In January 1933, Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany marked the end of the country’s democratic era. A key force behind his rise was the Sturmabteilung, or SA, a paramilitary organization that had grown to over three million members. Known as the Brownshirts, the SA played a central role in Nazi political violence and intimidation.
The SA’s leader, Ernst Röhm, soon began demanding the removal of Germany’s traditional elites, whom he wanted replaced with fanatical Nazis. Hitler, however, needed the support of those elites, especially the military leadership, to consolidate his power. He ultimately came to view the SA as a threat to his plans.
That threat was addressed during the Night of the Long Knives, a violent purge that effectively ended the SA’s political and military influence. Among those killed was Karl Ernst, a prominent SA leader whose life and death were tied to the brutal internal politics of the Nazi movement.
Karl Ernst was born on September 1, 1904, in Berlin. His father was a former cavalryman who later worked as a bodyguard for Friedrich Flick, a wealthy industrialist whose companies supported Nazi rearmament. After completing elementary school, Ernst trained as an export merchant and worked in various jobs, including as a hotel bellboy, a bouncer at a gay nightclub, and a commercial clerk.
In 1923, Ernst joined the SA, which had grown out of the paramilitary groups that spread across Germany after the First World War. These groups, often made up of returning veterans, fought against communists and others they blamed for Germany’s defeat. The SA was closely tied to the Nazi Party and was responsible for protecting Hitler, enforcing his orders, and disrupting the activities of opposing parties.
The SA’s early history included the failed Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, when Hitler and his followers attempted to overthrow the government. The uprising was crushed by Munich police, leaving 16 Nazis and four officers dead. Hitler was arrested and convicted of high treason, but served only eight months of his five-year sentence.
After Hitler’s release, the SA was formally reestablished in 1925. It grew steadily, reaching 60,000 members by 1930. With the economic devastation of the Great Depression, its numbers surged to 77,000 by January 1931, 221,000 by November of that year, and nearly three million by April 1934.
From 1927 to March 1931, Ernst served in the Supreme SA leadership in Munich. As the organization expanded, it became increasingly violent. Stormtroopers disrupted opposition meetings, fought in the streets, and targeted Jews, Roma, communists, and Social Democrats. In March 1933, brownshirts in Königsberg ransacked a Social Democrat office, beat one man to death, and used the location for torture.
Under Röhm, the SA became better organized, but his position was weakened by his homosexuality, which made him dependent on Hitler’s personal support. His appointment was opposed by some within the SA, and his sexuality was used by critics who could not openly challenge Hitler. In 1931, Walter Stennes, the leader of the Berlin SA, rebelled and declared that he and his followers would never serve under a “notorious homosexual” like Röhm, referring to his inner circle as “male prostitutes.”
Karl Ernst was counted among those so-called Röhm prostitutes. His rise within the Berlin SA was rumored to be linked to his relationship with Paul Röhrbein, a friend of Röhm’s who was not a party member. Many in the Berlin SA resented what they called the “Röhm-Röhrbein-Ernst triple alliance,” a perceived homosexual clique. Ernst was often referred to as “Frau von Röhrbein” because of his long-standing relationship with Röhrbein.
In June 1931, a Nazi named Walter Bergmann was arrested at a Berlin pub where he found Ernst and Röhrbein together. Bergmann shouted insults, calling them parasites and sodomizers who were ruining the party’s reputation. Ernst denied being homosexual, but he was also said to have taken part in orgies organized on the yacht of Erich Honecker, a Jewish clairvoyant who lent money to high-ranking Nazis. Despite Honecker’s generosity, Ernst would later participate in his murder.
In September 1931, Ernst helped organize a riot on Kurfürstendamm, a major Berlin avenue, during which about 1,000 SA men attacked Jews leaving synagogues and passersby. By December 1931, he had become an adjutant to the SA group in Berlin, and from July 1932 to March 1933, he led the SA subgroup Berlin East.
After Hitler came to power in January 1933, the SA continued to support the regime as it moved toward dictatorship. But the SA leadership, especially Röhm, wanted to complete the “Nazi revolution” and replace the traditional elites with fanatical Nazis. Röhm’s plan to absorb the German military into the SA alarmed both the army leadership and conservative politicians.
By April 1934, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich were conspiring with Hermann Göring to persuade Hitler to eliminate Röhm. In June, they assembled a dossier of manufactured evidence claiming Röhm had been paid by France to overthrow Hitler. SS officers were shown falsified documents suggesting Röhm was planning a coup.
President Paul von Hindenburg and other conservative leaders warned that the SA’s radicalism had to be controlled. The army threatened to place the country under martial law if Hitler did not act. Despite the rhetoric, Röhm and his commanders never actually planned to seize power.
On June 28, 1934, Hitler ordered Röhm to assemble the top SA leaders at a spa in Bad Wiessee. On the morning of June 30, SS units led by Dachau commandant Theodor Eicke surprised the SA leaders and arrested them. Most were taken to Munich-Stadelheim Prison and shot. Röhm himself was executed on July 1 on Hitler’s direct order.
The purge, known as the Night of the Long Knives, also targeted other political opponents, including General Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler’s predecessor as Chancellor. The SS used the opportunity to eliminate former supporters and right-wing nationalists believed to have betrayed the Nazis.
Karl Ernst was among those killed between June 30 and July 2, 1934. On June 30, he was preparing to board a ship in Bremerhaven for his honeymoon in Madeira. He was arrested at the port based on a warrant from Berlin. After his arrest, he was brutally beaten and handed over to an SS commando led by Kurt Gildisch, one of Hitler’s personal bodyguards.
Gildisch and his men tortured and interrogated Ernst before flying with him to Berlin. After arriving at Tempelhof airport, Ernst was taken to the SS barracks. He was shot by a firing squad from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Hitler’s personal bodyguard unit. His death certificate recorded the time of death as 9:37 a.m. on June 30, 1934.
Ernst was 29 years old. His death had been reported on the radio hours before it was officially recorded. Believing he was the victim of a mistake, Ernst reportedly died with a Nazi salute on his lips. Contrary to some claims, his wife was not murdered. She was released from protective custody on July 14, 1934, and lived in Berlin until her death in 1982.
At Hitler’s request, the German parliament later declared the killings legal, based on the false claim that Röhm and his commanders had planned to overthrow the government. In a speech to the Reichstag on July 13, Hitler alleged that both Röhm and Schleicher were traitors paid by France.
The purge demonstrated the Nazi regime’s willingness to commit murder outside the law in the name of national survival. On August 1, 1934, Hitler’s cabinet passed a law that merged the offices of president and chancellor upon Hindenburg’s death. Two hours after Hindenburg died on August 2, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer and claimed absolute power.
There were no tears shed for Karl Ernst.