Gregor Strasser
Gregor Strasser (1892-1934) was an early leader of the Nazi Party, prominent in the left-wing faction favoring economic socialism. He was eventually killed by Adolf Hitler's orders in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives purge. His younger brother, Otto had been ejected from the Party and survived because he was not in Germany at the time of the purge.
A decorated soldier in the First World War, he first joined the Freikorps movement, and then the NazParty and the Sturmabteilung (SA). Imprisoned for participation in the Beer Hall Putsch, he was released early because he had been elected to the Reichstag, and briefly led the Party while Hitler remained in prison. In May 1924, after one and one half years, he was released due to having been elected to the Reichstag. During Adolf Hitler's imprisonment, along with Erich Ludendorff, he led the surrogate for the Nazi Party, the National Socialist German Freedom movement.[1]
He was briefly Organization Leader for the Party, but dismissed by Hitler in 1932.
Joseph Goebbels was one of his proteges, although he transferred his loyalty to Hitler.
References
- ↑ William Shirer (1960), The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon & Schuster, p. 114