![]() To a lesser extent, the Sturmabteilung (SA), a Nazi paramilitary organization, remained somewhat autonomous within the party. While many officers were impressed by Hitler's promises of an expanded army, a return to conscription, and a more aggressive foreign policy, the army continued to guard its traditions of independence during the early years of the Nazi regime. As chancellor, Hitler did not command the army, which remained under the formal leadership of Hindenburg, a highly respected veteran field marshal. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. 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 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. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. To his left is Julius Streicher, and standing beneath him is Hermann Göring. Hitler poses in Nuremberg with SA members in 1928. It established Hitler as the supreme administrator of justice of the German people, as he put it in his 13 July speech to the Reichstag. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. ![]() 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 purge strengthened and consolidated the support of the military for Hitler. More than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Īt least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, with high estimates running from 700 to 1,000. 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. In Röhm'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. ![]() Additionally, Hitler was uncomfortable with Röhm's outspoken support for a "second revolution" to redistribute wealth. He also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival, in particular because of Röhm's ambition to merge the army and the SA under his own leadership. 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. The murders of SA leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish SA tactics. 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. Many of those killed in the purge were leaders of the SA, the best-known being Röhm himself, the SA's chief of staff and one of Hitler's longtime supporters and allies. Göring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. 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. Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Röhm – the so-called Röhm Putsch. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring 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 Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". info)), or the Röhm purge (German: Röhm-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 Night of the Long Knives ( German: Nacht der langen Messer ( help Officially 85 estimates range up to 1,000. Strengthening of relationship between Hitler and the military.Significant reduction in the regime's opposition.Elimination of the SA as a threat along with leader Ernst Röhm.Assassination of former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. ![]()
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