Edmund Karl

Edmund Heines, born in Munich on 21-07-1887. He volunteered into the army in 1915, age 18 and won the Iron Cross in 1916. He served the German army during World War I and was discharged as a lieutenant in 1918. In 1925 he joined the Nazi Party when it was still a mild socialist organization for workers rights. But as much as I may be inclined to want to paint him in a good light, because he was gay, I cannot. He was, in reality, an intense and very cruel leader, convicted to a death sentence for several murders in 1929. But his sentence was commuted to imprisonment and eventually a pardon. His pardon was most likely a pay off. He joined the Reichstag in 1930 and from 1931 until his death he was the SA leader in Silesia and Deputy for Ernst Röhm, (see Röhm) the leader of the SA. During this time the SA had grown more and more violent under his and Röhm's influence and had directed many of their activities toward the Jews, Communists and Socialists. On the night of 30-06-1934, commonly referred to as the "Night of the Long Knives" or "Nacht der langen Messer" Edmund picked up an unidentified, young, about 18 years old, SA scout leader whom he may have known for some time. That night SS Detectives and Hitler himself, along with Hitlers (see Adolf Hitler) (did you know) chauffeur Erich Kempka, showed up at Edmunds apartment and found him in bed with the scout leader. The story goes, as told by Erich Kempka,  Hitler's driver, (see Kempka) is that the two men refused to get dressed, and after five minutes, Hitler ordered them both to be shot. They were never seen again. The Nazi's later released a story that Edmund was killed at the home of Ernst Röhm at Munich, that he had run toward the Führer with a pistol when he was killed. It is not believed that this story is false. Hitler was uneasy authorizing Röhm's execution and gave Röhm an opportunity to commit suicide. On July 2, Röhm was visited by SS-Brigadeführer Theodor Eicke (see Eicke), then Kommandant of the Dachau concentration camp and SS-Obersturmbannführer Michael Lippert, Michael Lippert died age 72, on 01-09-1969, in Wuppertal,  who laid a pistol on the table, told Röhm he had ten minutes to use it and left. Röhm refused and stated "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself." Having heard nothing in the allotted time, Eicke and Lippert returned to Röhm's cell to find him standing. Röhm had his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance as Lippert shot him in the chest at point blank range. Edmund Heines, age 36, is buried on the Westfriedhof of Munich, but there are new owners in the grave with their own gravestone. Close by the graves of Hitler’s pilot Hans Baur (see Baur), Generals Alfred Genz (see Genz) and Josef Kammhuber (see Kammhuber) and Rudolf Trauch (see Trauch) SA leaders Johannes Schweighart (see Schweighart) and Ernst Röhm, the founder of the NSDAP Anton Drexler (see Drexler) and SS Oberführer Otto Bradfisch (see Bradfisch).