1897–1934
✕ Executed by shooting
Rossbach Freikorps veteran, Röhm’s deputy and SA chief in Silesia, executed in the Night of the Long Knives
As Röhm’s deputy and SA leader in Silesia he was one of the pillars of the SA leadership. On 30 June 1934 he was executed with other SA leaders in the Night of the Long Knives.
Born in Munich, he served as an artilleryman in the First World War. From 1919 to 1922 he led a unit of Freikorps Rossbach in West Prussia and the Baltic, took part in the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and the same year was involved in the murder of farm worker Willi Schmidt, suspected of betraying Freikorps arms caches. In December 1922 he became Nazi Party member no. 78, brought the Munich Rossbach group into the SA, and after the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 shared a cell with Hitler in Landsberg. Convicted over Schmidt’s killing in 1928, he entered the Reichstag in 1930, became deputy to SA chief of staff Ernst Röhm in 1931 and police president of Breslau in 1933. He was shot in the Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934.
Activities and affiliations
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1919–1922
Freikorps (Germany, 1918–1923)Unit leader, Freikorps Roßbach
Military command -
1922–1934
Sturmabteilung (SA)Deputy SA chief of staff; SA leader in SilesiaMain
Military command -
1922–1934
Political and party leadership
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1930–1934
Legislature and state representation
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1933–1934
Germany state institutionsPolice President of Breslau
Security, intelligence and policing