Night of the Long Knives - slideshare.net This continued when a young Dutchcommunist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime. ", "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. The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule. With Greg Stebner. Captain Ernst Rhm of the Reichswehr served as the liaison with the Bavarian Freikorps. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in a broken-down munitions factory on the 20 March 1933, imprisoning primarily political prisoners. 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. coalition com. [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. The purge of the SA was kept secret until it was announced by Adolf Hitler on July 13. July 13th 1962: The Night of the Long Knives - Politics.co.uk The S.A. were becoming lawless by the early 1930's and were causing some Germans to turn against the Nazis. 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. The SA were the thugs who Hitler had used to help him come to power. The SS was moving into position for the first of its many deadly tasks. The Night of the Long Knives: Forty-Eight Hours That Changed the Others killed included Gregor Strasser, a former Nazi who had angered Hitler by resigning from the party in 1932, and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the former Bavarian state commissioner who had helped crush the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. NAZI GERMANY: The Night of the Long Knives 1934 - YouTube 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. [21], As a means of isolating Rhm, on 20 April 1934, Gring transferred control of the Prussian political police (Gestapo) to Himmler, who, Gring believed, could be counted on to move against Rhm. Rhm demurred, telling them, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. Let the nation know that its existencewhich depends on its internal order and securitycannot be threatened with impunity by anyone! 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]. This is a crucial part of Hitler's consolidation of power. [7] Complaints of "overbearing and loutish" behaviour by stormtroopers became common by the middle of 1933. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning . Select from premium Night Of The Long Knives of the highest quality. government, under President Hindenburg. This handbook will help you plan your study time, beat procrastination, memorise the info and get your notes in order. However, to gain power Adolf Hitler built up a close and friendly relationship with Germany's industrialists. What does Long Knives expression mean? Doug and Tony land in nineteenth century Asia, meet Rudyard Kipling and become involved in the conflict between the British and local tribesman for control of the Khyber Pass. One moment in a twelve-year history of the Third Reich that is underappreciated is the Night of the Long Knives, also known as the Rhm Purge, at the end of June 1934. by Gring and Himmler, who gave Hitler news of Rhm organising a potential [47], Rhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison[j] in Munich, while Hitler considered his future. [30] At Hitler's direction, Gring, Himmler, Heydrich and Victor Lutze drew up lists of people in and outside the SA to be killed. The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. This act legalised removing anyone of non-Ayran descent from the civil service. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party Have a Free Meeting with one of our hand picked tutors from the UK's top universities. and 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. 1. 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. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. The Centre Partys vote was crucial. [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. The Liberals' future leader, Jeremy Thorpe, mocked Macmillan by observing . Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES LYRICS - SongLyrics.com Following Hitlers appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. 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 . The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Rhm and the SA. He stated that 61 people had been executed and 13 had committed suicide. It's Friday Cartoon Images - supremacy-network.de Excellency, save Germany for the fourth time! [51] Meanwhile, Goebbels tried to prevent newspapers from publishing lists of the dead, but at the same time used a 2 July radio address to describe how Hitler had narrowly prevented Rhm and Schleicher from overthrowing the government and throwing the country into turmoil. Centuries of jurisprudence proscribing extrajudicial killings were swept aside. Hitler was shrewd enough to understand that he could never fully consolidate his grip on the country without the support of the army. On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. The trial of Van der Lubbe following the Reichstag fire. [48] Eicke and Lippert then shot Rhm, killing him. Rhm, who was initially Also available as: Gift Options Download Options. Night Of The Long Knives Cartoon 3 of 3. Hitler told the gathered officials, "The stream of revolution has been undammed, but it must be channelled into the secure bed of evolution. 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]. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. "They salute with both hands now." - The London Evening - reddit Amazon.com: Night Of The Long Knives : Movies & TV [63] Franois-Poncet was not declared persona non grata as would have been usual if an ambassador were involved in a plot against his host government. It established Hitler as "the supreme leader of the German people", as he put it in his 13 July speech to the Reichstag. [5] In June 1932, one of the worst months of political violence, there were more than 400 street battles, resulting in 82 deaths. AC/DC - Night Of The Long Knives | SongMeanings A variety of studies . Officially 85; estimates range up to 1,000. Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. Gring alone had over a thousand people arrested. 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. However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. [19] Schleicher criticized the current Hitler cabinet, while some of Schleicher's followers such as General Ferdinand von Bredow and Werner von Alvensleben started passing along lists of a new Hitler cabinet in which Schleicher would become vice-chancellor, Rhm minister of defence, Heinrich Brning foreign minister and Gregor Strasser minister of national economy. [41], The regime did not limit itself to a purge of the SA. Surrounding this scene, members of the Army and SS stand with their weapons pointing towards the SA members. In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. Hitler ordered both Heines and his partner taken outside the hotel and shot. The Night of Long Knives - Hitler's Rise to Power | Part 2 | Free In two brutal days in 1934 Adolf Hitler and his senior staff would capture and execute Ernst Roehm, the rest of the senior leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and perhaps 1000 other enemies and threats to his control of Germany. , which opened just a few days before the vote on the 20 March 1933. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. PDF 1. Why did Hitler turn on the SA in the Night of the Long Knives? [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. By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. Given that the purge claimed the lives of so many prominent Germans, it could hardly be kept secret. 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. From 20 August onwards, the A more succinct understand of the years between 1920 - 1945 of Hitler would be hard to find. The Nazis also took steps to ensure they couldnt be openly opposed in the press. 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. The Night Of The Long Knives. 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. Facebook Twitter Email Copy Link. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Rhm. As S.A. membership grew, they were becoming harder . President Hindenburg died at the age of 87 on 2 August 1934. Despite his earlier agreement with Hitler, Rhm still clung to his vision of a new German army with the SA at its core. The three men that stand in front of the SA are Hitler (standing aggressively with an armband that reads: the double cross- a pun about the swastika and Hitlers betrayal), Goering (who is dressed as a violent god of war, showing how the Nazis have abandoned democracy and now rule by terror), and Goebbels (shown as Hitlers poodle, since in Britain, where this cartoon was published,he was seen to be cowardly and extremely loyal to Hitler). The Sturmabteilung: Hitler's Unofficial Army Of Thugs - All That's [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. [42] The Gestapo also murdered Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen associate. 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). [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. By early 1934, this vision directly conflicted with Hitler's plan to consolidate power and expand the Reichswehr. Why did Hitler turn on the SA in the Night of the Long Knives? The reshuffle took place against a backdrop of . Pressured by German army commanders, whose support he would need to become President, Hitler directs the SS to murder SA Chief of Staff Ernst Rhm and his top commanders. [37] Sepp Dietrich received orders from Hitler for the Leibstandarte to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim Prison where certain SA leaders were being held. coup 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. "[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. Some estimates, however, put the total number killed at between 150 and 200. 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. The Night of the Long Knives - Jewish Virtual Library In 1928, the popular Nazi song "Wetzt die langen Messer" (English: Sharpen the long knives) encourages the mass murder of Jewish people and the desecration of Synagogues (seemingly equating their own tactics with the treacherous Anglo-Saxons). British cartoon by David Low, 1934 H I UN TL PR KE ER OM PT 'S IS ES They salute with both hands, now! However, it did so under the guise of legality, and protecting the German people and their democracy. "[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. [11] Rhm saw violence as a means to political ends. Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. The Night of the Long Knives commences - BBC Study the Source "They Salute with Both Hands Now". What is the Rhm left the Reichswehr in 1923 and later became commander of the SA. Hitler_Steps_to_dictatorship - johndclare.net The camps were brutal and had extremely unsanitary conditions. 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 Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933. Hitler had made it clear that he was the supreme ruler of Germany who had the right to be judge and jury, and had the power to decide whether people lived or died. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete. Following the purge, the Nazi's sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and . 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. Night of the Long Knives - HistoryNet The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. [20] Although Schleicher was in fact unimportant by 1934, increasingly wild rumours that he was scheming with Rhm to re-enter the corridors of power helped stoke the sense of crisis. Night of the Long Knives: Summary & Victims | StudySmarter