhm was known to be [[Homosexuality|homosexual]], which Hitler tolerated. Röhm 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 [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|Nazis obtained national power in 1933]].{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1991|pp=806–807, 928–931}}

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 fabricated evidence to suggest that Röhm had been paid {{Reichsmark|12 million|link=yes}} (equivalent to €{{Inflation|DE|12|1934}} million {{Inflation-year|DE}}) by the government of France to overthrow Hitler.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=514}} 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'').{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=30}} 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 the ''Reichswehr'' on the highest level of alert.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=321}} On 27 June, Hitler moved to secure the army's cooperation.{{sfn|O'Neill|1967|pp=72–80}} 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.{{sfn|Bullock|1958|p=165}} 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&nbsp;a.m.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=31}} On 29 June, a signed article in ''Völkischer Beobachter'' by Blomberg appeared in which Blomberg stated with great fervour that the ''Reichswehr'' stood behind Hitler.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=322}}

[[File:Kurheim Hanselbauer.JPG|thumb|upright=1.37|left|Hotel Lederer am See (former Hanselbauer Hotel) in Bad Wiessee before its planned demolition in 2017]]

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.{{sfn|Bullock|1958|p=166}} With Hitler's early arrival, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. SS men stormed 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 [[Obertruppführer|senior troop leader]].{{sfn|Kempka|1948}} Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|Nazi propaganda]], justifying the purge as a crackdown on [[moral turpitude]].{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=514}} Kempka said in a 1946 interview that Hitler ordered both Heines and his partner taken outside of the hotel and shot.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=221}} Meanwhile, the SS arrested the other SA leaders as they left their train for the planned meeting with Röhm and Hitler.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=32}}

Although Hitler presented no evidence of a plot by Röhm to overthrow the regime, he nevertheless denounced the leadership of the SA.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=514}} 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.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=32}}

Joseph Goebbels, who had been with Hitler at Bad Wiessee, set the final phase of the plan in motion. Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Göring at 10:00 with the codeword {{lang|de|kolibri}} ("hummingbird") to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=514}} [[1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler|''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.{{sfn|Cook|Bender|1994|pp=22–23}} There in the prison courtyard, the ''Leibstandarte'' firing squad shot five SA generals and an SA colonel.{{sfn|Cook|Bender|1994|p=23}} Several of those not immediately executed were taken back to the ''Leibstandarte'' barracks at [[Lichterfelde (Berlin)|Lichterfelde]], given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. Röhm himself, however, was kept prisoner.{{sfn|Gunther|1940|pp=51–57}}

Hitler was hesitant in authorising Röhm's execution, perhaps because of loyalty or embarrassment about the execution of an important lieutenant; he eventually did so, and agreed that Röhm should have the option of [[Forced suicide|suicide]].{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=221}} 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 [[John Browning#Products|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."{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=221}} Having heard nothing in 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.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=33}} Eicke and Lippert then shot and killed Röhm.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=312}}{{Efn|Röhm was buried in the ''[[Westfriedhof (Munich)|Westfriedhof]]'' ("Western Cemetery") in Munich. In 1957, the German authorities tried Lippert in Munich for Röhm's murder. Until then, Lippert had been one of the few executioners of the purge to evade trial. Lippert was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.{{sfn|Messenger|2005|pp=204–205}}}} SA-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' [[Viktor Lutze]], who had been spying on Röhm, was named as the new ''[[Stabschef]]'' (SA).{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=32–33}}