For more information on Ernst Röhm, visit Britannica.com.

Röhm, Ernst (Munich, 1887-1934, Munich), a regular army officer, served in the infantry in the 1914-18 War, joining a Freikorps in 1919. Röhm, a man of ruthless brutality and drive, was an early member of the NSDAP and participated in the abortive National Socialist revolt in Munich in 1923 (see Hitlerputsch). He fell out with Hitler after this episode and in 1929-30 took service as a mercenary in Bolivia. In 1930 he was recalled by Hitler and entrusted with the leadership of the SA and SS with the title Chef des Stabes. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Röhm again diverged from Hitler, seeking a more radical revolution and aiming at a union of SA and Reichswehr under his own command. Alarmed at this threat to his position, Hitler ordered the assassination of Röhm and his lieutenants, which took place on 30 June 1934. Röhm's blatant homosexuality, long known to Hitler, was paraded as an excuse for this political murder.

Röhm, Ernst (both: ĕrnst röm) , 1887–1934, German National Socialist leader. An army officer in World War I, he met (1919) Adolf Hitler, whose political career he helped to launch. Roehm organized the storm troops (Sturmabteilung, or SA), the militia of the National Socialist (Nazi) party. The SA's role in the National Socialist movement provoked conflict between Roehm and Hitler, who wanted the SA to be an instrument of the Nazi party, rather than Roehm's private army. Roehm was imprisoned briefly for his participation in the abortive “beer-hall putsch” (1923). After his release conflict with Hitler flared again, and Roehm resigned (Apr., 1925) his party posts. At the end of 1930, Hitler recalled him as SA commander. Within a year, Roehm had developed a large army and was Hitler's principal rival for party power. After Hitler became chancellor (Jan., 1933), Roehm pressed unsuccessfully for SA control over the regular army. Late in 1933 he was made minister without portfolio. In June, 1934, he was executed in Hitler's blood purge, ostensibly because he had been planning an SA-led coup.

Quotes:

"All revolutions devour their own children."