Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives, sudden bloody purge within the Nazi Party carried out by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Interior Minister Hermann Göring, and SS leader Heinrich Himmler on June 30-July 1, 1934. The principal victims of the “Night of the Long Knives” (this was the name given to it by the Nazis themselves) were Ernst Röhm and his chief lieutenants within the SA; but many others were included, notably men who had opposed Hitler between 1931 and 1934. Among these were the Führer's main critic within the Nazi Party, Gregor Strasser, and General Kurt von Schleicher, the former Chancellor.

The German Army, represented by General Werner von Blomberg, Minister of Defence, had made it clear to Hitler that Röhm's ambition to be Minister of War and merge his immense SA following of unruly storm troopers with the small but highly professional Wehrmacht, was unacceptable. If this was attempted, Blomberg threatened that the dying President Hindenburg would hand over power to the army and establish martial law. Hitler, who needed the accommodation of the powerful army for his own bid for the presidency and his plans for rearmament—not to mention the support of conservative forces against the radical wing of the Nazi Party—took this as his cue. He moved against Röhm in Munich, arresting him in person and ordering his execution by the Gestapo; in Berlin, Göring and Himmler carried out the arrest and summary killing of a number of other prominent opponents. All over Germany similar scores were settled, and by the end of the night the death toll had reached around 200.

The demands of the army were now satisfied, and on Hindenburg's death on August 2 the military raised no objection to Hitler's proposal that he assume the combined offices of Führer and Chancellor, which was confirmed by a plebiscite on August 19. But the triumph of the professional military over the party militia was deceptive, for Himmler's SS, now rid of its SA connection, became a far greater threat to the army and to the German establishment than Röhm's sprawling SA could ever have been.