Blackwell Reference Online

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The purge of sturmabteilung (SA) leaders that began in Germany on June 30, 1934, under hitler's orders. During the early months of Nazi rule (see nazism ), röhm and other “brownshirt” chiefs who felt as yet inadequately rewarded became further discontented by the new regime's unwillingness to adopt tougher policies against the vested interests of industrialists and junkers . They also resented Hitler's resistance to their urgings that the SA should become a real people's army, even to the point of absorbing the Wehrmacht. Once goering and himmler had convinced Hitler that a putsch from Röhm was imminent, the retaliation was brutal and swift. In the course of three days some hundreds were murdered by the army and by Himmler's schutzstaffel (SS), including certain critics of the regime (such as Gregor Strasser and the ex-chancellor Kurt von Schleicher) who had little to do with the SA itself. This purge offered some reassurance to the Wehrmacht, but over the longer term it was no less significant for speeding the rise of the SS as a far more sinister rival force. ... log in or subscribe to read full text