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Authors: Jochen von Lang
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Chancellery. “In the name of the Führer,” he clearly reminded everyone, “all conversations are forbidden at the funeral service and at the funeral procession to follow.” The notice was especially fitting this time because there would certainly have been gossip circulating that a) Viktor Lutze had this accident not only with very strictly rationed gasoline but also under the influence of too much alcohol, b) his trip could not have been on official business, since his sons and daughter were in the car with him, and c) the chief of staff died of a crime against food management because a huge number of broken eggs garnished the car wreck, the street, and the corpses.
The Party funeral took place on May 7, 1943. Four days later, SA Gruppenführer Hacker, who was responsible for the SA in the newly created Gau Wartheland, had just returned to Posen from the funeral in Berlin. During a discussion with SS bosses there he said that Himmler should additionally take on the leadership of the SA; the reasoning being that “under the circumstances, a suitable successor for Lutze would not be found among the ranks of the SA… All SA Gruppenführer and Obergruppenführer share the same opinion.”
There is no indication that this suggestion ever made it to Hitler. Wolff asserted, however, that the Party chief made the suggestion to the Reichsführer SS directly after Röhm’s murder that he take over the command of the SA. Himmler refused, however, because he did not want to create the impression that he had killed to inherit. But contradicting that version, Röhm’s successor had been manipulated before June 30; Viktor Lutze was one of Hitler’s regular companions during those critical days.
There is another reason why the offer to Himmler sounds improbable. Everyone knew that Hitler avoided such accumulation of power within the leadership of the Third Reich. Lutze’s successor would be the colorless Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Schepmann from Saxony. He and his SA were only entrusted with target practice for the Volkssturm during the last phase of the war in the fall of 1944, far under Himmler, as the last contingent, along with many other competent commanders of the reserve army.
________________
* Informal manner of addressing someone as “you” as opposed to the formal “Sie.”
Chapter 2
GOT: The Source of Life
O n July 2, 1934, at four o’clock in the morning, an order from the Führer put a stop to the hunt for “the Röhm loyalists.” Wolff could now catch up on missed sleep. As he arrived at the office the next day, he found an invitation for lunch. Göring called those entrusted with the action and other confidantes to a meal at the Prussian prime minister’s residence. The approximately thirty guests were offered a glass of champagne in the foyer. Wolff saw the commander in chief of the army, Generaloberst Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, but his attempt at saying something obliging to the high-ranking new ally remained unsuccessful; Fritsch was not approachable. His face twitched nervously and his glass of champagne at the reception was shaking in his trembling hand.
Wolff was surprised at the absence of a victorious mood. But the general knew more about the mass murder than the SS wanted him to. He knew in what an underhanded manner General Kurt von Schleicher and Major General Ferdinand von Bredow were killed. He was also convinced that the supposedly planned “Röhm putsch” was just made up. Several days before June 30, Army District Commander of Silesia General Ewald von Kleist came to him and reported that he had spoken to the Silesian SA Obergruppenführer Edmund Heines (considered to be oneof the most radical mutineers and also shot) because of the rumors about an imminent SA putsch. Heines answered honestly and ensured him quite credibly that not one word of these rumors was true. After this discussion with Kleist, Frisch called Major General Walter von Reichenau, director of the ministerial
The Party funeral took place on May 7, 1943. Four days later, SA Gruppenführer Hacker, who was responsible for the SA in the newly created Gau Wartheland, had just returned to Posen from the funeral in Berlin. During a discussion with SS bosses there he said that Himmler should additionally take on the leadership of the SA; the reasoning being that “under the circumstances, a suitable successor for Lutze would not be found among the ranks of the SA… All SA Gruppenführer and Obergruppenführer share the same opinion.”
There is no indication that this suggestion ever made it to Hitler. Wolff asserted, however, that the Party chief made the suggestion to the Reichsführer SS directly after Röhm’s murder that he take over the command of the SA. Himmler refused, however, because he did not want to create the impression that he had killed to inherit. But contradicting that version, Röhm’s successor had been manipulated before June 30; Viktor Lutze was one of Hitler’s regular companions during those critical days.
There is another reason why the offer to Himmler sounds improbable. Everyone knew that Hitler avoided such accumulation of power within the leadership of the Third Reich. Lutze’s successor would be the colorless Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Schepmann from Saxony. He and his SA were only entrusted with target practice for the Volkssturm during the last phase of the war in the fall of 1944, far under Himmler, as the last contingent, along with many other competent commanders of the reserve army.
________________
* Informal manner of addressing someone as “you” as opposed to the formal “Sie.”
Chapter 2
GOT: The Source of Life
O n July 2, 1934, at four o’clock in the morning, an order from the Führer put a stop to the hunt for “the Röhm loyalists.” Wolff could now catch up on missed sleep. As he arrived at the office the next day, he found an invitation for lunch. Göring called those entrusted with the action and other confidantes to a meal at the Prussian prime minister’s residence. The approximately thirty guests were offered a glass of champagne in the foyer. Wolff saw the commander in chief of the army, Generaloberst Werner Freiherr von Fritsch, but his attempt at saying something obliging to the high-ranking new ally remained unsuccessful; Fritsch was not approachable. His face twitched nervously and his glass of champagne at the reception was shaking in his trembling hand.
Wolff was surprised at the absence of a victorious mood. But the general knew more about the mass murder than the SS wanted him to. He knew in what an underhanded manner General Kurt von Schleicher and Major General Ferdinand von Bredow were killed. He was also convinced that the supposedly planned “Röhm putsch” was just made up. Several days before June 30, Army District Commander of Silesia General Ewald von Kleist came to him and reported that he had spoken to the Silesian SA Obergruppenführer Edmund Heines (considered to be oneof the most radical mutineers and also shot) because of the rumors about an imminent SA putsch. Heines answered honestly and ensured him quite credibly that not one word of these rumors was true. After this discussion with Kleist, Frisch called Major General Walter von Reichenau, director of the ministerial
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