Edmund Heines: Brutal Nazi Leader Purged in the Night of the Long Knives

Edmund Heines was one of the most feared and controversial SA commanders in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Born in 1897, Heines emerged from the shattered post–World War I Germany, joining the Freikorps and later the early Nazi Party, where his loyalty to Ernst Röhm and the SA quickly elevated his status. By the early 1930s, Heines was known across Germany for his cruelty, his involvement in political murders, and his role in transforming the SA into a force of terror on the streets. Appointed police chief in Breslau after Hitler seized power, Heines established his own detention centers, where political opponents were beaten, tortured, or murdered. Even within the Nazi Party, he was seen as unpredictable and violent — a man whose excesses risked destabilizing the regime. As tensions between Hitler and Röhm escalated, Heines became one of the primary targets of the purge that would later be known as the Night of the Long Knives. On 30 June 1934, SS units stormed Bad Wiessee, where Heines was staying with other SA leaders. His arrest became sensationalized when the regime exposed his homosexual relationship — a revelation Hitler used to discredit Röhm’s circle and justify the purge. Hours later, Heines was executed at Stadelheim Prison, one of dozens of SA leaders eliminated in Hitler’s consolidation of power. His fall exposed the brutality, hypocrisy, and internal power struggles that shaped the early Nazi dictatorship.This episode is part of the series The Rise and Fall of the SA: Hitler’s Brownshirts.Watch the full documentary and explore hundreds of historical films at:WorldHistory.tv