5. Berghof attack in 1935
Although the debate over whether the SA was attempting to initiate a coup against Hitler with its leader, Ernst Rohm, replacing him as Chancellor is ongoing, there is no debate over the strike made by Hitler and the SS in the Night of the Long Knives, and the execution of Rohm and other SA leaders. One SA member, Heinrich Grunow, contacted Otto Strasser and the Black Front in the aftermath of the Night of the Long Knives, with a proposal to exact revenge. Grunow wanted to assassinate Hitler as he was being driven by his usual chauffeur at the time, Julius Schreck, to Berchtesgaden. The route to Hitler’s retreat was a winding, narrow road which offered concealment for an assassin at points where the car was forced to slow to speeds as low as ten miles per hour. With Strasser’s approval and support, Grunow concealed himself in one such location.
When Hitler’s car approached, Grunow fired three shots at the figure in the backseat of the car. According to Strasser, Grunow was convinced he had killed the Fuhrer and rather than face Gestapo arrest and torture, committed suicide. The person in the back of Hitler’s car was Julius Schreck, who had been hit in the jaw, the temple, and the chest and was quite dead. Hitler had decided that he wanted to drive himself on the fine day. There is another version of the Berghof road shooting incident, involving another SA assassin who was shot at and killed by Berchtesgaden guards, as related by Bridget Hitler, Adolf’s sister-in-law. What is unquestioned is that an assassination attempt occurred on the road to his retreat, and immediate steps to bolster security along the route were undertaken. Officially, the Nazis claimed that Julius Schreck died of sepsis from an infected tooth.