Max Heydebreck, an SA leader in Rummelsburg, denounced the army to his fellow brownshirts, telling them, "Some of the officers of the army are swine. Although Hitler ordered him released days later, Papen no longer dared to criticize the regime and was sent off to Vienna as German ambassador.[43]. 2 Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975), 82. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. Goering, Himmler, and Heydrich, Hitler's new head of internal security for the SS, got together and drew up a list of opponents to Hitler's new Government, while Goebbels publicly accused Ernst Rhm of planning a takeover or 'Putsch'. Hitler's entire life was one of making key-life and death-strategic decisions, successfully. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. Others were appalled at the scale of the executions and at the relative complacency of many of their fellow Germans. On the 28 February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. On 11 April 1945, the US army liberated Buchenwald camp. 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. The Night of the Long Knives, in June 1934, saw the wiping out of the SA's leadership and others who had angered Hitler in the recent past in Nazi Germany. Both Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler's predecessor as Chancellor, and his wife were murdered at their home. They used any space they could get their hands on to create temporary camps. intensified 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. A poster from the March 1933 elections. It would become known in Welsh as "twyll y cyllyll hirion" (English: Deceit of the long knives) (first recorded around 1587) and in English as the "Treachery/Plot/Treason of the long knives" (recorded around 1604). The murders of SA leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish SA tactics. [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. 20 terms. 89.93% voted in favour of Hitler. In response to conservative pressure to constrain Rhm, Hitler left for Neudeck to meet with Hindenburg. Under pressure from Hitler, Rhm reluctantly signed a pledge stating that he recognised the supremacy of the Reichswehr over the SA. [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. [1] More than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. [8], On 6 July 1933, at a gathering of high-ranking Nazi officials, Hitler declared the success of the National Socialist, or Nazi, seizure of power. This decree suspended the democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic and declared a state of emergency. 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. [76], According to Albert Speer, "the Right, represented by the President, the Minister of Justice, and the generals, lined up behind Hitler the strong left wing of the party, represented chiefly by the SA, was eliminated. Germany feared revolution. [84], The Night of the Long Knives represented a triumph for Hitler, and a turning point for the German government. Each resource gives suggested teaching strategies and are differentiated . Many members of the SA, including its leader Ernst Rhm, were demanding that the Nazi party carry out its socialist agenda and that the SA take over the army. During a trip to Warsaw in January 1935, Gring told Jan Szembek that Schleicher had urged Hitler in January 1933 to reach an understanding with France and the Soviet Union, and partition Poland with the latter, and Hitler had Schleicher killed out of disgust with the alleged advice. 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. 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. [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. SS men stormed the hotel, and Hitler personally placed Rhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived . : Why did Hitler order the massacre of hundreds of Nazis. However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. [39] There in the prison courtyard, the Leibstandarte firing squad shot five SA generals and an SA colonel. 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. [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. Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. "[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. To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it . "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. These acts removed peoples ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. He dismissed seven ministers - one-third of the cabinet - and . They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers," the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists. [57][58], A special fund administered by SS General Franz Breithaupt was set up for the relatives of the murdered, from which they were cared for at the expense of the state. This hysteria helped to turn the public against the communists, one of the Nazis main opponents, and 4000 people were imprisoned. Hitler shouted at Schneidhuber and accused him of treachery. Hitler had become a chancellor in 1933 henceforth he had the power to establish his power. Whilst the pseudo-legal measures were one factor that helped the Nazis to consolidate power, another was terror and intimidation. [38], Although Hitler presented no evidence of a plot by Rhm to overthrow the regime, he nevertheless denounced the leadership of the SA. This photograph shows the SA as they marched victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin the same day. "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.'" Following the Enabling Law, much of this harassment and imprisonment was legal. 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. He held the same position with Rhm as I held with Himmler. [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. Its membership plummeted from 2.9 million in August 1934 to 1.2 million in April 1938. [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. 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. coalition [i] Rhm, as one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, had participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by Hitler to seize power by force in 1923. [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. Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party The Night of the Long Knives was the least important factor, as it did no help much towards Hitler's consolidation of power. In this photo, Rhm is talking to a group of SA men, who appear to be listening intently. 5. impact of nazi foreign policy mrmarr 4.9K views . 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]. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. 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. Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to 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. of democracy. [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. The purge list is drawn up. It established Hitler as "the supreme leader of the German people", as he put it in his 13 July speech to the Reichstag. The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Rhm and the SA. 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. [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. [25] While Mussolini's criticism did not win Hitler over to acting against the SA, it helped push him in that direction.[25]. 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. But the Night of the Long Knives they kill over 100 people, not just Rhm and his closest associate, but also others who are on a hit list that Hitler, Gring, and Himmler and others put together. History portrays the infamous 'Night of the Long Knives' as a textbook political disaster, but as a BBC documentary shows on the 50th anniversary, it could have been so different. However getting rid of the SA did get the support of the army which was very helpful for Hitler. On the night of June 30, 1934, Rhm and many more leaders of the SA were shot by members of Heinrich Himmlers SS (Schutzstaffeln; German: Protective Echelon). Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [48] Eicke and Lippert then shot Rhm, killing him. For new Germany unit - 1890-1945. consolidate Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role. 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. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler. Not content solely with the leadership of the SA, Rhm lobbied Hitler to appoint him Minister of Defence, a position held by the conservative General Werner von Blomberg. The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. This fear was The process primarily took place between 1933-1934. Reichswehr "[65] Another rare exception was Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who spoke about the murders of Schleicher and Bredow at the annual General Staff Society meeting in February 1935 after they had been rehabilitated by Hitler in early January 1935. He then told Hitler that Hindenburg was close to declaring martial law and turning the government over to the Reichswehr if Hitler did not take immediate steps against Rhm and his brownshirts. 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. One key example of an event posed as moderate was the Night of Long Knives. "[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! "[67] The extent of the massacre and the relative ubiquity of the Gestapo, however, meant that those who disapproved of the purge generally kept quiet about it. 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. Thus from June 30 to July 2, 1934, which the chancellor later titled the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler purged any and all opposition in his way to a dictatorship. Thereupon the German generals agreed to the merging of the office of president of the Reich and supreme head of the armed forces with that of chancellor, in Hitlers person. How did the Night of the Long Knives help to create a dictatorship out of a democracy? [21] At the end of May, Brning and Schleicher, two former chancellors, received warnings from friends in the Reichswehr that their lives were in danger and they should leave Germany at once. Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. 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. In Rhm's view, President Hindenburg's appointment of Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933 had brought the Nazi Party to power, but had left unfulfilled the party's larger goals. Through the use of primary sources, students will gain a deeper understanding of the motivations, actions, and consequences of the Night of the Long Knives. By the end of May 1934, Hitler had been chancellor for 16 . Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. Corrections? 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. 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. As a result, a political struggle within the party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including Prussian premier Hermann Gring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, positioning themselves against Rhm. [24] Before Hitler left, and at the request of Presidential State Secretary Otto Meiner, Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath ordered the German Ambassador to Italy Ulrich von Hassell without Hitler's knowledge to ask Mussolini to tell Hitler that the SA was blackening Germany's good name. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The bottom half of the poster reads The more power you give Hitler, the easier he will win and the more independent you make him from the parties that led the people to where they are today. Gring instructed police stations to burn "all documents concerning the action of the past two days". After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill. [78], The term "long knives" as a metonym for treachery and violence had been used to describe the Treason of the Long Knives since this incident was recorded in the 9th century Historia Brittonum. On 17 June 1934, conservative demands for Hitler to act came to a head when Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, confidant of the ailing Hindenburg, gave a speech at Marburg University warning of the threat of a "second revolution. [63] During a meeting with Polish Ambassador Jzef Lipski on 22 May 1935, Hitler told Lipski that Schleicher was "rightfully murdered, if only because he had sought to maintain the Rapallo Treaty. "[26] According to his memoirs, von Papen, a Catholic aristocrat with ties to army and industry, privately threatened to resign if Hitler did not act. In a new pair Rally Coach this worksheet. 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. 9. [35] Papen was unceremoniously arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, despite his insistent protests that he could not be arrested in his position as Vice-Chancellor. 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. The Nazis also took steps to ensure they couldnt be openly opposed in the press. Dachau [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. [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]. Officially 85; estimates range up to 1,000. [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. On 1 July, at Hitler's behest, Theodor Eicke, Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, and his SS adjutant Michael Lippert visited Rhm. Rhm was the leader of the Nazi Brownshirts . Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. leaders knew consequences of questioning Hitler - role of SA was reduced - membership dropped from 2.9 million to 1.6 million. Ernst Rhm was murdered in the event known as the Rhm Putsch, or the Night of Long Knives. Now that the NSDAP had seized the reins of power in Germany, he said, it was time to consolidate its control. We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. [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. Hess, present among the assembled, even volunteered to shoot the "traitors". Prisons soon became stretched for space. In British politics, the " Night of the Long Knives " was a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. Consequences of the Night of the long Knives Death of Hindenburg and Fuhrer Army Oath Plenary - hierarchy task. [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. Lippert was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.[50]. 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. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. Rhm wanted to have his troops incorporated into the new Wehrmacht that was being prepared to take the place of the Reichswehr, despite the fact that the conservative-minded generals were resolutely opposed to any such contamination of the army by the SA. Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach. The destiny of our country is at stake. , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. He left Neudeck with the intention of both destroying Rhm and settling scores with old enemies. coup Within weeks of Rhms death, Hitler made an attempt to settle the question of union with Austria through simple violence. The Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933. While Rhm's homosexuality did not endear him to conservatives, they were more concerned about his political ambitions. When the Nazi regime did not take such steps, those who had expected an economic as well as a political revolution were disillusioned. For all the power the Enabling Act . Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler. As the SA were known for being violent and unruly, many saw this as a legitimate move by the government to ensure public order. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Rhm. Also in 1932, the Nazi critic Carl von Ossietzky would use the term to describe the then unrealised plans for a violent uprising: At the beginning of 1932 the Nazis seemed on the verge of a dictatorship, and the air was full of the stench of blood. 95.7% of the population voted. [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. persecution No one in the SA spoke more loudly for "a continuation of the German revolution" (as one prominent stormtrooper, Edmund Heines, put it) than Rhm himself. Given that the purge claimed the lives of so many prominent Germans, it could hardly be kept secret. This night of brutal murder and elimination of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) gave Hitler the support of the army, which he need for both the creation of a totalitarian state and his future foreign policy and also relieved the pressures on Hitler. Among the few exceptions were General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who started a campaign to have Schleicher rehabilitated by Hitler. concentration camp . 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. Conservatives in the army, industry and politics placed Hitler under increasing pressure to reduce the influence of the SA and to move against Rhm. school principal conferences 2022,
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