Franz Pfeffer von Salomon


Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, also known as Franz von Pfeffer, was the first commander of the Sturmabteilung upon its re-establishment in 1925. Pfeffer was dismissed from his SA command in 1930 and from the Nazi Party in 1941. He died in 1968.

Biography

Pfeffer von Salomon was born as the oldest of seven children. He was from a noble family of the Lower Rhine. He had studied law prior to starting a military career. He was a Prussian Army veteran of the First World War and also a Freikorps member. He gained his reputation by organizing resistance groups to put an end to the French occupation of the Ruhr. He was Gauleiter in Upper Bavaria, and Heinrich Himmler was once his secretary.
Adolf Hitler gave Pfeffer command of the Sturmabteilung after he swore unconditional loyalty to Hitler following the Bamberg Conference of 1926. He was the first SA commander upon its re-establishment in 1925, following its temporary abolition in 1923 after the abortive Beer Hall Putsch.
Pfeffer was dismissed from his command in 1930, following disagreements with Hitler about the role of the SA, and because he had failed to prevent his fellow SA leader Walter Stennes from leading an SA revolt in Berlin and thereby briefly occupying the Nazi Party's offices there. After Pfeffer's dismissal, Hitler assumed personal supreme command of the SA, but summoned Ernst Röhm to return to Germany from South America to run the SA as its first Stabschef, since Hitler had no interest in doing so himself. He was expelled from the Party on 14 November 1941.
Pfeffer survived the Second World War and died in 1968. His brother, Friedrich Pfeffer von Salomon, was also a member in the SA and Nazi Party and served as the Gestapo leader in Kassel.

Awards and decorations