Walter Stennes

Walter Franz Maria Stennes (12 April 1895 – 19 May 1983) was a leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA, stormtroopers, or "brownshirts") of the Nazi Party in Berlin and the surrounding area. In August 1930 he led the Stennes Revolt against Adolf Hitler, the leader of the party, and Hitler's appointed regional head of the party in the Berlin area, Joseph Goebbels. The dispute was over Hitler's policies and practices in the use of the SA, and the underlying purpose of the paramilitary organization. Hitler quelled the revolt peacefully, but after a second rebellion in March–April 1931, the SA was purged and Stennes was expelled from the party. Stennes was born in 1895 to Fritz Stennes, a bailiff and German Army officer, and his wife, Louise. He was educated at the cadet school, an official army-run military academy, at Schloss Bensberg. In 1910, he transferred to the Royal Prussian Main Cadet School in Berlin-Lichterfelde. His classmates there included Hermann Göring and Gerhard Roßbach. After Stennes graduated in the summer of 1913, he entered officers' school. In August 1914 during World War I, he became a lieutenant with the 3rd Westphalian Infantry Regiment No. 16 in Belgium. Later on 23 August, he was wounded. In Flanders, he experienced the Christmas truce, where German and British front soldiers spontaneously fraternised, celebrating Christmas together. He was decorated several times during the war. In May 1915, he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class, and in June 1917, he earned the Knight's Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern. In 1918 he received the Lippe War Merit Cross, the Hanseatic Cross and the Silver Wound Badge. After leaving the army, Stennes held positions as a police captain and as a leader of the Freikorps, the volunteer paramilitary units made up largely of ex-servicemen. He was also an arms racketeer. Stennes joined the Nazi Party in 1927. He took over the leadership of the Sturmabteilung in the Berlin Gau (region), replacing Kurt Daluege, and was appointed regional commander-in-chief of the SA in eastern Germany on 30 September 1927.