Gregor Strasser Gregor Strasser ( also , see ß ) ( 31 May 1892 – 30 June 1934 ) was a German politician and prominent figure in the Nazi Party . He became a rival to Adolf Hitler , resigned from his political offices in late 1932 , and was murdered in 1934 , during the " Night of the Long Knives " . Early life and education . Gregor Strasser and his younger brother Otto were born into the family of a Catholic judicial officer who lived in the Upper Bavaria n market town of Geisenfeld . He attended the local Gymnasium ( grammar school ) and after his final examinations , served an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in the Lower Bavarian village of Frontenhausen from 1910 until 1914 . In 1914 he began to study pharmacy at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich , suspending his studies in the same year to enlist as a volunteer in the German Imperial Army . Strasser served in World War I , rising to the rank of First Lieutenant , and won the Iron Cross , First and Second Class . In 1918 , he resumed his studies at Friedrich - Alexander - University , Erlangen - Nuremberg . He passed his state examination in 1919 and in 1920 started work as a pharmacist in Landshut . Paramilitary and political career . In 1919 he and his brother Otto joined the right - wing " Freikorps " led by Franz Ritter von Epp . Gregor Strasser established and commanded the " Sturmbataillon Niederbayern " ( ) , with young Heinrich Himmler as his adjutant . By March 1920 , Strasser ' s Freikorps was ready to participate in the failed Kapp Putsch , whereas his brother Otto had turned to the left of the political spectrum and commanded the " Rote Hundertschaft " , a socialist paramilitary group , to combat this right - wing coup d ' état . In 1921 , Strasser ' s group joined forces with Hitler ' s Nazi Party . His leadership qualities were readily recognized and he was soon appointed as regional head of the SA in Lower Bavaria . In November 1923 , he took an active part in the miscarried Beer Hall Putsch . He was tried for high treason and in April 1924 was sentenced to one and a half years of confinement in a fortress — which was regarded as an honorable form of detention — in Landsberg Prison . After a few weeks , Strasser was released because on 4 May 1924 , he had been elected a member of the Bavarian Landtag for the Nazi - associated " Völkischer Block " . On 7 December 1924 , Strasser won a seat in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic for the " Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei " ( " German - Völkisch Freedom Party " ) . In both elections , Strasser could not run for the NSDAP , which was banned after the abortive coup . Strasser remained a member of the Reichstag until December 1932 . After the refoundation of the NSDAP by Adolf Hitler on 26 February 1925 , Strasser became the first Gauleiter of Lower Bavaria and Upper Palatinate . After the partition of this Gau , he was Gauleiter of Lower Bavaria from 1 October 1928 until 1929 . From 30 June 1926 until January 1928 , he was the NSDAP ' s national leader for propaganda . Strasser ' s organizational reforms . In January 1928 , Strasser became leader of the NSDAP ' s national organisation . He reorganised the party ' s structure , both in its regional formation and its vertical management hierarchy . The Nazi Party became a strictly centralist organization with the party ' s own control machinery and high capability for propaganda . Strasser ' s ideas were put into effect by service regulations called " Political Organization " on 15 July 1932 . After 1925 , Strasser ' s outstanding organizational skill helped the NSDAP to make a big step from a marginal South German splinter party to a nationwide mass party , appealing to the lower classes and their tendency towards socialism . Its membership increased from about 27 , 000 in 1925 to more than 800 , 000 in 1931 . Strasser established the NSDAP in northern and western Germany as a strong political association which quickly attained a higher membership than Hitler ' s southern party section . Moreover he arranged for the foundation of the Berlin SA under Upper Silesian Nazi activist Kurt Daluege in March 1926 . The party ' s own Foreign Organization ( see NSDAP / AO ) was formed on Strasser ' s initiative , and Dr . Hans Nieland was appointed its first leader on 1 May 1931 . Together with his brother Otto , Strasser founded the Berlin " Kampf - Verlag " ( " Combat Publishing " ) arm in March 1926 , which published among others the programmatic weekly journal " Der Nationale Sozialist " ( " The National Socialist " ) from 1926 until 1930 . The Strasser brothers ruled the Berlin party organization unchallenged and developed an independent ideological profile from the south German party wing around Adolf Hitler . They advocated — at first together with Gregor Strasser ' s close collaborator in Rhineland and Westphalia Joseph Goebbels — an anti - capitalist social revolutionary course for the NSDAP that at the same time was also strongly antisemitic and anti - Communist . In 1925 , Strasser founded the " Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nordwest " ( " Working Group Northwest " ) , a federation of north and west German NSDAP Gauleiters under his leadership ( with Goebbels as managing director ) ; it was an instrument to enforce the sociopolitical and economic ideas of the NSDAP left wing . But on 14 February 1926 , Hitler asserted himself successfully against this " National Bolshevist " faction during the Bamberg Conference . This earned Hitler absolute leadership within the NSDAP . The disbandment of the Working Group was decreed by a directive from Munich on 1 July 1926 . Conflict with Hitler and death . The programmatic and personal rivalry with Adolf Hitler worsened dramatically when Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher offered Strasser the offices of Vice - Chancellor and Prime Minister of Prussia in December 1932 . Schleicher hoped to disunite the NSDAP with Strasser ' s help and to pull the left - wing of the Nazi Party over to his " national conservative " side , so as to prevent a revolution or takeover by Hitler . The plan failed because of Hitler ' s intervention , and resulted in Strasser ' s resignation from all party positions . According to William L . Shirer , this move upset the very foundations of the Nazi party , and could have put an end to their quest for power . Strasser was still a very powerful figure in the region in which he had built up power , and could have mobilized support in the region to turn people against the NSDAP . Instead , Strasser tired of the political struggle as well as the intense campaigning and took a restorative holiday in Italy . Hitler seized upon this opportunity to remove all Party officials loyal to Strasser . All new or continuing Party officials were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the Führer ; this prevented any other influential Nazis from leading a break - away faction . Strasser continued acting as a publicist as he did before his disempowerment . From June 1931 until its ban on 4 February 1933 he published the weekly newspaper " Die Schwarze Front " ( named after Otto Strasser ' s " Black Front " political organisation ) , which made little impact on contemporaries because of its small circulation ( 10 , 000 copies ) . His involvement in politics did not end completely however , and he had a minor role in von Schleicher ' s downfall . On 4 January the Chancellor summoned the disaffected Strasser to visit President von Hindenburg . A few days later , Strasser expressed an interest in joining Schleicher ' s cabinet , which would significantly weaken the Nazi party . Schleicher was assured of Strasser ' s defection , and bragged to a visiting Austrian minister that the problem of the Nazi Party was solved and their rise had ceased . However , for some reason , Strasser had declined to join the cabinet . Schleicher had therefore failed to win over or divide the Nazis , and coupled with a morale - boosting election campaign in Lippe , Hitler set about definitively undermining Schleicher , now knowing he did not have Strasser ' s help . Strasser took no part in affairs during the Nazi takeover in 1933 , and had neither a Party or government position in the new regime . In 1934 , Hitler moved to eliminate all possible rivals and old enemies in and out of the Party . This purge was officially called the " " Röhm - Putsch " " , because it was claimed that SA chief Ernst Röhm had tried to overthrow Hitler , but is better known as the " Night of the Long Knives " . On 30 June 1934 , Strasser was arrested and killed on Hitler ' s personal order by the Berlin Gestapo . The assassins shot through a window into Strasser ' s cell killing him . Fritz von Tschirschky , an aide of Franz von Papen , who was also taken to Gestapo headquarters that day , claimed to be a witness to the murder . Tschirschky wrote that Strasser was murdered in an adjoining cell in the basement by an SS squad , which shot him in the temple and back of the head several times . Tschirschky could not watch the execution directly because guards were blocking the way . However , minutes later he saw guards carrying some bloody bags out . Tschirschky concluded that " the victim must have been dismembered shortly after the crime and his body parts carried outside . "