Gregor Strasser - Conflict With Hitler and Death

Conflict With Hitler and Death

The programmatic and personal rivalry with Adolf Hitler worsened dramatically when Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher offered Strasser the offices of Vice-Chancellor and Prime Minister of Prussia in December 1932. Schleicher hoped to disunite the NSDAP with Strasser's help and to pull the left-wing of the Nazi Party over to his "national conservative" side, so as to prevent a revolution or takeover by Hitler. The plan failed because of Hitler's intervention, and resulted in Strasser's resignation from all party positions. According to William L. Shirer, this move upset the very foundations of the Nazi party, and could have put an end to their quest for power. Strasser was still a very powerful figure in the region in which he had built up power, and could have mobilized support in the region to turn people against the NSDAP. Instead, Strasser tired of the political struggle as well as the intense campaigning and took a restorative holiday in Italy. Hitler seized upon this opportunity to remove all Party officials loyal to Strasser. All new or continuing Party officials were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the Führer; this prevented any other influential Nazis from leading a break-away faction.

Strasser continued acting as a publicist as he did before his disempowerment. From June 1931 until its ban on 4 February 1933 he published the weekly newspaper Die Schwarze Front (named after Otto Strasser's Black Front political organisation), which made little impact on contemporaries because of its small circulation (10,000 copies).

His involvement in politics did not end completely however, and he had a minor role in von Schleicher's downfall. On 4 January the Chancellor summoned the disaffected Strasser to visit President von Hindenburg. A few days later, Strasser expressed an interest in joining Schleicher's cabinet, which would significantly weaken the Nazi party. Schleicher was assured of Strasser's defection, and bragged to a visiting Austrian minister that the problem of the Nazi Party was solved and their rise had ceased. However, for some reason, Strasser had declined to join the cabinet. Schleicher had therefore failed to win over or divide the Nazis, and coupled with a morale-boosting election campaign in Lippe, Hitler set about definitively undermining Schleicher, now knowing he did not have Strasser's help.

Strasser took no part in affairs during the Nazi takeover in 1932, and had neither a Party or government position in the new regime. In 1934, Hitler moved to eliminate all possible rivals and old enemies in and out of the Party. This purge was officially called the "Röhm-Putsch" because it was claimed that SA chief Ernst Röhm had tried to overthrow Hitler, but is better known as the "Night of the Long Knives".

On 30 June 1934, Strasser was arrested and killed on Hitler's personal order by the Berlin Gestapo. The assassins shot through a window into Strasser's cell killing him. Fritz von Tschirschky, an aide of Franz von Papen, who was also taken to Gestapo headquarters that day, claimed to be a witness to the murder. Tschirschky wrote that Strasser was murdered in an adjoining cell in the basement by an SS squad, which shot him in the temple and back of the head several times. Tschirschky could not watch the execution directly because guards were blocking the way. However, minutes later he saw guards carrying some bloody bags out. Tschirschky concluded that "the victim must have been dismembered shortly after the crime and his body parts carried outside."