Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of November 8th, 1923, in Munich, Germany.

23-year-old Heinrich Himmler shoves his way through a crush of bodies. The air around him rings with chants and angry shouts as thousands of men march through the city. Ahead, at the front of the crowd, Himmler can just see the distinctive figure of Adolf Hitler raising his arm and urging them all forward.

Himmler is a member of the Nazi Party, a radical right-wing group that has emerged in Germany after its defeat in World War I. Today, Himmler has joined 2,000 other Nazis in Munich to interrupt a meeting of the city council, which is gathering inside a local beer hall. But when the crowd reaches the hall, they find the doors locked. For a moment, there’s hesitation.

Then Hitler gives the word, and the mob explodes forward, splintering the doors.

Himmler is almost knocked off his feet as the crowd streams into the building. On the stage at the front of the auditorium inside, the startled council leader pauses proceedings and angrily orders Himmler and the other Nazis to leave.

But then the council leader’s breath catches as he turns. In the corner of the room, brown-uniformed Nazis lock a machine gun into place. Around the hall, more men move, silent and deliberate, sealing off the exits.

The councilors and observers erupt in protest as they realize what’s going on. This is not a protest. It's a coup.

The Beer Hall Putsch is Adolf Hitler’s first attempt to seize power in Germany. It ends in less than 24 hours, after police and revolutionaries meet in a violent confrontation. Hitler is then arrested and sent to prison. Heinrich Himmler avoids prosecution for his part in the insurrection—but his contribution to the Nazi movement is only just beginning, because Himmler will one day take charge of the dreaded SS, a murderous paramilitary organization that will be founded on April 4th, 1925.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 4th, 1925: The Birth of the SS.

Act One: Slow Growth

It’s April 4th, 1925, at the Nazi Party offices in Munich, 18 months after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Heinrich Himmler, now 24 years old, jostles for position among other party members desperate for a front-row view. The Nazi leadership has gathered around a large oak table to discuss the future of the movement. But as usual, the meeting revolves around only one topic—the failures of the German government.

Five years have passed since Germany was defeated in World War I. Its ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, abdicated, and Germany’s monarchy was replaced with a republic. But in the years that followed, the country suffered significant economic turmoil that put the fledgling democracy under threat. Communists tried to start a revolution, while the Nazis launched their own coup in Munich. Both attempts to overthrow the government failed, and the leaders of the insurrections were arrested. So for now, it seems that democracy is safe in Germany.

But for Himmler, the appeal of the Nazis is as strong as ever, and, now that Hitler is out of prison, Himmler is determined to ingratiate himself with his hero.

Himmler watches as Hitler’s rant shifts from the failures of the German government to his frustrations with the other men sitting around the table with him. He’s become exasperated with the activities of the Nazi paramilitary wing, the SA. Their official job was originally simple: guard the party’s leaders and protect Nazi rallies from left-wing demonstrators. But the men of the SA saw themselves more as soldiers and soon gained a reputation for violence.

While in prison, Hitler realized that the quickest route to power was winning elections, not armed revolution. So, now that he’s free, Hitler wants more direct control over the SA. He wants to keep the organization focused on its original job and put a stop to growing talk of transforming it into some sort of military force. But that brings him into conflict with the SA’s current leader, Ernst Rohm.

The tension in the room is obvious, as Rohm and the other leaders of the SA try to defend their organization. But their arguments make no difference. As has become the norm in the Nazi Party, Hitler gets his way. Rohm is sidelined, and the SA is forced to focus on its core duties.

Still, the confrontation with the leaders of the SA has left Hitler suspicious of them. He no longer can entrust his safety to them, so he announces that he is forming a new elite body to act as his personal bodyguards. It will soon become known as the SS.

Heinrich Himmler sees an opportunity to prove his loyalty to the Nazi cause and immediately volunteers for this new group. Thanks to his astonishing drive and gift for political maneuvering, Himmler rises swiftly through the ranks. In 1926, he is promoted to regional head of the SS in Lower Bavaria. Then, he becomes the Nazis’ national deputy propaganda chief. He impresses Adolf Hitler with his organizational skills and his ideological zeal, and in September 1927, Himmler is promoted to second-in-command of the SS.

But that’s still not enough for Himmler.

The SS commander at this stage is Erhard Heiden. He’s been a member of the Nazi Party from the beginning. But he lacks Himmler’s abilities, and, under his leadership, membership of the SS has flatlined even as the popularity of the Nazi Party has grown.

Himmler is determined to supplant Heiden. And in the late 1920s, rumors begin to spread that Heiden is exploiting his role of the SS for personal profit. Heiden owns a clothing business that supplies the SS with uniforms, and his opponents in the Nazi Party imply that he’s overcharging for his services. Even worse, it’s said that Heiden sources part of the uniform from a Jewish supplier—and since the Nazi Party has made Jews the scapegoat for all Germany’s difficulties, this rumored association is enough to destroy Heiden's reputation.

In January 1929, Heiden resigns, and Heinrich Himmler is promoted in his place. In just five years, Himmler has transformed from a minor Nazi activist into one of the most powerful men in the party. But his rise and that of the SS has only just begun. Soon, Adolf Hitler will seize ultimate power in Germany—and his personal bodyguards, Heinrich Himmler’s SS, will become one of the most feared organizations in the country.

Act Two: Rapid Expansion

It’s August 1st, 1929, outside the Nuremberg train station, six months after Heinrich Himmler was appointed leader of the SS.

Now 28 years old, Himmler walks down a line of SS men standing rigidly at attention. He stops at one whose belt is slightly lopsided and straightens it. He adjusts the collar of another. The SS may still be a small organization within the wider Nazi movement, but Himmler wants it to stand out at today’s party congress.

When Himmler’s finally satisfied, he leads his men in procession through the streets of Nuremberg. Many locals step outside their homes to watch them pass. A few applaud and even cheer, but most watch in silence. The Nazis and their radical form of nationalism are a divisive force in German politics, and enjoy the support of only a small fraction of the population.

But that soon begins to change. Three months after the Nazi Party’s rally in Nuremberg, the world economy suffers a major below. A stock market crash in New York sends global investors into a panic, and American loans to Germany are suddenly recalled. That drives the country into an economic depression with thousands of workers losing their jobs as businesses fold, and the price of food soars.

But this sudden turmoil presents an opportunity for the Nazi Party. With his compelling and fiery rhetoric, Adolf Hitler is better placed than any other politician in the country to exploit people’s growing anger. The Nazis start rising in the polls. And the following year, there are elections to the German Reichstag, with Hitler’s party making substantial gains.

And among the 107 Nazi representatives in the new German parliament is SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

But even though Himmler has new parliamentary responsibilities, he keeps his leadership of the SS—a group that is now growing quickly. Membership surges from 3,000 in 1930 to 50,000 in 1932. That increase reflects the Nazis’ growing support in Germany. And when elections are held in July of 1932, the Nazi vote reaches 37 percent, making it the largest party in the Reichstag.

Six months later, Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.

But Hitler’s ambition is not just to take power. He wants to abolish the democratic system and rule as a dictator. So, just a month after becoming Chancellor, he uses an arson attack on the Reichstag building as a pretense to suspend the constitution. Other political parties are banned. Opponents are arrested and imprisoned, and Hitler is given emergency powers to rule by decree.

But this power grab would be impossible without loyal and competent allies at his side. And there’s none Hitler trusts more than Heinrich Himmler and the SS.

By now, the SS is far more than Hitler’s personal security force. It quickly seizes control of the nation's police and turns them against Hitler’s enemies. It then takes over an old factory at Dachau near Munich and transforms that site into a concentration camp for opponents of the regime.

By 1934, the SS is one of the most powerful organizations in the country—and that makes Himmler one of its most powerful men. But neither he nor Adolf Hitler feel entirely secure yet. There’s still one major force in Germany that could move against them—and it’s another branch of the Nazi Party: the SA.

Since the meeting in Munich in 1925 that led to the formation of the SS, relations between the SA and other senior Nazis have remained tense. Ernst Rohm has returned to prominence, and, under his leadership, the SA has grown in strength. It now has around three million members, dwarfing the numbers in the police, the German Army, or the SS.

And many of these SA members are even more radical than Hitler himself and are dissatisfied with what they’ve seen from his government so far. They always thought election victory should be just the first step, to be followed by a broader revolution that would sweep away the old social and economic order. They want the aristocratic establishment broken up and for the SA to officially absorb the German Army into its ranks.

But so far, they have been disappointed. Hitler doesn’t want to destroy the aristocracy or the armed forces. Instead, he wants to co-opt them into his new regime.

So, once again, Hitler and the SA are on a collision course. But Heinrich Himmler is determined there will be only one winner. The SS may have been born out of the SA, but as far as Himmler is concerned, it will soon be time for the child to kill its parent.

Act Three: Seizing Power

It’s the early morning on June 30th, 1934, at a lakeside resort in southern Germany, almost a year and a half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor.

Hitler watches with satisfaction as men from the SS and local police storm through the hallways and bedrooms of a luxury hotel. The leadership of the Nazi paramilitary group the SA are staying at the resort, but Hitler has taken them completely by surprise.

SA officers roar in shock and anger as they are dragged out of their beds one by one. Their leader, Ernst Rohm, is among them. Until this morning, he was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. But as SS troops march him out of the hotel and into a waiting truck, it’s clear that Adolf Hitler has decided that Rohm has become too much of a threat.

Rohm is just one of more than a thousand people who are arrested over the coming days, and many are quickly executed.

This bloody purge will become known as The Night of the Long Knives. It is a triumph for Heinrich Himmler and the SS. Himmler has been manufacturing evidence against the SA for months, patiently constructing a narrative that casts doubt over their loyalty. When allegations were first presented to Hitler, he didn’t want to believe them. Ernst Rohm has been at his side since the earliest days of the Nazi Party. But with members of the German aristocracy and the armed forces also now urging him to move against the SA, Hitler eventually decided he had to act.

The Night of the Long Knives doesn’t just neuter any threat posed by Ernst Rohm or the SA, it also cements the position of the SS as the most powerful force in Nazi Germany.

Over the next ten years, the SS will expand to more than a million men, and its influence will permeate every corner of the Third Reich. The SS will ruthlessly crush dissent in Germany. It will engage in the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war in Russia. And it will build and operate the Nazi death camps, where an estimated 6 million Jews will be murdered in the most systematic genocide in human history. But the full extent of the crimes of Heinrich Himmler and the SS will only come to light with the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945, 20 years after it was first established in a small room in Munich on April 4th, 1925.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 7th, 1739. Notorious English highwayman Dick Turpin is hanged for stealing horses.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammed Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Rob Cromwell.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.