HEINRICH HIMMLER (1900-1945), German Nazi SS leader

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HEINRICH HIMMLER, 1900-1945), German Nazi leader, who was head of the dreaded SS (Schutzstaffel, also called the Blackshirts). Although he was pedantic, dogmatic, and dull, Himmler emerged under HITLER as second in actual power. His strength lay in a combination of unusual shrewdness, burning ambition, and servile loyalty to Hitler.
Himmler was born at Munich on Oct. 7, 1900, the son of a teacher. After brief military service in 1918, he tried to establish himself as an agronomist, joined a nationalist paramilitary unit, and participated in Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch of Nov. 8-9, 1923. Influenced by nazism and by the Artamans, an obscure sect advocating a Teutonic rural life, he turned to racism and romantic Teutonism. In 1929, Hitler appointed him leader of the SS, which was then still a small elite organization.
After Hitler's accession to power, Himmler began to expand the SS into a vast empire within the Nazi state. In 1933-1934 he took over the political police, converting it into a totalitarian secret police known as the Gestapo. He was also a leader in the subjugation of the SA (Storm Troopers), his major competitors within the Nazi party, in June 1934. Simultaneously, he started to build a system of concentration camps and created the nucleus of a military SS (Waffen SS). His appointment as chief of the entire German police system followed in June 1936.