Ernst Röhm: Nazi SA Leader Executed During the Night of the Long Knives

Ernst Röhm was the co-founder of the SA (Sturmabteilung) and one of Adolf Hitler’s earliest and most influential allies during the Nazi Party’s rise to power. As the co-founder and commander of the SA (Sturmabteilung), or “Brownshirts,” Röhm was instrumental in building the Nazi movement into a mass force through intimidation, street violence, and militarized loyalty. A decorated veteran of World War I and a supporter of radical social change, Röhm envisioned the SA as a revolutionary army that could eventually replace the traditional German military. His growing influence, open homosexuality, and demands for a “second revolution” alarmed not only the conservative establishment but also Hitler himself. By 1934, tensions between the SA and the German Army had reached a breaking point. Under pressure from both the Wehrmacht and the SS leadership, Hitler ordered a brutal purge of Röhm and other SA officials during the infamous Night of the Long Knives. Röhm was arrested and offered the option of suicide. When he refused, he was executed on Hitler’s orders in his prison cell. The purge solidified Hitler’s control over Germany and eliminated any remaining rivals within the Nazi Party. Röhm’s downfall is one of the most chilling examples of political betrayal in Nazi Germany. His fate not only marked the end of the SA’s power but also revealed the internal fractures and ruthless calculations behind Hitler’s consolidation of power. Röhm’s story exposes the dark paradox at the heart of the regime: a movement built on loyalty, purging its own to maintain absolute control.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