Karl Ernst

Karl Ernst (September 1, 1904 † June 30, 1934) was an SA gruppenfuhrer who, in early 1933, was the SA leader in Berlin. Before joining the NSDAP he had been a hotel bell-boy and a bouncer at a gay nightclub.

It has been suggested [William L. Schirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich] that it was he who, with a small party of stormtroopers, passed through a passage from the Palace of the President of the Reichstag, who was Hermann Göring, and set the Reichstag building on fire on the night of February 27 1933. There is evidence indirectly to substantiate this: Gisevius at Nuremberg implicated Goebbels in planning the fire, [Hans Gisevius, Nuremberg testimony] Rudolph Diels stated [Nuremberg affidavit] that Göring knew how the fire was to be started, and General Franz Halder stated [Franz Halder, Nuremberg testimony] that he had heard Göring claim responsibility for the fire.

Karl Ernst was bisexual; he was close to Ernst Röhm and was nicknamed "Frau Röhrbein" due to his intimacy with Paul Röhrbein. [cite web |url=http://www.q.co.za/2001/2002/06/05-pastout.html |title=Were there any gay Nazis? |accessdate=2007-02-15 |last=Martinac |first=Paula |year=2002 |month=June |publisher=Q.co.za]

On June 30 1934, Ernst had just married, and was in Bremen on his way to Madeira to honeymoon with his new wife. SA Leader Roehm had repeatedly called for a "second revolution" that would introduce a Nazi version of socialism into the Reich and banish the old Conservative forces of business and government. The socialistic tendencies of the SA caused Conservative elements in the Reichswehr and Kriegsmarine to press for an elimination of SA power. Adolf Hitler, possibly at the instigation of Göring and Heinrich Himmler, but also possibly at the urging of the army high command, undertook a purge of the SA — an event known to history as the Night of the Long Knives. Ernst's wife and chauffeur were wounded, and he was taken back to Berlin by a detachment of the SS. Some 150 SA leaders, including Ernst, were stood against a wall at the Cadet School at Lichterfelde and shot by Leibstandarte-SS firing squads. Ernst, believing that he faced a "putsch" from the Conservative, pro-Capitalist, political Right, died shouting "Heil Hitler".

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