The Peoples Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). [19] The British historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, who knew Schleicher and his circle well, wrote that Bredow displayed a "lack of discretion" that was "terrifying" as he went about showing the list of the proposed cabinet to anyone who was interested. [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. This decree gave the Nazis a legal basis for the Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. By early 1934, this vision directly conflicted with Hitler's plan to consolidate power and expand the Reichswehr. On 25 April 1933, the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities was issued, restricting the number of Jewish students. The camps were brutal and had extremely unsanitary conditions. 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. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. [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. In 1933, up to 200,000 people were seized and imprisoned by the SA and the SS. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions . leaders knew consequences of questioning Hitler - role of SA was reduced - membership dropped from 2.9 million to 1.6 million. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. You must first remember and recite all the points made earlier in the circle then add your own point. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. [82] However, the term was soon adopted by the Nazis themselves to invoke what they saw as justifiable and necessary measures taken by Germanic peoples against an enemy. [30] At Hitler's direction, Gring, Himmler, Heydrich, and Victor Lutze drew up lists of people in and outside the SA to be killed. This hysteria helped to turn the public against the communists, one of the Nazis main opponents, and 4000 people were imprisoned. Gestapo officers attached to the SS unit shot Papen's secretary Herbert von Bose without bothering to arrest him first. [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. 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. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. Each resource gives suggested teaching strategies and are differentiated . [17] While Hitler did not take immediate action against Rhm for his intemperate outburst, it nonetheless deepened the rift between them. 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. Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. [75] Hitler expressly told him to stop SA funds from being spent on limousines and banquets, which he considered evidence of SA extravagance. [e] Over the next few months, during the so-called Gleichschaltung, Hitler dispensed with the need for the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as a legislative body[f] and eliminated all rival political parties in Germany, so that by the middle of 1933 the country had become a one-party state under his direction and control. 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. [35] Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent propaganda justifying the purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude. For new Germany unit - 1890-1945. 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. 15 Apr 2023. The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused. Hitler announced that he would occupy this new role. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. Rhm was a potential rival to Hitler's position. [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. After Hitler and most of the army officers had left, however, Rhm declared that he would not take instructions from "the ridiculous corporal" a demeaning reference to Hitler. [37] Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. [45][41] As Himmler's adjutant Karl Wolff later explained, friendship and personal loyalty were not allowed to stand in the way: Among others, a charming fellow [named] Karl von Spreti, Rhm's personal adjutant. 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". [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. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach. It targeted potential threats to Hitler's power, particularly within the NSDAP's fast-growing and politically vocal paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung or SA. Some estimates, however, put the total number killed at between 150 and 200. 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. The Nazis secured 43.9% of the vote, an improvement of almost 10% on the previous Novembers election. Within weeks of Rhms death, Hitler made an attempt to settle the question of union with Austria through simple violence. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. 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. By the end of 1934, the Nazis had managed to infiltrate and take control of every major aspect of German government. 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. 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. Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers," the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists. [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. You were murdered June 30-July 2, 1934, the Night of the Long Knives. 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. On the 28 February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. 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. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. Following the purge, the Nazis sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and uncontrollable force, rather than a series of political murders. With Hitler's arrival in Bad Wiessee between 06:00 and 07:00, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. On the 5 March 1933, the elections took place, with an extremely high turnout of 89%. Once the Enabling Law was in place, the Nazis could bypass the Reichstag and rule by decree seemingly creating laws that stabilised Germany and got rid of its internal enemies. [37] Meanwhile, the SS arrested the other SA leaders as they left their train for the planned meeting with Rhm and Hitler. Omissions? [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). The Night of the Long Knives | Facing History & Ourselves 9. The History Learning Site, 9 Mar 2015. Blomberg, who had been meeting with the president, uncharacteristically reproached Hitler for not having moved against Rhm earlier. This fear was 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. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. To make both of these impacts, Hitler had to overcome many hard . AQA 8145 - Night of the Long Knives | Teaching Resources The Third Reich was henceforth a totalitarian structure with one man as head of state, commander in chief, and leader of the only political party. Historian Gavin Mortimer explains how Hitler nearly came unstuck as early as 1934 - and that the bloody purge that followed was a warning of horrors to come . They will . The Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933. They would later reopen it to liquidate the d ghetto. ultimate power over Germany, whilst maintaining an [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. [6], Hitler's appointment as chancellor, followed by the suppression of all political parties except the Nazis, did not end the violence of the stormtroopers. The Night of the Long Knives - Jewish Virtual Library For all the power the Enabling Act . Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived . 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. [k] Signed into law by Hitler, Grtner, and Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, the "Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence" retroactively legalized the murders committed during the purge. Night of the Long Knives | History | tutor2u The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. Sixty years ago today, Harold Macmillan carried out a cabinet reshuffle which became known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'.
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