consequences of the night of the long knives

5. impact of nazi foreign policy mrmarr 4.9K views . 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. , issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. [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. Following the purge, the Nazi's sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and . [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. We were close personal friends; we often dined together in Berlin. concentration camp 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]. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. He stated that 61 people had been executed and 13 had committed suicide. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. With Hindenburg gone, there was no longer a limit to Hitlers power. In British politics, the " Night of the Long Knives " was a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. 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. [84], The Night of the Long Knives represented a triumph for Hitler, and a turning point for the German government. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments. The Night of the Long Knives was "an act of carnage" which had come out of the blue. 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. He lifted his arm in the Nazi salute and called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany. The Centre Partys vote was crucial. [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. Given that the purge claimed the lives of so many prominent Germans, it could hardly be kept secret. [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. ", "The names of eighty-five victims [exist], only fifty of them SA men. The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. Some of Hitlers other enemies were also murdered, including the last chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Kurt von Schleicher; Gregor Strasser, who until 1932 had been second only to Hitler in the Nazi Party; Bavarian ex-separatist Gustav von Kahr; conservative critic Edgar Jung; and Catholic professor Erich Klausener. [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. He dismissed seven ministers - one-third of the cabinet - and . [31] On 27 June, Hitler moved to secure the army's cooperation. [21] By the beginning of June everything was set and all that was needed was permission from 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. Omissions? However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. The destiny of our country is at stake. Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. 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. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. : Why did Hitler order the massacre of hundreds of Nazis. The day after the fire, Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. of democracy. ultimate power over Germany, whilst maintaining an By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. NHS services across England will face major disruption throughout today as nurses walk out in a 28-hour strike over pay. 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]. In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. [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. The Night of Long Knives occurred on June 30, 1934. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini sent four army divisions up the Brenner Pass and to the Carinthian frontier, and the Italian press vehemently denounced German imperialism and bad faith. We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. 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. Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". The SA also ran a violent campaign of terror against any and all opponents of the Nazi regime. [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. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. 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 process primarily took place between 1933-1934. 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". 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. 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. [79] This story would be popularized across western Europe in the 12th century as part of the History of the Britons by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which introduced many of the Arthurian legends to Germany.[80][81]. Within weeks of Rhms death, Hitler made an attempt to settle the question of union with Austria through simple violence. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived . 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. Under pressure from Hitler, Rhm reluctantly signed a pledge stating that he recognised the supremacy of the Reichswehr over the SA. Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. With the army limited by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand soldiers, its leaders watched anxiously as membership in the SA surpassed three million men by the beginning of 1934. , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. coalition Hitler, however, disclaimed all responsibility for the coup, sent a telegram of condolence to Austrian Pres. The 'Night of the Long Knives' is a name given to an internal purge within the National Socialist movement in mid-1934. At first, its architects seemed split on how to handle the event. 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. How did the Night of the Long Knives help to create a dictatorship out of a democracy? 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. They come in PDF and Powerpoint formats and can be amended and changed to suit. [42] The Gestapo also murdered Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen associate. [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. [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. 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. [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. Conservatives in the army, industry and politics placed Hitler under increasing pressure to reduce the influence of the SA and to move against Rhm. Lippert was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.[50]. [73] However, despite the rehabilitation of the two murdered officers, the Nazis continued in private to accuse Schleicher of high treason. The purge of the SA was kept secret until it was announced by Adolf Hitler on July 13. On 30 April 1945, Hitler took his own life in his bunker underneath the Reich chancellery in Berlin. 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). They would later reopen it to liquidate the d ghetto. It targeted potential threats to Hitler's power, particularly within the NSDAP's fast-growing and politically vocal paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung or SA. Sixty years ago today, Harold Macmillan carried out a cabinet reshuffle which became known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'. 464 Words. Grtner also declared in cabinet that the measure did not in fact create any new law, but simply confirmed the existing law. [47], Rhm was held briefly at Stadelheim Prison[j] in Munich, while Hitler considered his future. Hitler entitled the purge the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a reference to the lyrics from a popular Nazi song. 25 terms. The generals, whose chief spokesman was the minister of defense, Werner von Blomberg, were certainly impressed by the efficiency with which Rhm and his SA clique had been eliminated. [66], Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. The Nazis started with the [62] General von Reichenau went so far as to publicly give credence to the lie that Schleicher had been plotting to overthrow the government. 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. consolidate ", 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, National Political Institutes of Education, National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), National Socialist German Doctors' League, National Socialist League for Physical Exercise (NSRL), Bulgarian National Socialist Workers Party, German National Socialist Workers' Party (Czechoslovakia), Finnish National Socialist Labor Organisation, German National Movement in Liechtenstein, National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, National Socialist Workers' Party of Denmark, Nationalist Liberation Alliance (Argentina), South African Gentile National Socialist Movement, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_of_the_Long_Knives&oldid=1148917121, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from June 2022, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata mismatch, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Operation Hummingbird, Rhm Putsch (by the Nazis), The Blood Purge. Corrections? persecution Purge in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934, Papen, nonetheless, remained in his position although people quite close to him were murdered, including, "At least eighty-five people are known to have been summarily killed without any formal legal proceedings being taken against them. Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. In this photo, Rhm is talking to a group of SA men, who appear to be listening intently. However, following Hitler being elected chancellor, the SA, and particularly Rhm, were keen to continue the revolution and replace the traditional conservative elite with Nazis. 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. This topic will explore how the Nazis managed to eliminate their opposition and [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. They were often given a free rein on their activities and were violent and difficult to control. Once inside Rhm's cell, they handed him a Browning pistol loaded with a single cartridge and told him he had ten minutes to kill himself or they would do it for him. "[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. This photograph was taken the same day, showing the Reichstag still burning. The Nazis consolidation of power can be grouped into three main themes: pseudo-legality, terror and intimidation and pseudo-moderation. [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. They murdered Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in his chancellery, but the putsch failed in its main purpose. On 7 April 1943, the SS shut down the Chemno death camp for the first time. Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. [37] Meanwhile, the SS arrested the other SA leaders as they left their train for the planned meeting with Rhm and Hitler. [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. and The news of it was received with consternation and disgust in the other European capitals, but the shock was greatest in Rome. It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. [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. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Rhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". A poster from the March 1933 elections. 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'.

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