Ernst Röhm — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

Co-founder and chief of the SA, the Nazi Party's million-strong paramilitary wing that brawled Hitler into power — then executed by Hitler's SS in 1934 when the old ally became a threat.

Biography

About

Born in Munich in 1887, Röhm joined the Royal Bavarian Army in 1906 and fought through the First World War, wounded three times, decorated with the Iron Cross First Class. After the war he stayed on as a Reichswehr captain and in 1919 joined the German Workers' Party, where he met Adolf Hitler and used his military connections to build the paramilitary groups that became the SA. He marched beside Hitler in the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, took a suspended sentence, then broke with Hitler in 1925 and left for Bolivia to advise its army. Hitler called him back in 1930; by 1931 Röhm commanded…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ernst Röhm

Ernst Röhm

said30 Jun 1934

All revolutions devour their own children.

— Remark in prison to Hans Frank (30 June 1934) paraphrasing Pierre Vergniaud; quoted in The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi

Ernst Röhm

said10 Jun 1934

I expect that on the 1st of August, the SA will be once more ready for duty.

— SA summer furlough decree, published in Völkischer Beobachter (10 June 1934)

Ernst Röhm

saidJan 1934

Hitler can't walk over me as he might have done a year ago; I've seen to that.

— To Kurt Ludecke in January, 1934. Quoted in "History's Greatest Conspiracies" - by H. Paul Jeffers - History - 2004

Ernst Röhm

saidMay 1933

Adolf is a swine. He will give us all away. He only associates with reactionaries now. His old friends aren't good enough for him. Getting matey with the East Prussian generals.

— To Hermann Rauschning about Adolf Hitler in May, 1933. Quoted in "Hitler: Study of a Revolutionary?" - Page 82 to Page 83 - by Martyn

Ernst Röhm

saidundated

Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois order. Brutality is respected, the people need wholesome fear.

— Cited in "The Nazis: A Warning from History", Disc 1, 10:48. Also quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership"

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