This decree gave the Nazis a legal basis for the "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. 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). 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. What does night of the long knives expression mean? 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. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. Night of the Long Knives 30 June 1934. The "knives of the long night" episode, as it is now called, took place with brutal swiftness. Browse 1,447 happy its friday cartoon stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. "[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. 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. . [49] In 1957, the German authorities tried Lippert in Munich for Rhm's murder. Some estimates, however, put the total number killed at between 150 and 200. 1922 1923 1925 1943 1944 Albert Speer Art Auschwitz autobahn British Pathe Cartoon cartoons Catholic Church Chancellor Dada Denmark Disney Document Documentary Film Final Solution Four Year Plan Goebbels Hindenburg Hitler Holocaust Hyperinflation Jews July Bomb Plot . [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. In this image the narrative present is about the incident now known as the Night of the Long Knives (June 29th/30th 1934), when . How did the Night of the Long Knives help to create a dictatorship out of a democracy? [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. The decree also removed basic personal freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, the right to own property, and the right to trial before imprisonment. 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. , issuing the Act for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7 April 1933. Mr Maracin has filtered out much of the historical minutia belabored by other historians of Nazi Germany during this period and given us a quick 209 page read for those with a mild passing interest on how this to barbarism came to be. [40] Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. On the 23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. They used any space they could get their hands on to create temporary camps. The SS found Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines in bed with an unidentified eighteen-year-old male SA senior troop leader. [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. , which opened just a few days before the vote on the 20 March 1933. 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. Grtner also declared in cabinet that the measure did not in fact create any new law, but simply confirmed the existing law. Night of the Long Knives, in German history, purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. . In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. [35] Schneidhuber was executed later that day. [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. They were often given a free rein on their activities and were violent and difficult to control. Night of the Long Knives (Classroom Activity) When the Nazi Party was first formed it was an anti-capitalist movement. One of the men Gring recruited to assist him was Willi Lehmann, a Gestapo official and NKVD spy. Political instability in the Weimar Republic, Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr, Strength and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic. Whilst the pseudo-legal measures were one factor that helped the Nazis to consolidate power, another was terror and intimidation. Hitler saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. [73] Hitler's speech was not reported in the German press, but the army was appeased by the speech. 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. Definition of Long Knives in the Idioms Dictionary. Most of those killed were members of the "Storm Troopers" (SA) (German: Sturmabteilung). Captain Ernst Rhm of the Reichswehr served as the liaison with the Bavarian Freikorps. Have a Free Meeting with one of our hand picked tutors from the UK's top universities. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. 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. How seriously Hitler took the socialist character of National Socialism was to remain one of the main causes of disagreement and division within the Nazi party up to the summer of 1934. wikipedia notes: The Night of the Long Knives (German: Nacht der langen Messer) or "Operation Hummingbird," was a purge of Adolf Hitler's potential political rivals in the Sturmabteilung (SA). 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. These acts removed peoples ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. This is a crucial part of Hitler's consolidation of power. On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. 7 Night of the Long Knives - 30 June 1934 . In the years preceding the purge, the term "long knives" had become a popular description of treachery in Germany and was used as a criticism of Nazi actions and deceitfulness. IN THE CHILLY DAWN OF JUNE 30, 1934, TWO BLACK MERCEDES-BENZ automobiles wound their way around the misty western edge of Tegernsee Lake in the . Germany feared revolution. Why did Hitler turn on the SA in the Night of the Long Knives? 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. He took seriously the socialist promise of National Socialism and demanded that Hitler and the other party leaders initiate wide-ranging socialist reform in Germany. [11] Rhm saw violence as a means to political ends. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. David Low responded to what became known as the Night of the Long Knives by producing a cartoon that deeply angered Hitler. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet, one-third of the total. After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). Night Of The Long Knives Cartoon 3 of 3. , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. A poster from the March 1933 elections. , On 15 March 1938, following the German annexation of Austria three days earlier, Hitler gave a speech in front of the palace in Vienna. By 1934 there were more than a million of them. The Nazis used violence to increase their vote share. "[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. The army's support for the purge, however, would have far-reaching consequences for the institution. The Nazis improvised. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. By JAINDI KISEROWe all thought that it was President Uhuru Kenyatta's night of long knives a reference to Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's sudden decision in 1962 to replace a . . His perceived enemies were executed on the night of June 30, 1934. Do Damage By Placing Guns, Knives And Rockets In. On 30 June, Himmler's SS and Goering's special police arrested and executed the leaders of the SA and other Night of the Long Knives. The Night of the Long Knives commences. In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. [73] However, despite the rehabilitation of the two murdered officers, the Nazis continued in private to accuse Schleicher of high treason. By early 1934, this vision directly conflicted with Hitler's plan to consolidate power and expand the Reichswehr. Now that the NSDAP had seized the reins of power in Germany, he said, it was time to consolidate its control. The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. 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. [41] Several leaders of the disbanded Catholic Centre Party were also murdered in the purge. 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. 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. The Night of the Long Knives (aka Blood Purge) was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany. The Freikorps were nationalistic organizations primarily composed of disaffected, disenchanted, and angry German combat veterans founded by the government in January 1919 to deal with the threat of a Communist revolution when it appeared that there was a lack of loyal troops. They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. 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. "[55] Reich Justice Minister Franz Grtner, a conservative who had been Bavarian Justice Minister in the years of the Weimar Republic, demonstrated his loyalty to the new regime by drafting the statute, which added a legal veneer to the purge. 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. [17] While Hitler did not take immediate action against Rhm for his intemperate outburst, it nonetheless deepened the rift between them. The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. In his speech to the Reichstag on 13 July justifying his actions, Hitler denounced Schleicher for conspiring with Rhm to overthrow the government; Hitler alleged both were traitors working in the pay of France. 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. 2. The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. Add to Favorites. However, the threat of a declaration of martial law from Hindenburg, the only person in Germany with the authority to potentially depose the Nazi regime, put Hitler under pressure to act. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. Rhm left the Reichswehr in 1923 and later became commander of the SA. Centuries of jurisprudence proscribing extrajudicial killings were swept aside. [33] On 28 June Hitler went to Essen to attend the wedding celebration and reception of Josef Terboven; from there he called Rhm's adjutant at Bad Wiessee and ordered SA leaders to meet with him on 30 June at 11:00. The crowd, which included party members and many SA members fortunate enough to escape arrest, shouted its approval. Reichswehr [34], At about 04:30 on 30 June 1934, Hitler and his entourage flew to Munich. The Night Of The Long Knives. 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. With Hitler's arrival in Bad Wiessee between 06:00 and 07:00, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. night of the long knives phrase. 'The Night of the Long Knives' is now commony associated with a particularly violent political purge in Nazi Germany in 1934. Only the SPD opposed it. This fear was [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. and 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. "[46], Some SA members died saying "Heil Hitler" because they believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to their execution. Others were appalled at the scale of the executions and at the relative complacency of many of their fellow Germans. It's been called "the night of the long knives in the tropics.". [21], Demands for Hitler to constrain the SA strengthened. By the end of May 1934, Hitler had been chancellor for 16 . [37] Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. This included Vice-Chancellor Papen and those in his immediate circle. of democracy. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. On 25 June, General Werner von Fritsch placed the Reichswehr on the highest level of alert. On 13 July 1934 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. . 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]. Close 'Here after let this be known as the night of the long side burns!' The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point in the history of Hitler's Germany. 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. July 1-13, 1934 Editorials, opinion pieces, letters-to-the-editor, and political cartoons regarding the "Night of the Long Knives". From 20 August onwards, the The SA used to be fiercely loyal to Hitler, and so would salute him with the Nazi salute (with one hand). The primary instruments of Hitler's action, which carried out most of the killings, were the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary force under Himmler and its Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (secret police) under Reinhard Heydrich.