[34], At about 04:30 on 30 June 1934, Hitler and his entourage flew to Munich. Hitler formally adopted this title in April 1942, thus placing himself above the reach of the law de jure and de facto. With Hitler's arrival in Bad Wiessee between 06:00 and 07:00, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. The S.A. were becoming lawless by the early 1930's and were causing some Germans to turn against the Nazis. These acts removed peoples ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. Originally, though, the term denotes an event in Anglo-Saxon history, first reported by the Welsh historian Nennius in his ninth-century Historia Brittonum . Having earlier imprisoned or exiled prominent Social Democrats and Communists, Hitler used the occasion to move against conservatives he considered unreliable. On the 23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. The Nazis secured 43.9% of the vote, an improvement of almost 10% on the previous Novembers election. 'The Night of the Long Knives' is now commony associated with a particularly violent political purge in Nazi Germany in 1934. The Nazis used violence to increase their vote share. [66], Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. [g] Many stormtroopers believed in the socialist promise of National Socialism and expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy. concentration camp The SA were dramatically reduced in size, dropping by 40% to 1.8 million by 1935. This is a crucial part of Hitler's consolidation of power. 2. Share Image. Blomberg and many of his fellow officers were recruited from the Prussian nobility and regarded the SA as a plebeian rabble that threatened the army's traditional high status in German society. [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! [21], Demands for Hitler to constrain the SA strengthened. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. The novella is now in the public domain, so you can get it free on Kindle, but I want to recommend the audio version which is 3 hours and 17 . Reset Your Hosts File. This is an overview of the Night of the Long Knives of June 1934. This act legalised removing anyone of non-Ayran descent from the civil service. The SA and the SS had also been on a month long campaign of violence to scare or imprison other opponents to the party. Rhm left the Reichswehr in 1923 and later became commander of the SA. On 5 March 1933, elections were held for the German Reichstag. However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. Over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. It also provided a legal grounding for the Nazis, as the German courts and cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extrajudicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". 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. [41], The regime did not limit itself to a purge of the SA. Reorganisation and the Bamberg Conference, The role of economic instability in the Nazi rise to power, The role of political instability in the Nazi rise to power, The role of the conservative elite in the Nazi rise to power. He also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival, in particular because of Rhm's ambition to merge the army and the SA under his own leadership. 2. and The Nazis consolidation of power can be grouped into three main themes: pseudo-legality, terror and intimidation and pseudo-moderation. Rhm, who was initially Then came the day he didn't need them anymore. retrospectively [15] In January 1934, Rhm presented Blomberg with a memorandum demanding that the SA replace the regular army as the nation's ground forces, and that the Reichswehr become a training adjunct to the SA.[16]. At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds,[b][c][d] with high estimates running from 700 to 1,000. The reshuffle took place against a backdrop of . By the end of 1934, the Nazis had managed to infiltrate and take control of every major aspect of German government. 54 Richard J. Evans At the same time, the apparatus of the police state began to look a good deal less coercive than it had done in the 1950s. night of the long knives phrase. Let the nation know that its existencewhich depends on its internal order and securitycannot be threatened with impunity by anyone! [69] The request that Neurath be replaced by Nadolny, the former Ambassador to the USSR, who had resigned earlier that year in protest against Hitler's anti-Soviet foreign policy, indicated that Hammerstein and Mackensen wanted a return to the "distant friendliness" towards the Soviet Union that existed until 1933. [84], The Night of the Long Knives represented a triumph for Hitler, and a turning point for the German government. A variety of studies We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. [21] By the beginning of June everything was set and all that was needed was permission from Hitler. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused. "[83], Before its execution, the purges instigators referred to the plans under the codename Hummingbird (German: Kolibri), the word used to command execution squads into action on 30 June. "[46], Some SA members died saying "Heil Hitler" because they believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to their execution. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. com. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. The Night of Long Knives was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from the 30 June 1934 to the 2 July 1934. 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. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. On 24 March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, allowing Hitler to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag. 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. The Nazis used the SA and the newly expanded SS to harass and imprison any potential opponents of the Nazi Party. It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. Leading members of the leftist-leaning Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, including its leader Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis, such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Bavarian politician Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had helped suppress Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. [27] While von Papen's resignation as vice-chancellor would not have threatened Hitler's position, it would have nonetheless been an embarrassing display of independence from a leading conservative. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. 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]. Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. A combat veteran of World War I, Rhm had recently boasted that he would execute 12 men in retaliation for the killing of any stormtrooper. Following the purge, the Nazi's sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and . [37] Meanwhile, the SS arrested the other SA leaders as they left their train for the planned meeting with Rhm and Hitler. Background Hitler was Chancellor (Prime Minister), but not yet completely in control. The Nazis improvised. "[74] Hearing of the murder of former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and his wife, he also commented, "We have ceased to live under the rule of law and everyone must be prepared for the possibility that the Nazis will push their way in and put them up against the wall! org. While Nazism was not exclusively or even primarily a working-class phenomenon, the SA fulfilled the yearning of many unemployed workers for class solidarity and nationalist fervour. 1. Hitler ordered the murders of conspicuous Conservative anti-Nazis such as Kurt Von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Left wing Nazis such as Gregor Strasser and many members of the SA including its leader Ernst Rohm. Find Night Of The Long Knives stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. [32] Blomberg and General Walther von Reichenau, the army's liaison to the party, gave it to him by expelling Rhm from the German Officers' League. Until then, Lippert had been one of the few executioners of the purge to evade trial. Following Hitlers appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. Low's cartoons have always appealed to me because of his ability to depict characters like Hitler and Mussolini in a recognisable but often funny way. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning . "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. It's been called "the night of the long knives in the tropics.". 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. People could be imprisoned for any or no reason. Hitler used the SS and the Army to kill the SA on the Night of the Long knives, and doing so helped him to win them over as it showed his preference for them over the thug-like Stormtroopers. The Night of the Long Knives, which was originally published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories in 1960, feels surprisingly current the character names are the most dated-feeling aspect of the story. Night of the Long Knives. : Why did Hitler order the massacre of hundreds of Nazis in June 1934? From the airport they drove to the Bavarian Interior Ministry, where they assembled the leaders of an SA rampage that had taken place in city streets the night before. [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. [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. July 14-20, 1934 News articles, editorials, opinion pieces, letters-to-the-editor, and . Civil Service The destiny of our country is at stake. Hitler told the gathered officials, "The stream of revolution has been undammed, but it must be channelled into the secure bed of evolution. Mr Maracin has filtered out much of the historical minutia belabored by other historians of Nazi Germany during this period and given us a quick 209 page read for those with a mild passing interest on how this to barbarism came to be. [68] Besides working for the rehabilitation of Schleicher and Bredow, Hammerstein and Mackensen sent a memo to Hindenburg on 18 July setting out in considerable detail the circumstances of the murders of the two generals and noted that Papen had barely escaped. 3. On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. pardoned What does Long Knives expression mean? [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. Hitler arrived and personally placed Rhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. The Night of the Long Knives. [29], In preparation for the purge, both Himmler and Heydrich assembled a dossier of manufactured evidence to suggest that Rhm had been paid 12 million (EUR 29.1million in 2023) by France to overthrow Hitler. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. The SA (sometimes known as the "Stormtroopers" or "Brownshirts") was the paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that played a key role in the Nazi . to control. How useful is the cartoon in helping us to understand the events that occurred during The Night of the Long Knives? He held the same position with Rhm as I held with Himmler. [1] More than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Called the Nacht der langen Messer in Germany, this event occurred over a series of days and entailed the Nazi regime's murder of those Hitler considered to be political enemies. Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to a dictatorship. However, it did so under the guise of legality, and protecting the German people and their democracy. [37] Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. 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). British cartoon by David Low, 1934 They salute with both hands, now! [13], If the regular army showed contempt for the masses belonging to the SA, many stormtroopers returned the feeling, seeing the army as insufficiently committed to the National Socialist revolution. Officially 85; estimates range up to 1,000. 3. In the cartoon, I can see Hitler standing on a stage, infront of an audience. We were close personal friends; we often dined together in Berlin. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. He had banned opposition parties, taken control of the press, outlawed troublesome unions and thrown communists and other political dissidents into concentration camps. Prisons soon became stretched for space. [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. British cartoon by David Low, 1934 H I UN TL PR KE ER OM PT 'S IS ES They salute with both hands, now! You gave these parties 14 years to ruin Germany! Enraged, Hitler tore the epaulets off the shirt of Obergruppenfhrer August Schneidhuber, the chief of the Munich police, for failing to keep order in the city the previous night. Select from premium Night Of The Long Knives of the highest quality. Close 'Here after let this be known as the night of the long side burns!' June 30, 1934 - July 12, 1934 News articles about the arrest and murder of leadership within the SA, as well as political opponents of the Nazis ("Night of the Long Knives"). How seriously Hitler took the socialist character of National Socialism was to remain one of the main causes of disagreement and division within the Nazi party up to the summer of 1934. The day after the Reichstag fire, the 28 February 1933, Hindenburg signed a decree giving Hitler emergency powers. Also available as: Gift Options Download Options. At first, its architects seemed split on how to handle the event. [73] However, despite the rehabilitation of the two murdered officers, the Nazis continued in private to accuse Schleicher of high treason. Used for Educational purposes only. ", followed by 12,263 people on Pinterest. Both Himmler and Gring welcomed Hitler's decision, since both had much to gain by Rhm's downfall the independence of the SS for Himmler and the removal of a rival for the future command of the army for Gring. The Nazi grip on government extended across national, state and local levels. 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]. [25] While Mussolini's criticism did not win Hitler over to acting against the SA, it helped push him in that direction.[25]. 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. The Night Of The Long Knives. Hitler was shrewd enough to understand that he could never fully consolidate his grip on the country without the support of the army. From 20 August onwards, the Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler. This betrayal is seen by the image of SA members looking fearful in surrender, and SA leaders dead on the floor, killed by Hitler, who holds a smoking gun. Then followed a series of extrajudicial killings, in which scores of officials were assassinated. Goebbels engineered the media coverage following the attack to present it as a preventative measure, in response to the SAs plan to overthrow the government. [3] It established Hitler as the supreme administrator of justice of the German people, as he put it in his 13 July speech to the Reichstag. "A very calm and easy going mailman," the diarist Victor Klemperer wrote, "who is not at all National Socialist, said, 'Well, he simply sentenced them.'" "[77], Rhm was purged from all Nazi propaganda, such as The Victory of Faith, the Leni Riefenstahl film about the 1933 Nuremberg rally, which showed Rhm frequently alongside Hitler. The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. By May, lists of those to be "liquidated" started to circulate amongst Gring and Himmler's people, who engaged in a trade, adding enemies of one in exchange for sparing friends of the other. Hold me on this night of the long knives Hold me on this night of the long knives It's coming (Shame about your neighbourhood) It's coming (Shame about your neighbourhood) There's a flood on the street, there's a tide and it's coming in now Yet the concrete burns at the back of your skull And they're saying it's a wave but it feels like a . [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. The SA evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years. Night of the Long Knives: Directed by Paul Stanley. On 19 August 1934, the German people were asked to vote on whether or not they approved of the merging of the two offices and Hitlers new role as Fhrer. The Night of the Long Knives involved the violent purge of certain members of the Nazi Party from June 30th to July 2nd in 1934. . In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. If that was indeed true then, as a legal matter, the law was entirely unnecessary and redundant. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. [25] During the summit in Venice, Mussolini upbraided Hitler for tolerating the violence, hooliganism and homosexuality of the SA, which Mussolini stated were ruining Hitler's good reputation all over the world. 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. And let it be known for all time to come that if anyone raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot. The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Rhm and the SA. Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. The SA were the thugs who Hitler had used to help him come to power. ", "After the 'Night of the Long Knives,' [Reich Minister for Justice Franz Grtner] nipped in the bud the attempts of some local state prosecutors to initiate proceedings against the killers. Reichswehr Rhm demurred, telling them, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself. This was called the "Night of the Long Knives." This cartoon is joking about how these fanatical Nazis who were once Hitler's shock troops now found themselves the target of Hitler. ", "The most general theorythat National Socialism was a revolution of the lower middle classis defensible but inadequate. Battle to save 'Night of the Long Knives' hotel where Hitler turned on Brownshirts' leader Ernst Rhm - the only man standing in his way to absolute power - in deadly 1934 purge. The Night of the Long Knives: the bloody purge that secured Hitler's power. Refusing to take his own life, he was shot on 1 July 1934 by two SS guards. They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in a broken-down munitions factory on the 20 March 1933, imprisoning primarily political prisoners. Hitler claimed that 61 had been executed while 13 had been shot resisting arrest and three had committed suicide. One-to-one online tuition can be a great way to brush up on your History knowledge. As the leader of the SA, Rhm was seen as a threat to Hitlers power. He wrote about the cartoon in his book, Years of Wrath (1949): "Nazi Party members and S.S. men got out of hand, clamouring for jobs in a Nazified industry and in an army under Nazi control; but Hitler had promised the . When the Nazi regime did not take such steps, those who had expected an economic as well as a political revolution were disillusioned. Over the next two months, they launched themselves into an intense election campaign. 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. Join MyTutor Squads for free (and fun) help with Maths, Coding & Study Skills. [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. ", Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:34, Night of the Long Knives (disambiguation), The History Place Triumph of Hitler Night of the Long Knives, German Culture The Third Reich Consolidation of Power, The German Embassy in the United States The Era of National Socialism, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_of_the_Long_Knives&oldid=1142048294, Operation Hummingbird, Rhm Putsch (by the Nazis), The Blood Purge. The caption They salute with both hands now is a joke about the Nazi salute. [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. 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. [63] Since Schleicher was a good friend of the French Ambassador Andr Franois-Poncet, and because of his reputation for intrigue, the claim that Schleicher was working for France had enough surface plausibility for most Germans to accept it. [47], Rhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison[j] in Munich, while Hitler considered his future. The elections were neither free or fair. The message of the cartoon "They Salute with Both Hands Now" is that in the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler turned on his previously loyal supporters, the SA, in order to consolidate his position by eliminating the threat of Ernst Rohm and the SA and winning over the Army. This photograph shows the SA as they marched victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin the same day. The SA also ran a violent campaign of terror against any and all opponents of the Nazi regime. As the SA were known for being violent and unruly, many saw this as a legitimate move by the government to ensure public order. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party . , issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. The Peoples Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason, and I further gave the order to cauterise down to the raw flesh the ulcers of this poisoning of the wells in our domestic life. He lifted his arm in the Nazi salute and called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany. Under pressure from Hitler, Rhm reluctantly signed a pledge stating that he recognised the supremacy of the Reichswehr over the SA. On 27 February 1933, as the campaign moved into its final, frantic days, theReichstag, the German Parliament building, was set on fire and burnt down. By 1934 most of the socialists had left the party but some important figures in the hierarchy like Ernst Rhm and . [42] The Gestapo also murdered Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen associate. dutch tool chest pdf. This act was reinforced by the German Civil Service code of 26 January 1937, which retired any judges or judicial official who would not intervene in cases and rule in favour of the Nazis. Despite his earlier agreement with Hitler, Rhm still clung to his vision of a new German army with the SA at its core. The Night of the Long Knives. He was now a dictator. Hitler remained indecisive and uncertain about just what precisely he wanted to do when he left for Venice to meet Benito Mussolini on 15 June. But Hitler was in power in 1934, and there was no opposition left . The leaders of the SA were ordered to attend a meeting at a hotel in Bad Wiesse, Bavaria. [40] Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. Hitler orders a violent purge of the top leadership of the Nazi Party paramilitary formation, the SA (Sturmabteilungen; Assault Detachments). On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. ultimate power over Germany, whilst maintaining an