The Night of the Long Knives June 1934

By Joshua Mottram,

Kieran Morrison and Anas Elmadani

Hitler’s rise to power

• From the period 1929-1934 the Nazi’s were rising to power and The Night of the Long Knives was what virtually allowed Hitler to become the Fuhrer.

What happened?

• President Hindenburg still in overall charge, but was old and senile and wanted Hitler to become President.

• The threat of the SA

The SA

• The SA were starting to be seen as an embarrassment and the army regarded them as no more than a rabble.

• The army also feared them due to there numbers and because their leader, Ernst Rohm, had openly spoken about taken over the real army.

• Heinrich Himmler, Herman Goering and Joseph Goebbels, 3 powerful Nazis, didn’t like Rohm and strated convincing Hitler that the SA were a threat.

• Many Nazi’s also didn’t like Rohm because he was a homosexual and many Nazi’s already held that prejudice.

Hitler takes action

• Hitler’s support of the rich business men and industrialists endangered.

• They had funded him up to 1933.

• Code word: “Hummingbird”.

• Those two nights of the Long Knives roughly 400 SA were killed and Rohm was arrested.

Hitler in total control

• With any opposition that threatened the Nazi party gone and with Hindenburg having no intentions in stopping Hitler, he was in total control.

• Hindenburg’s death, Hitler officially the Fuhrer.

• Between January 1933 and August 1934 Hitler had changed Germany from a democracy to a Nazi dictatorship, the Weimar Republic was finished and the Third Reich had begun.

• Hitler had total control of Germany.

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