He was wounded in action three times and received the Iron Cross First Class. After the war, he continued his military career as a captain in the Reichswehr and provided assistance to Franz Ritter von Epp 's Freikorps. Using his military connections, he helped build up several paramilitary groups in service of Hitler, one of which became the SA.
In , he took part in Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch to seize governmental power in Munich and was given a suspended prison sentence. He resigned from all positions and emigrated to Bolivia , where he served as an advisor to the Bolivian Army.
He reorganised the SA, which numbered over a million members, and continued its campaign of political violence against communists, rival political parties, Jews and other groups deemed hostile to the Nazi agenda. Nevertheless, he retained the trust of Hitler for a time.
He also demanded more power for the SA, which the Reichswehr saw as a growing threat to its position. Hitler came to see his long-time ally as a rival and liability, and made the decision to eliminate him with the assistance of SS leaders Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on 12 March The following month, he was seriously wounded in the face at Chanot Wood in Lorraine and carried the scars for the rest of his life.
While crowds cheered, egged on by Gregor Strasser shouting "Heil" , Hitler's armed assembly, wearing red swastika armbands, encountered Bavarian State Policemen, who were prepared to counter the Putsch. By the end of the gunfire, fourteen Nazis and four policemen had been killed; the putsch had failed and the Nazis' first bid for power had lasted less than twenty-four hours.
