Gregor Strasser

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Gregor Strasser

Gregor Strasser (also Straßer, see ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
) (May 31, 1892 – June 30, 1934) was a politician

Politician

A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of politics or a person who influences the way a society is governed....
of the German Nazi Party

National Socialist German Workers Party

The 'National Socialist German Workers' Party', , commonly known in English as the , was a racialist, totalitarian political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945....
(NSDAP). He was murdered in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
during the Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives

The Night of the Long Knives or "Operation Hummingbird", was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi Party regime carried out a series of political executions, most of those killed being members of the Sturmabteilung , the paramilitary Brownshirts....
.

or Strasser and his younger brother Otto

Otto Strasser

Upper Bavaria

Upper Bavaria is one of the seven Regierungsbezirks of Bavaria, Germany, located in the south of Bavaria, around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and S?dostoberbayern ....
n market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a law term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host Market, distinguishing them from villages and city....
of Geisenfeld

Geisenfeld

Geisenfeld is a town in the Pfaffenhofen , in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Ilm , 16 km southeast of Ingolstadt....
. He attended the local Gymnasium (high school) and after his final examinations served his apprenticeship as a druggist in the Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria is one of the seven Regierungsbezirks of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state. It is subdivided into three regions ?Landshut, Passau and Donau-Wald....
n village of Frontenhausen from 1910 until 1914.

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Encyclopedia

Gregor Strasser (also Straßer, see ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
) (May 31, 1892 – June 30, 1934) was a politician

Politician

National Socialist German Workers Party

Berlin

Night of the Long Knives

Background, training, and military service

Gregor Strasser and his younger brother Otto

Otto Strasser

Upper Bavaria

Market town

Geisenfeld

Lower Bavaria

Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , also known as LMU, is a university in Munich and, with more than 44,000 students, is the second-largest university in Germany....
, suspending his studies in the same year to enlist as a volunteer in the German Imperial Army. Strasser took part in World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First Lieutenant is a military rank.The rank of Lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank....
, and being decorated with the Iron Cross

Iron Cross

The Iron Cross was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Frederick William III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau ....
, First and Second Class.

In 1918 he continued his studies at Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg

Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nuremberg

The University of Erlangen Nuremberg a university in the cities of Erlangen and Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. It is the second largest state university in Bavaria, having eleven Faculty , 265 Professorship, and 10,000 employees....
and in 1919 he joined the rightist Freikorps
Freikorps

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1983-0012, Kapp-Putsch, Marienbrigade Erhardt in Berlin.jpgThe designation of Freikorps was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of 18th century onwards....
led by Franz Ritter von Epp

Franz Ritter von Epp

Franz Ritter von Epp was a regular officer in the German Army of the early part of the 20th century, who rose to the office of Reichsstatthalter of Bavaria, a position of dictatorial power, under the Nazis....
(1868-1932) together with his brother Otto. He passed his state examination successfully in the same year, and in 1920 started work as an pharmacist in Landshut

Landshut

Landshut is a city in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany, belonging to both Eastern and Southern Bavaria. Situated on the banks of the Isar, Landshut acts is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free state of Bavaria....
. Strasser established and commanded Sturmbataillon Niederbayern , where young Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Himmler

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a Nazi Germany German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel. He was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, competing with Hermann G?ring, Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels....
served as his adjutant. By March 1920 Strasser's Freikorps was ready to participitate in the failed Kapp Putsch

Kapp Putsch

The Kapp Putsch ? or more accurately the Kapp-L?ttwitz Putsch ? was a 1920 coup d'?tat during the German revolution aimed at overthrowing the Weimar Republic....
. During that time his brother Otto commanded a socialist Rote Hundertschaft (Red Group of a Hundred) to battle against this right wing "reactionary" coup d'état

Coup d'état

A coup d??tat , often simply called a coup, is the sudden unconstitutional overthrow of a government by a part of the state establishment – usually the military – to replace the branch of the stricken government, either with another civil government or with a military government....
.

Career in the early NSDAP

Soon Gregor Strasser was leading a völkischer
Völkisch movement

The v?lkisch movement is the German interpretation of the Populism movement, with a Romanticism focus on folklore and the "organic". The term v?lkisch, meaning "ethnic", derives from the German word Volk , corresponding to "Ethnic Group", with connotations in German of "people-powered," "folksy," and "folkloric"....
Wehrverband ("ethnic defense union"), one of several such nationalist

Nationalism

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organisation are similar to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having the same status....
groups. They joined forces with the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in 1921, which had been founded in Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
one year earlier. In November 1923 he took an active part in the miscarried Beer Hall Putsch

Beer Hall Putsch

The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the National Socialist German Workers Party's leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund, unsuccessfully...
. In a special part of the high treason trial against Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
, Strasser was sentenced to one and a half years of Festungshaft (confinement in a fortress, which was regarded as an honorable detention in the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
) in Landsberg Prison

Landsberg Prison

Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the Germany state of Bavaria, about 30 miles west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg....
by Volksgericht München I in April 1924. After a few weeks Strasser was released because he had been elected a member of Bavarian Landtag

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.The German word "Landtag" is composed of the words Land which names a political entity comparable to a federal state and the word Tag....
for the Nazi-associated Völkischer Block on May 4, 1924. On December 7, 1924 he attained a seat in 3. Reichstag

Reichstag (institution)

The Reichstag was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. The main chamber of the German parliament is now called Bundestag , but the building in which it meets is still called "Reichstag" ....
of Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
. He had run for the Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei (German People's Freedom Party), which served as substitute organization for the NSDAP (which had been banned temporarily from November 1923 until February 1925). Strasser kept this position until December 1932.

After the official refoundation of the NSDAP by Adolf Hitler in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller
Bürgerbräukeller

The B?rgerbr?ukeller was a large beer hall located in Munich, Germany, and by 1923 was one of the preferred gathering places of the NSDAP, or Nazi Party....
on February 26, 1925 Strasser became the first Gauleiter

Gauleiter

A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau....
of Lower Bavaria

Lower Bavaria

Upper Palatinate

The Upper Palatinate is one of the seven Regierungsbezirks of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria. It is subdivided into two regions - Oberpfalz-Nord and Regensburg....
and, after the partition of this Gau

Gau (German)

A Gau is a German language term for a region within a country, often a former or actual province. It was used in medieval times, when it can be seen as roughly corresponding to an English language shire, and was revived as an administrative subdivision during the period of Nazi rule in Germany....
, Lower Bavarian Gauleiter from October 1, 1928 until 1929. From June 30, 1926 until early 1928 he was NSDAP Reichspropagandaleiter (NSDAP Reich Leader for Propaganda) and from January 1928 until December 1932 he was the Nazi Reichsorganisationsleiter (Reich Organization Leader). Gregor Strasser reorganized the whole NSDAP structure, both in its regional formation and its vertical management hierarchy. The Nazi Party became a strictly centralist organization with the party's own control machinery and high propaganda capability. Strasser's ideas for restructuring the Nazi Reich Organization Leadership had been carried into effect by service regulations called Politische Organisation - P.O. - (Political Organization - P.O.) of the NSDAP on July 15, 1932.

Strasser's organizational reforms

After 1925, Strasser's outstanding organizational skill helped the NSDAP to make a big step from a marginal South German splinter party to a nationwide mass party, appealing to the lower classes and their tendency towards socialism. Its membership increased from about 27,000 in 1925 to more than 800,000 in 1931. Strasser established the NSDAP in northern and western Germany as a strong political association which quickly attained a higher membership than Hitler's southern party section. Moreover he arranged for the foundation of the Berlin SA

Sturmabteilung

The , abbreviated SA, , functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party the Germany Nazism. They played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s....
(Stormtroopers) under Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Lower Silesia is to the northwest. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, Kingdom of Bohemia, Poland, Holy Roman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, Kingdom of Prussia, and later of unified German Reich....
n Nazi activist Kurt Daluege

Kurt Daluege

Kurt Daluege was an SS-Oberstgruppenf?hrer and Generaloberst der Ordnungspolizei, officer of the Central Reich Security Office and ruled the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia as Deputy Protector....
in March 1926. The party's own Foreign Organization (see NSDAP/AO

NSDAP/AO

The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization of the National Socialist German Workers Party . AO is the abbreviation of the German Compound Auslands-Organisation ....
) was formed on Strasser's initiative, and Dr. Hans Nieland

Hans Nieland

Hans Heinrich Nieland was a politician of the National Socialist German Workers Party and Lord Mayor of Dresden from 1940 until 1945....
was appointed its first leader on May 1, 1931. Together with his brother Otto, Strasser founded the Berlin Kampf-Verlag (Combat Publishing) arm in March 1926, which published among others the programmatic weekly journal Der Nationale Sozialist (The National Socialist) from 1926 until 1930.

The Strasser brothers

Strasser brothers

Strasserism refers to the strand of Nazism and neo-Nazism that called for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of fascism, particularly hostile to finance capitalism from an antisemitic basis, to be initiated alongside nationalism....
ruled the Berlin party organization unchallenged and developed an independent ideological profile from the south German party wing around Adolf Hitler. They advocated - at first together with Gregor Strasser's close collaborator in Rhineland

Rhineland

The Rhineland is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. After the collapse of the First French Empire in the early 19th century, the German-speaking regions at the middle and lower course of the Rhine were annexed to the kingdom of Prussia....
and Westphalia

Westphalia

Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Bielefeld, Bochum, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, M?nster, and Osnabr?ck and included in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony....
Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German people politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was one of German dictator Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers....
- an anti-capitalist

Anti-capitalism

Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system; however, there are also ideas which can be characterized as partially anti-capitalist in the sense that they only...
, social revolutionary course for NSDAP that was heavily affected by antisemitism and anti-Marxism

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Historically, the word communism has been used to refer to several types of communal social organization and their supporters, but, since the mid-19th century, the dominant school of communism in the world has been Marxism....
at the same time. With the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nordwest (Syndicate Northwest), a federation of north and west German NSDAP Gauleiters under his leadership (managing director was Joseph Goebbels) founded in 1925, Gregor Strasser had created an instrument to enforce the sociopolitical and economic ideas of the left NSDAP wing. But on February 14, 1926 Hitler asserted himself successfully against this "National Bolshevist

National Bolshevism

National Bolshevism is a political movement that claims to combine elements of nationalism and Bolshevism.National Bolshevism is often Anti-capitalism in tone, and sympathetic towards certain nationalist forms of communism and socialism....
" faction during the Bamberg

Bamberg

Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from getting near to Bamberg....
Leader Conference. This earned Hitler absolute leadership within the NSDAP. The disbandment of the syndicate was decreed by a directive from Munich on July 1, 1926.

Conflict with Hitler and death

The programmatic and personal rivalry with Adolf Hitler worsened dramatically when Reichskanzler

Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)

The head of government of the German Reich was called Reich Chancellor or short Chancellor from 1871 until 1945. This designation stems from the German chancellor tradition from the Middle Ages and the early modern era....
Kurt von Schleicher

Kurt von Schleicher

was a Germany general and the last Chancellor of Germany during the era of the Weimar Republic....
offered Strasser the vice-chancellorship and the office of the Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. This state had for centuries substantial influence on Germany and European history....
n Prime Minister in December 1932. Von Schleicher hoped to disunite the NSDAP with Strasser's help and to pull the left Nazis around Strasser over to his national conservative

National conservatism

National conservatism is a politics term used to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on "national interests and traditional social/ethical views" than standard conservatism, while not being nationalism or a far right approach....
side, 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. He continued acting as a publicist as he did before his disempowerment. From June 1931 until its ban on February 4, 1933 he published the weekly newspaper Die Schwarze Front (named after Otto Strasser

Otto Strasser

Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser was a Germany politician and 'left-wing' member of the Nazi Party party who rejected some of Adolf Hitler's ideas and less socialist economic tendencies....
's Black Front
Black Front

The Black Front was a group formed by Otto Strasser after his expulsion from the Nazi Party in 1930. Strasser believed the original anti-capitalist nature of the NSDAP had been betrayed by Adolf Hitler....
political organisation), which made little impact on contemporaries because of its small circulation (10,000 copies).

During the Nazi Party purge, which was called officially "Röhm
Ernst Röhm

Ernst Julius R?hm, was a Germany army officer and Nazism leader. He was a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung , the Nazi Party militia, and later was SA commander....
-Putsch" by the Nazi propaganda (see Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives

Gestapo

The was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Under the overall administration of the Schutzstaffel , it was administered by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and was considered a dual organization of the Sicherheitsdienst and also a suboffice of the Sicherheitspolizei ....
on June 30,1934. The assassins shot through a window into Strasser's cell, eventually killing him.

Fritz Günther von Tschirschky, one of Franz von Papen's staff members who has been kidnapped and taken to Gestapo headquarter, claimed to be witness of the murder. According to his memoirs Strasser was murdered in an adjoining cell in the basement by an SS hit squad shooting his temple and back of the head several times. Tschirschky himself couldn't watch the execution directly due to guards who blocked the way. But minutes later he saw guards carrying some bloody bags out. He concluded that "the murdered must have been dismembered shortly after the crime and his body parts carried outside."

Literature

Diebow, Hans: Gregor Strasser und der Nationalsozialismus. - Berlin : Tell-Verl., 1932/33. - 65 p.
Dixon, Joseph Murdock: Gregor Strasser and the organization of the Nazi Party, 1925-32. - V, 251 folios - (Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
, Calif., Phil. Diss., 1966)
Geismaier, Michael: Gregor Strasser. - Leipzig : Kittler, 1933. - 95 p. - (Maenner und Maechte)
Goderbauer-Marchner, Gabriele: Gregor Straßer und die Anfänge der NSDAP in Bayern, insbesondere in Niederbayern und Landshut. - (Munich University
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , also known as LMU, is a university in Munich and, with more than 44,000 students, is the second-largest university in Germany....
,thesis, 1986)
Kissenkoetter, Udo: Gregor Strasser und die NSDAP . - Stuttgart : Dt. Verl.-Anst., 1978. - 219 S. - (Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte ; 37) . - ISBN 3-421-01881-2. - (at the same time: Düsseldorf University
Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf

The Heinrich Heine University of D?sseldorf is a university in D?sseldorf, Germany. It is named after the German poet and political thinker Heinrich Heine, who was born in D?sseldorf in 1797....
, Diss., 1975)
Richardi, Hans-Günter: Hitler und seine Hintermänner : neue Fakten zur Frühgeschichte der NSDAP. - München : Süddeutscher Verl., 1991. - 446 p. - ISBN 3-7991-6508-8
Stachura, Peter D.: Der Fall Strasser : Gregor Strasser, Hitler and national socialism ; 1930 - 1932. - pp. 88-130 in: The shaping of the Nazi state. - London : Croom Helm, 1978. - 304 p. - ISBN 0-06-496492-2
Stachura, Peter D.: Gregor Strasser and the rise of Nazism. - London : Allen & Unwin, 1983. - XIV, 178 p. - ISBN 0-04-943027-0
Straßer, Bernhard: Gregor und Otto Strasser : Kurze Darst. ihrer Persönlichkeit u. ihres Wollens, hrsg. zum 20. Jahrestag d. dt. Bartholomäusnacht vom 30. Juni 1934. - Külsheim: Harald Stössel, 1954. - 16 p.

External links

Literature by and about Gregor Strasser in the catalogues of British Library
British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is one of the world's largest List of Research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; books, journals, newspapers, magazines, Sound recording, patents, databases, maps, stamps, Printmaking, drawings and much mor...
(), Library of Congress
Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
(), National Library of Germany ()
, article from Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica

The Encyclop?dia Britannica is a general English language encyclopedia published by Encyclop?dia Britannica, Inc., a privately held company....
, Premium Service, 2006
John Simkin: , Spartacus Schoolnet, London
, CBS
CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American radio network and television network. The name is derived from the initials of Columbia Broadcasting System, its former legal name....
mini-series "Hitler: The Rise of Evil", 2003, directed by Christian Duguay (born 1957 in Montreal
Montreal

Montreal, or Montr?al, is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada of Quebec and the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of the 100 largest municipalities in Canada by population....
)
tabular curriculum vitae of on the Berlin German Historical Museum
Deutsches Historisches Museum

The Deutsches Historisches Museum was founded in 1987 by the chancellor of Germany, Helmut Kohl and the mayor of Berlin, Eberhard Diepgen on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the founding of Berlin....
website (in German)

Gregor Strasser

Background, training, and military service

Career in the early NSDAP

Strasser's organizational reforms

Conflict with Hitler and death

See also

Literature

External links