The Nazi adoption of the phrase for an upcoming violent event was well known even to the foreign press, with the 2 August 1932 issue of The Times reporting that: Prominent Nazi leaders have played upon the imaginations of their followers..with such phrases as the night of the long knives and a vengeance for every Nazi killed.[79]. Hitler ordered both Heines and his partner taken outside the hotel and shot. 89.93% voted in favour of Hitler. The leaders of the SA were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiesse, Bavaria. It will first explore this topic in chronological order, from the Reichstag Fire through to the death of President Hindenburg, and then explore it thematically in the last section. On the 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed as chancellor of the Weimar Republic. If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule. , [84], The Night of the Long Knives represented a triumph for Hitler, and a turning point for the German government. [23] Himmler envied the independence and power of the SA, although by this time he and Heydrich had already begun restructuring the SS from a bodyguard formation for Nazi leaders (and a subset of the SA) into its own independent elite corps, one loyal to both himself and Hitler. They used any space they could get their hands on to create temporary camps. Night Of The Long Knives: Hitler's Purge Of The Nazi Party [64] One retired captain, Erwin Planck, seemed to realize this: "If you look on without lifting a finger", he said to his friend, General Werner von Fritsch, "you will meet the same fate sooner or later. Rhm left the Reichswehr in 1923 and later became commander of the SA. The elections were neither free or fair. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused. Following the purge, the Nazi's sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and . On 30 April 1945, Hitler took his own life in his bunker underneath the Reich chancellery in Berlin. The humbling of the SA ended the threat it had posed to the army but, by standing by Hitler during the purge, the army bound itself more tightly to the Nazi regime. Hence, the Freikorps were in opposition to the new Weimar Republic, which was born as a result of the November Revolution, and whose founders were contemptuously called "November criminals". Germany feared revolution. Lippert was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.[50]. [21] Brning fled to the Netherlands while Schleicher dismissed the tip-off as a bad practical joke. The atmosphere of terror that had followed the Reichstag Fire, and Hindenburgs and von Papens support, made the proposal seem legitimate and, to some, necessary. The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. 2 Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975), 82. Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". On the 31 January 1933, Hitler, conscious of his lack of a majority in the Reichstag, immediately called for new elections to try and strengthen his position. The Nazis used the guise of moderationto conceal their rapid consolidation of power. Kurt von Schleicher's stepdaughter received 250 marks per month up to the age of 21, and the son of General von Bredow received a monthly allowance of 150 marks.[59]. By the end of it, Hitler's party had been shaken by a major crisis, and the long knives were put quietly back in their box while all the Fhrer kept out was a wary ear. Updates? Over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. He was now a dictator. [h], The action Hitler took would not only defang Rhm and the SA as a potential threat to Hitler's personal control of the Nazi Party, but would also serve to strengthen his relationship with the Wehrmacht the German armed forces which had long considered the SA to be their primary rival, the SA at times outnumbering the military in manpower.[10]. [72] In a speech given on 3 January 1935, at the Berlin State Opera, Hitler stated that Schleicher and Bredow had been shot "in error" on the basis of false information, and that their names were to be restored to the honour rolls of their regiments at once. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach. [69] Finally, Hammerstein and Mackensen asked that Hindenburg reorganize the government by firing Baron Konstantin von Neurath, Robert Ley, Hermann Gring, Werner von Blomberg, Joseph Goebbels and Richard Walther Darr from the Cabinet. government, under President Hindenburg. [4] The violent confrontations between the two contributed to the destabilization of the Weimar Republic. On 19 April 1943, the beginning of the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto was met with organised armed resistance by its residents. This meant, as well as removing other personal freedoms, that the Nazis could now imprison their political opposition for an indefinite period for any, or no, reason. Given that the purge claimed the lives of so many prominent Germans, it could hardly be kept secret. They will . Civil Service While all of these men were veterans of the Nazi movement, only Rhm continued to demonstrate his independence from, rather than his loyalty to, Adolf Hitler. However, following Hitler being elected chancellor, the SA, and particularly Rhm, were keen to continue the revolution and replace the traditional conservative elite with Nazis. The Night of the Long Knives. Sixty years ago today, Harold Macmillan carried out a cabinet reshuffle which became known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'. Additionally, Hitler was uncomfortable with Rhm's outspoken support for a "second revolution" to redistribute wealth. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. Originally designed and developed by the London Jewish Cultural Centre. [72] Fritsch and Blomberg suddenly now claimed at the end of 1934 that as army officers they could not stand the exceedingly violent press attacks on Schleicher and Bredow that had been going on since July, which portrayed them as the vilest traitors, working against the Fatherland in the pay of France. The Party had generally been aligned with the Social Democrats and Catholic Church during the rise of Nazism, being critical of Nazi ideology, but voting nonetheless for the Enabling Act of 1933 which granted Hitler dictatorial authority. People could be imprisoned for any or no reason. Let the nation know that its existence which depends on its internal order and security cannot be threatened with impunity by anyone! Despite some initial efforts by local prosecutors to take legal action against those who carried out the murders, which the regime rapidly quashed, it appeared that no law would constrain Hitler in his use of power. by Gring and Himmler, who gave Hitler news of Rhm organising a potential We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. When the Nazi regime did not take such steps, those who had expected an economic as well as a political revolution were disillusioned. You were murdered June 30-July 2, 1934, the Night of the Long Knives. The SA traced its dramatic rise in numbers in part to the onset of the Great Depression, when many German citizens lost both their jobs and their faith in traditional institutions. NHS services across England will face major disruption throughout today as nurses walk out in a 28-hour strike over pay. The 'Night of the Long Knives' is a name given to an internal purge within the National Socialist movement in mid-1934. It's helped us to become more accustomed to acts of grim self-interested political butchery; but for those witnessing these events as they happened, they were simply unprecedented. The generals, whose chief spokesman was the minister of defense, Werner von Blomberg, were certainly impressed by the efficiency with which Rhm and his SA clique had been eliminated. The Night of the Long Knives (in addition to Hindenburgs deatha few months later) helped Hitler and the Nazi Party to consolidate absolute power in Germany by removing their political opposition. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. [47], Rhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison[j] in Munich, while Hitler considered his future. The Night of the Long Knives - Jewish Virtual Library Omissions? [2] The purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the military for Hitler. The process primarily took place between 1933-1934. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived . This also lead to the Oath Of Loyalty which was. This included Vice-Chancellor Papen and those in his immediate circle. [m] Years later, in November 1945, while being interviewed by psychologist Gustave Gilbert in his cell during the Nuremberg trials, Gring angrily justified the killings to Gilbert, "It's a damn good thing I wiped them out, or they would have wiped us out!"[85]. The SA and the SS had also been on a month long campaign of violence to scare or imprison other opponents to the party. The Night of the Long Knives. Hitler's Purge: The Night of the Long Knives Explained 8. This resource hasn't been reviewed yet. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. Hitler claimed that 61 had been executed while 13 had been shot resisting arrest and three had committed suicide. SA violence in Prussia gravely concerned Gring. [28] Hitler had hesitated for months in moving against Rhm, in part due to Rhm's visibility as the leader of a national militia with millions of members. [7] Complaints of "overbearing and loutish" behaviour by stormtroopers became common by the middle of 1933. Although many Germans approached the official news of the events as described by Joseph Goebbels with a great deal of scepticism, many others took the regime at its word, and believed that Hitler had saved Germany from a descent into chaos. The strike, which will end just before midnight, comes after a High Court . The news of it was received with consternation and disgust in the other European capitals, but the shock was greatest in Rome. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. For new Germany unit - 1890-1945. [68] Hammerstein, who was a close friend of Schleicher, had been much offended at Schleicher's funeral when the SS refused to allow him to attend the service and confiscated the wreaths that the mourners had brought. Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen only narrowly escaped inclusion among the victims, and he was dismissed from the vice-chancellorship three days later (July 3). Source starter, video introducing the night of the long knives, source analysis assessing causes and consequences of the night of the long knives, describe 4 mark question built in and overall judgement building on the learning sequence of the most significant reason Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship. Just two months later, on 14 July 1933 the Nazis used the Enabling Act to ban all political parties except the Nazi Party. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to a dictatorship. of any opponents, who were be framed as traitors to the republic. The Night of the Long Knives was the least important factor, as it did no help much towards Hitler's consolidation of power. After this date, the SS lead by Heinrich Himmler was to become far more powerful in Nazi Germany. Hitler entitled the purge the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a reference to the lyrics from a popular Nazi song. The Night of Long Knives, one of most noteworthy events during Hitler's rule, was a purge that occurred on the 30th June 1934. . Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers," the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party , was then given the choice of suicide or murder. [12] Although nicknamed the "Rubber Lion" by some of his critics in the army for his devotion to Hitler, Blomberg was not a Nazi, and therefore represented a bridge between the army and the party. IRA's Night of Long Knives' part in peace process - IrishCentral.com What were the consquence of the night of the long knives June - Answers However, soon after the purge Hitler himself would name the events the "Night of the long knives" in a public speech on 13 July 1934 defending the actions (despite the violence taking place over several days). Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. On 25 April 1933, the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities was issued, restricting the number of Jewish students. In 1933, up to 200,000 people were seized and imprisoned by the SA and the SS. The speed and scale of the reshuffle caused it to be associated by its critics with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany . In addition to this, there was a mutual dislike between the traditional conservative elite who maintained many key positions in the government and the army during the first years of the Third Reich and the SA. This fear was [l] Luise Solmitz, a Hamburg schoolteacher, echoed the sentiments of many Germans when she cited Hitler's "personal courage, decisiveness and effectiveness" in her private diary. [56] Germany's legal establishment further capitulated to the regime when the country's leading legal scholar, Carl Schmitt, wrote an article defending Hitler's 13 July speech. As the stormtroopers were hustled off to prison, Hitler assembled a large group of SS and regular police, and departed for the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee, where Ernst Rhm and his followers were staying.[36]. The Gestapo arrested and later executed Papen's close associate Edgar Jung, the author of Papen's Marburg speech, and disposed of his body by dumping it in a ditch. On 1 April 1933, the Nazi Party led a nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses across Germany. Gring instructed police stations to burn "all documents concerning the action of the past two days". [34], At about 04:30 on 30 June 1934, Hitler and his entourage flew to Munich. Despite this improvement, the Nazis still did not command a majority in the Reichstag. [53][54], Wanting to present the massacre as legally sanctioned, Hitler had the cabinet approve a measure on 3 July that declared, "The measures taken on June 30, July 1 and 2 to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State. These acts removed peoples ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. [70] It is noteworthy that even those officers who were most offended by the killings, like Hammerstein and Mackensen, did not blame the purge on Hitler, whom they wanted to see continue as Chancellor; they at most wanted a reorganization of the Cabinet to remove some of Hitler's more radical followers. Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Gring at 10:00 with the codeword Kolibri to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims. The army almost unanimously applauded the Night of the Long Knives, even though the generals Kurt von Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow were among the victims. Second, German Pres. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. On the 5 March 1933, the elections took place, with an extremely high turnout of 89%. First was his old comrade Ernst Rhm, chief of staff of the SA (Sturmabteilung; German: Assault Division), or Brownshirts. coup On 15 April 1945, Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated by the British Army. Many of those that were harassed by the SA and the SS or imprisoned in camps were terrified to speak out about their ordeal fearing that they would be further abused or re-imprisoned. info)), or the Rhm purge (German: Rhm-Putsch), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: Unternehmen Kolibri), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. [69] The memo asked that Hindenburg instead create a directorate to rule Germany, comprising the Chancellor (who was not named), General Werner von Fritsch as Vice-Chancellor, Hammerstein as Minister of Defense, the Minister for National Economy (also unnamed), and Rudolf Nadolny as Foreign Minister. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Rhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments. Corrections? "[14], Despite such hostility between the brownshirts and the regular army, Blomberg and others in the military saw the SA as a source of raw recruits for an enlarged and revitalized army. The camps were brutal and had extremely unsanitary conditions. Whilst the purge focused on the SA, the Nazis also used the event to eliminate other political opponents, such as the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. One key example of an event posed as moderate was the Night of Long Knives. Your Excellency has thrice before saved Germany from foundering, at Tannenberg, at the end of the War and at the moment of your election as Reich President. [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. The Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies.[a]. With the army limited by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand soldiers, its leaders watched anxiously as membership in the SA surpassed three million men by the beginning of 1934. Hitler shouted at Schneidhuber and accused him of treachery. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. The trial of Van der Lubbe following the Reichstag fire. [69], Hindenburg never responded to the memo, and it remains unclear whether he even saw it, as Otto Meiner, who decided that his future was aligned with the Nazis, may not have passed it along. He lifted his arm in the Nazi salute and called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany. As the SA were known for being violent and unruly, many saw this as a legitimate move by the government to ensure public order. "[63] The statements that Schleicher had been killed because he wanted to partition Poland with the Soviet Union were later published in the Polish White Book of 1939, which was a collection of diplomatic documents detailing GermanPolish relations up to the outbreak of the war. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. [31] On 27 June, Hitler moved to secure the army's cooperation. The Night of Long Knives, also known as the Rhm Putsch, was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from 30 June 1934 to 2 July 1934. After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill. . 1 Quoted in Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 37-38. They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. consolidate Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. This continued when a young Dutchcommunist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime. And realize that this is Germany that was a Rechtsstaat, the Germans always say, a state with laws. It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. Rhm was given the nickname "The Machine Gun King of Bavaria" in the early 1920s, since he was responsible for storing and issuing illegal machine guns to the Bavarian Freikorps units. ", Coincidentally, Hitler had been incarcerated at. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. In reality, the laws that the Nazis put forward secured their future as the sole ruling party in Germany. Hitler arrived and personally placed Rhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. He stated that 61 people had been executed and 13 had committed suicide. Mussolini used the affair occasioned by the murder of Giacomo Matteotti as an example of the kind of trouble unruly followers could cause a dictator. This hysteria helped to turn the public against the communists, one of the Nazis main opponents, and 4000 people were imprisoned. [42] The Gestapo also murdered Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen associate. "A chancellor", he wrote, "sentences and shoots members of his own private army! Its membership plummeted from 2.9 million in August 1934 to 1.2 million in April 1938. Religion in Dracula. Many of those killed in the purge were leaders of the SA, the best-known being Rhm himself, the SA's chief of staff and one of Hitler's longtime supporters and allies. The Night of the Long Knives - the Education Forum Ernst Rhm was murdered in the event known as the Rhm Putsch, or the Night of Long Knives. [62] General von Reichenau went so far as to publicly give credence to the lie that Schleicher had been plotting to overthrow the government. Gestapo officers attached to the SS unit shot Papen's secretary Herbert von Bose without bothering to arrest him first. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent four army divisions up the Brenner Pass and to the Carinthian frontier, and the Italian press vehemently denounced German imperialism and bad faith. With instructions from Berlin and with active help from the German legation in Vienna, Austrian Nazis on July 25, 1934, tried to take over their countrys government by an insurrectionary putsch. Having earlier imprisoned or exiled prominent Social Democrats and Communists, Hitler used the occasion to move against conservatives he considered unreliable. An atmosphere of panic and terror followed the event. To take control of cultural policy, the Nazis appointed Joseph Goebbels as Minister for Public Engagement and Propaganda on the 13 March 1933. [25] Neurath's manoeuvre to put pressure on Hitler paid off, with Mussolini agreeing to the request (Neurath was a former ambassador to Italy, and knew Mussolini well). Many were terrified of voting of at all, and many turned to voting for the Nazi Party out of fear for their own safety. The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). Night of the Long Knives: Jonathan Petropoulos [40] Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. Blomberg, Hitler and Goebbels. Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Excellency, save Germany for the fourth time! The biggest threat to Hitler was Ernst Rhm. How Night Of Long Knives Affected Hitler's Rise To Power

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