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The SS (body guard) were formed as a small and elite bodyguard for
Hitler. They were commanded by Heinrich Himmler who was supposed to
be supervised by Rohm. In 1933 the SS numbered 52,000 men compared
to nearly 3,000,000 SA commanded by Rohm. The SA was more than ten
times the size of the regular army.
On 30th June 1934, the Schutzstaffel or bodyguard (SS) shot around 400
enemies of the Nazi party including leaders of the SA claiming they were
preventing civil war. On that one night, Hitler effectively destroyed an
organisation of around 4,000,000 members, which was ten times the size
of the regular army with an army of 100,000 and an SS of 50,000. The SS
were formed as a small and elite bodyguard for Hitler, commanded by
Heinrich Himmler who was supposed to be supervised by Rohm. Hitler did
this by giving the SA a months paid leave meaning that the leaders were
left vulnerable and on their own because there was no SA to help them.
Rohm and the other leaders were then invited to a meeting with Hitler to
discuss the SAs behaviour and future gathering them all in one place. The
army provided the transport and the SS committed the murders. Not only
were the leaders of the SA killed, but also various other opponents such as
one the Stasser brothers who was the head of the socialist wing of the
party, Schleicher, who was the Chancellor before Hitler and Kahr who had
put down Hitlers Munich Putsch in 1923 despite now being a frail old man.
was replaced by Victor Lutze as head of the SA. Lutze was a weak man
and the SA gradually lost its power in Hitler's Germany. The SS under the
leadership of Heinrich Himmler grew rapidly during the next few years,
replacing the SA as the dominant force in Germany. The SS were a much
more organised and effective group than the SA and during the Third
Reich they established a very strong control on the country especially the
Gestapo (secret police) that eliminated any possible opponents at all
levels of German society. Such control of the German population made the
Nazi dictatorship even stronger because it was nearly impossible to
oppose the Nazis thanks to the SS.
The Night of the Long Knives was a success for the NSDAP party. It
eliminated the SAs violence and terror which had been threatening the
parties ties with the established German hierarchy and the coalition
parties, it strengthened Hitlers position as dictator of the party as a
possible rival to him had been eliminated and most importantly it gained
Hitler the support of the army which would be vital for the future of the
Third Reich. Hitler would not be threatened again as the leader of the Nazi
party until the bomb plot of 1944, because as Hitler announced he who
lifts his hand against the state now knows that certain death is his fate.
However, in recent times, this new theory over The Night of the Long
Knives has been put forward, notably by the historian Ian Kershaw. Hitlers
tactic of divide and rule encouraged NSDAP leaders such as Hermann
The contradictory socialist element of the NSDAP still existed within the
party stemming from the 1920 manifesto. The four million SA included
many members who actually believed in the 'socialism' of National
Socialism and also wanted a true revolutionary army in place of the
regular German Army. These anti-capitalist views expressed by the
masses caused great concern to big businesses that helped put Hitler in
power with their investments of money. Hitler had removed trade unions
and the communists but now with talk of a second revolution the NSDAP
were sounding communist themselves and businessmen were becoming
worried and were threatening to remove their funding to the party which
they desperately needed to build the economy on which was still suffering
from the Great Depression.
Although the Night of the Long Knives can be seen as a crucial event in
the creation of the Nazi dictatorship, in my opinion it was not the single
most important incident. I believe the Enabling Act was the most
important factor in the establishment of the dictatorship because it
essentially gave Hitler the power to pass whichever laws he desired. The
Law passed on March 23rd 1933, basically allowed Hitler to do away with
the Reichstag and decisions were passed by the nine-man government
which the Nazis had a control of. Upon passing the bill the NSDAP could
ban opposition parties and remove other possible future enemies such as
the trade unions, one by one with the policy of Gleichshaltung or
Nazification. In my opinion the Act was more important than the Night of
the Long Knives because it gave the Hitler near dictatorial powers and
The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point in the history of Hitler's
Germany. It was the first organised purge of the party, years before the
start of the final solution. 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.