Victor Lutze. Commander of the SA Storm Troops in Magdeburg 1936

Victor Lutze. Commander of the SA Storm Troops in Magdeburg 1936

I found this archive of previously unknown negatives on the website of a German store that sells wartime memorabilia. Each negative was stored in a special paper envelope with a number stamped on it, which immediately intrigued me. Only 34 negatives from this archive have survived to date, but judging by the numbering on the envelopes, many more photographs existed. Clearly, the creator of the archive was a professional photographer who worked for a newspaper or one of the Nazi Party's organizations.

The photographs in this archive depict an official NSDAP event, likely the opening ceremony of a new SA memorial in Magdeburg. The stele-shaped monument was located in front of Magdeburg Cathedral, to the west of the north tower on the south side of Cathedral Square in the Old Town. The monumental memorial consisted of an 18-meter-tall pedestal with a rectangular base. On top of the pedestal stood an eagle facing north with figures of several SA soldiers beneath its wings and body. This image symbolized SA soldiers under the protection of the Imperial Eagle. The memorial’s grand opening took place on February 23, 1936. The event was attended by 10,000 people from various Nazi units. In addition to the SA, participants included units of the SS, the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), the Hitler Youth, the Imperial Labor Service (RAD), the German Red Cross (DRK), and the Wehrmacht. The commander of the SA storm troopers, Viktor Lutze, led the event.

Victor Lutze (December 28, 1890–May 2, 1943) was an active Nazi Party official and commander of the Sturmabteilung (SA) stormtroopers. Born in Beverbergen, Westphalia, in 1890, Lutze served in the Reichspost from 1907 until he joined the Prussian Army. In 1912, he served in the 55th Infantry Regiment. During World War I, he fought with the 369th and 15th Reserve Infantry Regiments as a platoon leader and company commander. He was seriously wounded in action and lost an eye. After being discharged in 1919 with the rank of Oberleutnant, Lutze returned to the postal service and later worked as a salesman and manager.

In 1922, he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), and in 1923, he joined the Stormtroopers. Within three years, by 1926, Lutze had become the deputy Gauleiter of Germany’s largest industrial region, the Ruhr. His organization of the Ruhr SA served as a model for other regions. He subsequently became a close associate of Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, the Supreme Leader of the SA from 1926 to 1930. Together, they defined the structure of the entire organization. In September 1930, Lutze became a member of the Reichstag.

In October 1931, Röhm organized a massive rally in Braunschweig attended by 100,000 SA and SS members to demonstrate their strength and loyalty to Adolf Hitler. During the rally, the SA reaffirmed their loyalty to Hitler, who, in turn, expanded the SA by establishing 24 new Standarten, or regiment-sized units. Hitler never forgot Lutze's display of loyalty. Lutze then rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming an Obergruppenführer in the SA by 1933.

Lutze played an important role in the "Night of the Long Knives" (German: Nacht der langen Messer)—Hitler’s purge of the SA leadership between June 30 and July 2, 1934. At the instigation of Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler ordered a series of extrajudicial political executions. It was Lutze who informed Hitler of Ernst Röhm’s alleged anti-regime activities at that time. In preparation for the purge, Heinrich Himmler and his deputy Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SS Security Service (SD), compiled a dossier of fabricated evidence suggesting that Röhm was planning to overthrow Hitler. Meanwhile, Göring, Himmler, Heydrich, and Lutze compiled lists of those to be eliminated, beginning with the seven highest-ranking SA officers and including many others. Eighty-five victims have been identified, but estimates suggest that the total number of those killed reached 200. Nazi propaganda portrayed these killings as a preventive measure against an alleged coup by the SA under Röhm’s leadership.

Following the purge, Lutze succeeded Röhm as Chief of Staff of the SA. However, the SA no longer played as prominent a role in the party as it had in its early days. One of Lutze’s main tasks was to oversee the rapid downsizing of the SA. On June 30, 1934, Hitler issued Lutze a twelve-point directive aimed at purging and reorganizing the SA. On July 20, 1934, Lutze was appointed Reichsleiter, the second-highest political rank in the Nazi Party and Röhm’s former position. American journalist William L. Shirer, who attended the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg in September 1934, described Lutze as having a piercingly unpleasant voice.

The SA's next notable role was assisting the SS in carrying out "Kristallnacht" in November 1938. Almost immediately afterward, in January 1939, the SA's role was reduced to that of a training school for the armed forces. In September 1939, with the outbreak of World War II in Europe, the SA lost most of its remaining members, who were drafted into the Wehrmacht. However, Lutze retained his position in the weakened SA and his seat in the Reichstag until his death.

Lutze’s mysterious and absurd death has given rise to many legends. According to the official account, on May 1, 1943, Lutze and his family were driving on the Reichsautobahn toward Berlin when the car crashed. His son, Victor Jr., was driving. At 2:30 p.m., near Michendorf, they were involved in an accident. The cause was either pedestrians suddenly stepping into the road or the driver falling asleep at the wheel. Lutze was seriously injured in the accident, and his eldest daughter, Inge, died at the scene. The only person unharmed was Victor Jr., the driver. Despite intensive treatment from renowned surgeons Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Dr. Otto Nordmann (the Lutze family’s personal physician), and Dr. Werner Forsmann, Lutze died of a collapsed lung during surgery at Potsdam City Hospital the following evening at 8:30 p.m. At the time of the accident, Viktor Lutze was 52 years old.