Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives (in German: Nacht der langen Messer, 29–30 June, 1934) was the Nazi purge of the Sturmabteilung (S.A.) leadership, and Hitler's political opponents; between 77 (official) and 400 people are believed to have been killed.
The purge was the result of the political struggle between the Nazi leaders subordinate to Hitler: Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, on the one hand - and Ernst Röhm, the leader of the S.A., on the other. By the summer of 1933, the S.A. had grown discontent with the progress of the National Socialist revolution. Many had taken seriously the socialist, anticapitalist aspects of the NSDAP platform and believed further steps needed to be taken to achieve substantive social and economic change. They also wanted to become the core of a new German army. The S.A. was the only remaining viable threat to Hitler's power.
Hitler encouraged political infighting amongst his subordinates, and the power of Röhm and his violent organization scared his rivals. Himmler had evidence manufactured to defame Röhm and presented it to Hitler -- fuelling his suspicion that Röhm intended to use the S.A. to launch a putsch against him.
While Hitler had been personally rather fond of Röhm, he was under pressure to reduce the S.A. chief's influence. German military leaders were unhappy with Röhm's proposal that the German army be absorbed into the larger S.A., and the industrialists that supported Hitler were concerned over the S.A.'s socialist leanings. The regular army was also alarmed by the size of the S.A.--in early 1934 it numbered 2.5 million men, while the army was limited by the Treaty of Versailles to a meager 100,000. Members of the Nazi party also viewed Röhm and some other S.A. leaders with distaste because they frequently practiced homosexual behavior.
With all these groups arrayed against Röhm, Hitler decided to act. He ordered all the S.A. leaders to attend a meeting at the Hanselbauer Hotel in Wiessee, near Munich. On June 29 Hitler took personal command of Röhm's arrest. Alfred Rosenberg's diary provides an account:
With an SS escort detachment the Führer drove to Weissee and knocked softly on Röhm's door: “Message from Munich,” he said with disguised voice. “Well come in,” Röhm called to the supposed messenger, “the door is open.” Hitler tore open the door, fell on Röhm as he lay in bed, seized him by the throat and screamed, “You are under arrest, you pig.” Then he turned the traitor over to the SS. At first Röhm refused to get dressed. The SS then threw his clothes in the Chief of Staff's face until he bestirred himself to put them on. In the room next door, they found Heines engaged in homosexual activity. “And these are the kind who want to be leaders in Germany,” the Führer said trembling.” (Spielvogel, 78)
In the following hours other S.A. leaders were also arrested, and many were shot out of hand. Apparently Hitler intended to pardon Röhm, but eventually decided to have him die. It is believed that Röhm was offered a chance of suicide but was eventually shot. Hitler also used this purge of the S.A. to settle old scores: Gregor Strasser, Gustav von Kahr, General Kurt Schleicher and Edgar Jung were all murdered, totaling over 100. Franz von Papen was put under house arrest.
On July 3, the Reich government decided upon the Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense, consisting of a single article simply declaring the "measures taken" to be "legal State self-defense."
Hitler announced the purge on 13 July, claiming 61 had been executed, 13 shot while resisting arrest, and 3 had committed suicide. In announcing the purge he stated, "If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge (oberster Gerichtsherr) of the German people". - from William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1959.
As a result of the purge, Hitler gained a measure of gratitude and support from the Reichswehr. On July 26th, the S.S. was made independent of the S.A., with Himmler as its Reichsführer, answerable only to Hitler. Victor Lutze became the new leader of the S.A., and it was soon marginalized in the Nazi power structure.
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See also
External links
Book sources
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.