From 1931 to 1934, Heines served as an SA leader in Silesia while simultaneously working as deputy to Ernst Röhm, the commander of the SA and a close friend of Hitler. Heines had developed a reputation for brutality as an enforcer of the SA, known for personally killing political opponents of the NSDAP despite his high-ranking status. In his diaries, Joseph Goebbels described Heines as "an unbalanced person, full of storm and urge, a child's head", attributing his violent nature to his background.