The Night of the Long Knives

The Night of the Long Knives

By mid 1934 a power struggle had developed between the SA and the army, and Hitler had to choose between the two

The SA:

• Hitler depended on the SA to put his policies into action
• They helped fight communists
• It's leader Ernst Rohm was a potential rival to Hitler
• Rohm wanted the SA to take control of the army

The army:

• The army only had 100,000 soldiers
• The army was totally against being taken over by the SA
• The army were important in controlling Germany
• The opposition of the army had been Hitler's main problem when the Munich Putsch failed
• Hitler told the army leaders of his plan to re-arm Germany and to take over lebensraum. He also intended to go to war with France

The were many reasons for both the…