Third Reich Day by Day: June 1934

The tensions between the SA leadership and Hitler exploded in 1934. Ernst Röhm, believing that the Nazi revolution should be taken a step further, began to talk of the SA replacing the army. Hitler, however, now firmly in power, did not want to alienate the army or the conservative élites that were backing him. Egged on by other senior Nazis, the Führer decided to eradicate the SA threat. The result was the Night of the Long Knives, during which the senior leadership of the SA, including Röhm, was killed.

1 June

Armed Forces, Navy

The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is launched.

5 June

Nazi Party, SA

Hitler with the bullet-scarred Röhm. The Führer was quite fond of the SA leader, and went ahead with the purge reluctantly.
Hitler with the bullet-scarred Röhm. The Führer was quite fond of the SA leader, and went ahead with the purge reluctantly.

Röhm is summoned to a private conference with Hitler which results in a month-long leave for the whole of the SA in July.

14 June

Germany, International Relations

Hermann Göring directed operations from Berlin during the Röhm Purge. Like other Nazis, he disliked Röhm intensely.
Hermann Göring directed operations from Berlin during the Röhm Purge. Like other Nazis, he disliked Röhm intensely.

German diplomats arrange a meeting between Hitler and Italian dictator Mussolini in Venice. Hitler stated in his writings from Mein Kampf “that it would be an advantage for Germany to improve relations with Italy in the future”. The pursuit of this policy has not been possible after his coming to power due to one major stumbling block: Hitler’s own birthplace, Austria.

The peacemakers of 1919 had granted this small country which was the last fragment of the Hapsburg Empire to Italy to be her guarantee of security - it served as a buffer zone. For this reason Italy could not allow Austria to be absorbed into Germany or fall under German control. In 1934, civil war broke out between the Austrian Clericals and the Austrian Socialists. These hostilities in turn stirred up the Austrian Nazis. German diplomats hope that Hitler will not actively push the Austrian question at this meeting between him and Mussolini. They believe that by meeting Mussolini face to face Hitler can be pushed into concessions. At this meeting Hitler and Mussolini pronounce their mutual dislike of France and the Soviet Union and Hitler renounces any desire to annex Austria. The Duce requests that the Austrian Nazis drop their campaign, and in return Dollfuss, the Clerical Chancellor, will treat them more sympathetically.

20 June

Nazi Party, SA

The meeting between Hitler and Röhm seems to have done little to ease tensions. A shot fired at Hitler wounds Himmler; it is thought to have been fired by an SA escort.

25 June

Nazi Party, SA

The “League of German Officers” disowns Röhm and expels him. The Abwehr, the military intelligence organization, claims to have secret SA orders to stage a coup d’état. The army has cancelled all leave.

26 June

Nazi Party, SA

Himmler warns senior SS and SD (Sicherheitsdienst - the party’s intelligence and security body) officers of an impending SA revolt.

27 June

Nazi Party, SA

“Sepp” Dietrich, commanding the SS Guard in Berlin, goes to army headquarters and is given extra weapons and transport for his men. A rumour spreads that the SA plans to kill the army old guard.

28 June

Nazi Party, SA

Hitler travels from Berlin to Essen to attend the wedding of the local Gauleiter Terboven.

29 June

Nazi Party, SA

Minister of Defence General Werner von Blomberg, who ordered that the army take an oath of allegiance to Hitler.
Minister of Defence General Werner von Blomberg, who ordered that the army take an oath of allegiance to Hitler.

The Völkischer Beobachter prints an article by Minister of Defence Blomberg pledging loyalty to Hitler and asking for curbs on the SA. Hitler visits Labour Camps and goes on to Bad Godesberg near Bonn, on the Rhine, where he is joined by Goebbels. Göring, meanwhile, mobilizes his Berlin police and SS units. The SA in Munich have been ordered out aimlessly on the streets by anonymous notes - the local Gauleiter tells Hitler this is proof of the SA’s disloyalty.

30 June

Nazi Party, Röhm Purge

Hitler accepts an invitation to attend a conference of SA high leaders at the Vierjahreszeiten Hotel in Bad Weissee, hosted by Röhm. Hitler drives to Bad Weissee where Röhm and other SA men are staying at the hotel. But then Hitler flies at dawn to Munich with Goebbels, Dietrich and Lutze of the SA. The Führer is in a highly volatile state, ranting and making threats. He orders Schmidt and Schneidhubber, leading SA officers, to be sent to Stadelheim jail. The Munich Gauleiter is given lists of SA men and others in Bavaria to arrest. He orders them all to Stadelheim, some 200 of them, except for Heines, the SA commander of Silesia, who is found in bed with a man and is shot immediately. Goebbels now sends a codeword Colibri to Berlin for action. SA leaders in Berlin are taken to the army cadet school at Licherfelde and shot immediately. Murders of hundreds thought to be dangerous to the Nazis take place, including ex-Chancellor von Schleicher. Hitler prepares announcements from the Brown House in Munich and flies back to Berlin. Röhm is still alive, but the Night of the Long Knives is over.