One of Hitler's most loyal deputies, for example, was Rudolf Hess, who had been imprisoned with Hitler in 1923, following the Nazis' unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government - the famous Beer Hall Putsch. After their release from prison in 1924, the two enjoyed a close personal relationship that Hess called a "most beautiful human experience," lasting until Hitler's suicide in 1945.
Hess' contemporaries had revealing nicknames for the sensitive, effeminate man, like "Fraulein Hess," "Fraulein Paula," and "Black Emma." Although Hess eventually married - at Hitler's suggestion - his wife later complained that her life with him was much like that of a "convent schoolgirl."
Also prominent among Hitler's intimates was Ernst Rohm, commander of the S.A. - the Nazi storm troopers. Rohm, a tough, brawny man who had been an army officer during World War I, became part of Hitler's inner circle in 1919, when the future fuhrer began venturing into politics. Although Rohm left the S.A. for a few years over differences with Hitler - Rohm wanted the storm troopers to be independent of the party - in 1931 he was invited back by Hitler and once again firmly entrenched in power.
Unlike others in the Nazi Party, Rohm was openly homosexual, admitting to associates that he was "far from unhappy" about his sexual orientation. He frequented gay bars, belonged to a homosexual organization called the League for Human Rights, and publicly advocated the repeal of Paragraph 175. An anonymous 1932 article called "National Socialism and Inversion" has been credited to Rohm's influence (or even authorship); the article stated that if Nazi Party members performed their official duties well, they were entitled to private lives of "creative eroticism" and "loving homosexual relationship."
Rohm established a kind of gay network within the S.A., assigning prominent posts to gay friends and lovers. Among Rohm's "sweethearts" was Edmund Heines, whom Rohm appointed first as his deputy and later as leader of the Munich branch of the S.A. Another of Rohm's favorites was Karl Ernst, who was nicknamed "Frau Rohrbein" for his intimate friendship with Paul Rohrbein, Berlin's S.A. commander. After meeting Rohm, Ernst had a meteoric rise from a leadership position in the S.A. to a seat in the Reichstag, Germany's legislative body.
Rohm and his close-knit circle - dubbed in a Munich paper the "Brotherhood of Poofs" - had powerful, homophobic enemies who convinced Hitler that Rohm was a threat. These included Joseph Goebbels, head of Nazi propaganda, and Paul Schultz, captain of the Berlin S.A., who warned Hitler of the danger in "the employment of morally objectionable persons in positions of authority."
