A Simply Superb Early 1933 SA 'Rohm Erased' Dagger by E. Pack & Sohn In Such Fine Condition It Is Unlikely To Be Improved Upon By Finding a Better Example

Early SA dagger by E. Pack
A stunning example of a very early 1933 SA dagger, especially considering it was likely worn by an SA member for upwards of 10 years, made by the famous 'Rohm' SA Honour Dagger maker Ernst Pack & Sohn. All nickel fittings with anodised scabbard. Complete with an early leather and nickel hanger how it should be. The blade is in very good condition with a lot of original polish and crossgrain and in most part mirror bright, with just the very usual wear marks created by the retaining spring in the scabbard. The reverse side had the Ernst Rohm dedication that was ordered removed after his execution for fabricated treason.

A very fine piece indeed, a stunning example that can elevate every collection.

From the Sturmabteilung gruppe, in Nordmark. Nm SA der NSDAP Gruppe Nordmark made by Ernst Packe Solingen. Group Nordmark was part of the SA-Obergruppe II { Hannover } Group leader Viktor Lutze
SA group North Sea (provisionally in command unit with the upper group, consisting of the previous group North Sea and the subgroup Hamburg),
SA Group Lower Saxony,

SA group Nordmark (without subgroup Hamburg). Excellent blade with traditional obverse motto 'Alles Fur Deutchland' It has very good professional jeweller grade, Rohm removal. In order to remove its original Ernst Rohm 'Honour' dedication on the reverse side of the blade in June 1934. This dagger was used by one of Hitler's earliest 'Old Guard' 'Brownshirt' Stormtroopers and at one time it had a rare loyalty inscription dedicated to the SA leader Ernst Rohm.

Ernst Julius Günther Röhm was a German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. As one of the members of its predecessor, the German Workers' Party, he was a close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler and a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Storm Battalion"), the Nazi Party's militia, and later was its commander. This Rohm 'Honour Dagger' was and one of only 4,600 made for SA Gruppe Nordmark, Nm. He who was one of Hitler's most loyal and faithful of followers. However, due to the alleged conspiracy against Hitler by Röhm that was simply invented by the psychotic Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS Rohm, alongside his senior staff, was executed in a classic putsch, in an event known as 'The Night of the Long Knives'. After this slaughter of Rohm and his senior staff the owners of so called Rohm Honour Daggers were ordered to remove the name of Rohm and its dedication on the dagger's blade removed immediately. This is one of those rare early daggers.
The SA evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement of the post-WWI years. The Freikorps were nationalistic organisations primarily composed of disaffected, disenchanted, and angry German combat veterans who believed that their government had betrayed Germany and sold them out by surrendering and submitting to the humiliating terms of the Versailles Treaty. The Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic. Ernst Röhm was commander of the Bavarian Freikorps and was given the nickname "The Machine Gun King of Bavaria" because he was responsible for storing and issuing illegal machine guns to Freikorps units in Bavaria. He later became commander of the SA. During the 1920s and 1930s the SA functioned as a private militia that Hitler used to intimidate rivals and disrupt the meetings of competing political parties, especially those of the Social Democrats and the Communists. Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers", the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists.The violent confrontations between the two groups contributed to the destabilisation of Germany's inter-war experiment with democracy, the Weimar Republic. In June 1932, one of the worst months of political violence, there were over 400 street battles, resulting in 82 deaths.This very destabilisation had been crucial in Hitler's rise to power, however, not least because it convinced many Germans that once Hitler became chancellor, the endemic street violence would end.

When provided with so-called 'evidence' of Röhm's conspiracy and treason Hitler initially refused to believe the dossier provided by Himler's protégé, Heydrich, as he had liked Röhm and always believed him loyal. Röhm had been one of his first supporters and, without his ability to obtain army funds in the early days of the movement, it is unlikely that the Nazis would have ever become established. The SA under Röhm's leadership had also played a vital role in destroying the opposition during the elections of 1932 and 1933. However, Adolf Hitler had his own reasons for wanting Röhm removed. Powerful supporters of Hitler had been complaining about Röhm for some time. The generals were fearful due to knowing Röhm's desire to have the SA, a force of over 3 million men, absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership. Further, reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA members, gave the army commanders even more concern. Industrialists, who had provided the funds for the Nazi victory, were unhappy with Röhm's socialistic views on the economy, bearing in mind the entire Third Reich, so-called 'Nazi' hierarchy, short for National Socialist Worker's Party, was an extreme 'left wing' socialist organisation, and his claims that the real revolution had still to take place. Only Hitler's ally, Mussolini and the Italian's were extreme 'right wing', and therefore Fascist's, a most frequent and common historical mistake.

Matters came to a head in June 1934 when President von Hindenburg, who had the complete loyalty of the Army, informed Hitler that if he didn't move to curb the SA then Hindenburg would dissolve the Government and declare martial law. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies.

At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, with high estimates running from 700 to 1,000. More than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. The purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the Wehrmacht for Hitler. It also provided a legal grounding for the Nazi regime, as the German courts and cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extrajudicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as the supreme administrator of justice of the German people, as he put it in his July 13 speech to the Reichstag.

Before its execution, its planners sometimes referred to the purge as Hummingbird, the codeword used to send the execution squads into action on the day of the purge. The codename for the operation appears to have been chosen arbitrarily. The phrase "Night of the Long Knives" in the German language predates the killings and refers generally to acts of vengeance.
After the purge the organization of the SA Sturmabeitlung continued, but was from then on subordinate to Himmler's SS, where before it was superior to the SS. This dagger is in jolly good order for its age, the fittings are very good indeed, in solid nickel, and the scabbard has its highly distinctive anodised scabbard.

Code: 26021