Ernst Röhm - Leader of the SA & Hitler's Homosexual Friend Killed during the Night of Long Knives,. Ernst Röhm, the youngest of three children, was born on 28 November 1887 in Munich then part of the German Empire. Ernst’s father Julius was a railway official and his wife Emilie was a housewife who dedicated her time to taking care of the children.
From autumn 1897, Röhm attended the Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich and after his graduation in 1906, he entered the 10th Bavarian Infantry Division "King Ludwig" at Ingolstadt as a cadet, even though his family had no military tradition. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in March 1908. In the years to follow, Röhm established personal relationships with a number of regimental comrades which later proved to be very useful as he repeatedly incorporated these men as personal confidants in leading positions in the organizations he led.
The First World War began on the 28th of July 1914. Röhm enlisted in the German Army and on September 24, 1914 he suffered a shot to the face that permanently disfigured him. Röhm was transferred to a hospital, where his torn-off nasal bone was replaced with a plastic one. However, the operation was only imperfectly successful, and subsequently he had to learn to breathe through his new nose and underwent further operations due to breathing difficulties. As the wound repeatedly festered, he struggled with health problems for the rest of his life. On October 19, 1914, Röhm was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and on December 3, 1914, he was promoted to First Lieutenant.
He then took part in the Battle of Verdun which was fought from the 21st of February to 18th of December 1916. It was one of the longest and deadliest battles of the war during which about 300,000 soldiers were killed and many more were wounded. During this battle in June 1916, Röhm again suffered severe wounds when he was hit by fourteen shell fragments to the head, back, upper arms, and left thigh. He spent the next six months until December 1916 in various military hospitals in Frankfurt, Munich, and Hohenaschau until he was discharged as fit for garrison duty in December 1916. During his time in the hospital, Röhm had been awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class.
Before the First World War ended on the 11th of November 1918, Röhm had reached the rank of a captain.
In the new Weimar Republic, which was the name given to the German government from 1918 to 1933, Röhm became involved in the Freikorps movement. In the aftermath of the First World War and during the German Revolution of 1918–1919, Freikorps, or independent paramilitary units, proliferated across Germany.
Composed primarily of World War I veterans returning from the war, the Freikorps fought against communists and other groups they believed were responsible for German defeat. Freikorps acted with particular brutality and violence and many of its units proved to be rebellious and difficult for the German government and military to control. By 1921, approximately 400,000 men were involved in Freikorps paramilitary groups.
One of these groups to which Röhm belonged - Bavarian Freikorps for Border Patrol East - participated in the violent overturn of the short-lived unrecognized Bavarian Soviet Republic by force of arms on 3 May 1919.
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