Heines, Edmund Karl, born in Munich

on 21-07-1887, as the extra-marital son of the maid Helene Martha Heines. His father was the first-time Leutnant Edmund von Parish, who came from a family of merchants from Hamburg, and whose mother served as a nanny. The maternal grandfather was Johann Baptist Heines, a mechanic from Esslingen. Heines’ younger brother was the later NSDAP activist Oskar Heine (1903-1934), who, like his sister Martha, also came from the mother’s extramarital connection with Parish. Heines’ half-sister was the costume designer Hermione von Parish (1907-1998). After attending a grammar school and a Realgymnasium, where he graduated in 1915, he volunteered into the army in 1915, age 18. He served the German army during World War I and won the Iron Cross

in 1916. Heines was discharged as a leutnant in 1918. After the war, Heines joined the Free Corps Rossbach

and was involved with this in 1919 fighting in the Baltic States and then in March 1920 at the

. Two months earlier, Gerhard Roßbach

had taken over the Berlin Tiergarten Club, in which Heines took over the role of managing director. During the coup, the club was converted into the fortified headquarters of the Rossbach troop.

After the failure of the coup, the members of the Freikorps submerged, especially in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. Heines took over the supervision over members, who were accommodated on three goods in the district Greifenhagen in Pommern. In July 1920, Heines was involved in the Fememord to Willi Schmidt. Schmidt, a 20-year-old agricultural worker, allegedly wanted to reveal weapons caches of the camouflaged Free Corps. In 1925 Heines 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. After World War II Roßbach operated an import-export company near Frankfurt, and wrote his memoirs in 1950. In his last years he played a prominent role in organising the Bayreuth Festivals of
Richard Wagner‘s

music, where Hitler many came to visit
Winifred Wagner.

Rossbach died, age 74, on 30-08-1967 in Hamburg.

Heines was, in reality, an intense and very cruel leader and a sadist, 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 Julius Röhm

the leader of the SA and also a gay man with very cold eyes.

During this time the SA

had grown more and more violent under his and Ernst 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 Hitler’s (see
Adolf Hitler) (
did you know) chauffeur
Erich Kempka,

showed up at Edmunds apartment and found him in bed with the scout leader.

Death and burial ground of Heines, Edmund Karl.

The story goes, as told by SS Obersturmbannführer,

Hitler’s driver, Erich Kempka is that the two men refused to get dressed, and after five minutes, Hitler ordered them both to be shot. 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,

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 in his prison cell, 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. The purge of the SA was kept secret until it was announced by
Adolf Hitler on 13
th July. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives. Hitler claimed that 61 had been executed while 13 had been shot resisting arrest and three had committed suicide.

Others have argued that as many as 400 people were killed during the purge. In his speech Hitler explained why he had not relied on the courts to deal with the conspirators: “In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I become the supreme judge of the German people. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason.” Edmund Heines, age 36, is buried on the Westfriedhof of Munich

, still resting there, but there are new owners in the grave with their own gravestone. Close by the graves of Hitler’s pilot SS Obergruppenführer,
Johannes “Hans” Baur

, Oberst der Wehrmacht,
Company Chief of a Stuka Squadron,
Alfred Genz and General der Flieger,
Chef Kommandeur der Luftwaffe,
Josef Kammhuber 
and Generalleutnant der Wehrmacht,
Inspecteur der Fahrtruppen,
Rudolf Trauch, two other victims of Bad Wiessee, SA leaders
Johannes Schweighart and Ernst Röhm, the founder of the NSDAP,
Anton Drexler 
and SS Oberführer,
Führer des Einsatzkommando 8 der Einsatzgruppe B,
Otto Bradfisch.
Heines, Oskar, brother of Edmund, born 03-02-1903, SA Sturmbannführer. Hearing of the attempted “Putsch” he turned himself in to Gestapo headquarters in Breslau, 30-06-1934. Executed immediately, age 31.
Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster: robhopmans@outlook.com
Leave a Reply