If Ernst Röhm lived now in the UK, he’d be a Brexiteer. If he lived in the US, a Trump supporter; in Australia, a Pauline Hanson voter. He was the leader of the Nazi Sturmabteilung, storm division. It was also known as the brownshirts and stormtroopers. It played an instrumental role in the Nazi’s quest for power.

In the tempestuous nineteen-twenties, it protected Nazi leaders at rallies and other public events. The Stormtroopers’ also went on the offensive, provoking fights with Communists.

Röhm’s life was in the military. He was the youngest of three, born on 28 November 1887 in Munich. Germany had an empire then, the Kaiser was head of state and Bavaria had a royal family. The Germany of Röhm’s childhood and adulthood was stable and predictable.

Röhm joined the army when he was 19 and thrived. He became an officer and fought in World War One. Early in the conflict, late September 1914, he was wounded; the upper part of his nose was blown away. Plastic surgery was in its infancy then and Röhm was permanently scarred. The wound left him with breathing problems for the rest of his life. He suffered from other ailments throughout his life in contrast to the Nazis’ extollment of the virtues of the physical ideal.

Röhm lived with the inner tension of being homosexual in a society that idealised male machismo and he was a member of a puritanical party that persecuted gay people. He spent his life in a military and para-military organisation, yet despite an authoritarian streak, he was headstrong and unafraid to go his own way.

Röhm became persona non-grata to the Nazis after he was forced to suicide in July 1934. He was accused of planning a coup to overthrow the Hitler-led government.

Hancock provides ample evidence this was not the case. Many documents and other primary sources about Röhm were destroyed because of his “disgrace”. Despite this, she has written an intensive, detailed and interesting scholarly biography.

Hancock gives an objective insight into one of the creators of the Nazi party who was a friend of Hitler’s. It gives us an understanding, not just of Röhm, but also others like him. Their yearning for days gone by, never to be recovered, is evident today, as are the dangers of such thinking. ( )