German Leadership

Old Comrades.

Bundesarchiv.

Photograph from the Bundesarchiv collection, inscribed "R.P. Nurnberg 1927" (Reichparteitag, Nuremberg 1927). Foreground group from left (from banner) - an underfed-looking Heinrich Himmler, future Reichfuhrer SS; over Himmler's shoulder, Rudolf Hess, Party leader and future Deputy Fuhrer, (in SA uniform) Gregor Strasser, Reich Organisation Leader of the NSDAP and "philosophical" (!)leader of the "left" (social revolutionary) wing of the Nazi Party, expelled from the NSDAP 1930 and murdered in the June 1930 "Rohm Purge" (on Hitler's orders, as an item of "unfinished business"; Hitler; and, in SA- Oberfuhrer uniform, Franz Pfeffer von Salomon (Generalleutnant. retired). The latter, a highly decorated WW1 veteran and former prominent Freikorps leader, was at this time National Leader of the SA, a position he owed, it would appear, to his loyalty to Hitler as much as to his war/Freikorps record. On the whole, it would appear that he was better at fighting than at playing the organisation game. He was effectively dismissed by Hitler in 1930 for his failure to control unruly SA elements a a time at which Hitler was attempting to court support (howeve opportunistic) from wealthy, "respectable" elements of the community. In particular, his abject failure to control the rebellious behaviour of Berlin SA leader, Walter Stennes, terminally undermined his position. Strangely, Salomon managed to avoid being shot in the "Night of the Long Knives". Even more strangely, in spite of being "fingered" for involvement in the "desertion" of Rudolf Hess, and even of the 20 July 1944 Hitler assasination plot (the latter, at least, may have been a frame-up by Himmler &Co), he still managed to avoid being shot - although he did spend a good deal to time from 1941 in prison. Franz Pfeffer von Salomon died at Munich, 12 April, 1968, aged 80. Best regards, JR.