Erhard Heiden (February 23, 1901-September 1933) was an early member of the Nazi Party and the third commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Heiden was a Nazi stormtrooper who, in 1925, joined a small stormtrooper bodyguard unit known as the Schutzstaffel. Heiden was an early advocate of separating the SS from its master organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), and in March 1927 he was appointed as the Reichsführer-SS in an attempt to keep the SS from being disbanded under SA desires. The Nazi swastika symbol The National Socialist German Workers Party ( German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the NSDAP or the Nazi Party was a political party that was led to power in Germany by Adolf Hitler in 1933. ... For other uses of the abbreviation SS, see SS (disambiguation) The Schutzstaffel (Protective Squadron), or SS, was a large paramilitary organization that belonged to the Nazi party. ... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Hitler addressing SA members in the late 1920s The Sturmabteilung (SA, German for Storm Division and is usually translated as stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organisation of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. ... Heinrich Himmler as the Reichsführer-SS Reichsführer-SS was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. ...

Under Heiden’s leadership the SS declined in membership from 1000 to 280, with SA desires made public that the SS should be disbanded. As Heiden attempted to keep the tiny group from going under, he hired a young chicken farmer, named Heinrich Himmler, to serve as his deputy. Heiden regarded Himmler as a “keen young clerk” but did not see him as leadership material. Nevertheless, in 1929 Heiden stepped down as commander of the SS and allowed Himmler to succeed him. He faded into obscurity as the SS grew to unprecedented levels with Heinrich Himmler, who had once been an office clerk under Heiden, became one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. Heinrich Himmler (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...