Ernst Röhm's Lovers

[Emerson Begolly]

Who were some of Ernst Röhm's known gay lovers?

(If this is upsetting anybody, please close it. I am NOT trying to be foolish, but I just want to know the answer to a question.)

Thanks,
Em.

[Helly Angel]

I think the last was the SA General Count von Spreti. He was murder in June 30.

[WTW26]

Edmund Heines was also his lover for some time.
Btw, does anyone happen to have a pic of von Spreti?

[Emerson Begolly]

But, didn't Edmund Heines get married in 1934?
Maybe he was bi(sexual).

Em.

[Georges M. Croisier]

Are you sure it was Edmund Heines ? Not Karl Ernst the chief of the SA in Berlin ?
He left Germany for honeymoon and was arrested and executed after return from Madera / Spain.

[Emerson Begolly]

Are you sure it was Edmund Heines ? Not Karl Ernst the chief of the SA in Berlin ?
He left Germany for honeymoon and was arrested and executed after return from Madera / Spain.

Mistake. It was Karl Ernst afterall. Did he ever get "close" with Rohm?

Em.

[R.M. Schultz]

Near as I con construct it, Röhm’s love life goes something like this:

Before WW1 he was posted in Metz and frequented brothels. He later claimed to have got gonorrhea twice from prostitutes at this time.

Introduced to homosexuality sometime after the Beer Hall Putsch by Roßbach. This was a revelation to him and he became voraciously homosexual and avoided the company of women. (He did, however, remain devoted to his mother and sister until the end of his life.)

At this point or soon after, he takes up with another of Roßbach’s converts, Edmund Heines. They are “sweethearts” (Röhm’s term) for a time and seem to remain “fuck buddies” (my usage) until their deaths.

His next “sweetheart” is one “Schatzl” who was an “artist.” They broke up before Röhm went to Bolivia.

From Bolivia Röhm wrote letters back to friends complaining that “manly love” is unknown in Bolivia, and requesting that they send him more homoerotic postal cards.

Upon returning from Bolivia, Röhm seems to be a good deal more promiscuous, not only having “sweethearts” but playing the field a good deal as well.

At the time of his appointment as Stabschef, Röhm’s “sweetheart” was Karl Ernst. Ernst, a good-looking Berlin bell-hop, had been recruited to völkish politics (and sodomy) by Berlin Frontbahn commander Paul Röhrbein in 1924 at the age of twenty. Ernst became an SA man when Captain Röhrbein reorganized his Frontbahn contingent as the Berlin SA. Röhrbein was later forced out of the SA because of his habit of recruiting bed partners from among the troopers and was succeeded, first by Ernst Wetzel, and then by Karl Ernst, by that time Röhm's "protegé." Later, after Ernst had apparently been replaced as the Stabschef's primary romantic interest, he got engaged.

At this time Heines became known as Röhm’s procurer, apparently arranging large scale homosexual orgies for the Stabschef.

Röhm’s last “sweetheart” was Graf von Spretti, who was at the spa when Röhm was arrested (though not sharing his bed at the time of the arrest). Heines was at the spa too and, when caught flagrante delicto with his chauffeur, was shot dead on the spot.

[Emerson Begolly]

So Karl Ernst had an affair with Rohm and then he got married. So was he bisexual, or was his marriage just staged to make him look straight?

Em.

[R.M. Schultz]

To my mind there are four possibilities:

1] Ernst allowed himself to be used by Röhrbein and Röhm in order to gain advancement and this does not reflect upon his actual sexuality.

2] Ernst was “bi-sexual,” whatever that means.

3] Ernst was indeed an homosexual who “bearded” himself with a marriage.

4] Ernst was a “Top,” that is, he was a dominant personality type (like Roßbach) who can express his sexuality in any way that suits him.

The actual circumstances of Ernst’s life are somewhat sketchy, however I would guess that both #1 and 4 represent his true situation. He was willing to play “Bottom” to Röhrbein and Röhm and, having attained high position, he chose to express his sexuality as a "Top" in the socially acceptable (and to him equally palatable) option of heterosexual marriage.

[Emerson Begolly]

Was Gregor Strasser gay?

Em.

[R.M. Schultz]

Was Gregor Strasser gay?

Em.

Absolutely not. He was very happily married with two sons.

[Aoxy87]

Eleanor Hancock book about Röhm (pg. 115) reports a young man of twenty yearas old called Peter Granninger, was the Röhm lover after he return from Bolivia.Fastly, Granninger became a employer in the inteligence service of the SA.
To Röhm have a sexual life free of blackmail or publicity, he needs a procurer, and Granninger works in this for him. Hancock reports that Granninger select and teach the boys, having sexual relations with then ,with the acts that are more plesurable for Röhm. He also subsidized Granninger frequent changes of apartment, to avoid excessive movement in the same place, avoiding suspicions.

[custerjohn]

Does anyone know the actual room number Röhm was arrested by Hitler?

[R.M. Schultz]

A photo of the room door is in "The Night of the Long Knives: Forty-eight Hours that Changed the History of the World"
by Paul R. Maracin. I'm at work now and don't have it handy, but I know it's there.

[Geoff Walden]

The After the Battle book "Third Reich Then and Now" says it was Nr. 335.