Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives, sudden bloody purge within Germany’s Nazi Party on June 30-July 1, 1934. It was carried out by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Interior Minister Hermann Göring, and Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS or Schutzstaffel (German for “Security Squadron”), the elite military force of the Nazi Party. The principal victims of the “Night of the Long Knives” were Ernst Röhm and his chief lieutenants within the Sturmabteilung (the Storm Troops, also known as the SA). But many others were included, notably men who had opposed Hitler from 1931 to 1934. Among these were Hitler’s main critics within the Nazi Party, Gregor Strasser and General Kurt von Schleicher, the former chancellor. The “Night of the Long Knives” was the name given to the operation by the Nazis themselves; the expression refers to acts of vengeance. See also National Socialism.

The German Army, represented by General Werner von Blomberg, minister of defense, 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 German Army, also known as the Wehrmacht, was unacceptable. If this was attempted, Blomberg threatened that the dying president of Germany’s Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, would hand over power to the army and establish martial law. Hitler, who needed the army’s support 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, the state secret police, which was also then headed by Himmler. 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. By the end of the purge, at least 85 people had been killed summarily, although some historians estimate the death toll was as high as 200. Hitler openly revealed the chief executions to the German public, claiming a coup had been planned and he needed to bypass the German courts on an emergency basis.

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 (absolute leader of the Nazi Party) 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.