Chapter 73 Chapter 12 The Second Revolution (1)

- "All revolutions devour their own sons and daughters" 1934.2-8 Hitler's pledge to reduce the number of SA was sincere.Over the years, the independence displayed by the stormtroopers had caused him a lot of headaches.In recent months, the commander of the stormtroopers, Captain Rohm, has been asking for his men to be converted into troops.Naturally, the military is opposed to this move. Hitler knew that the best way for him to survive was to support the military leaders, because without their full support, he could not achieve his ultimate goal.Then he announced: "In our country, only the Reichswehr is allowed to bear arms; the stormtroopers are only responsible for political education of the people." A situation of prolonged struggle between the two factions.On the one hand, they are still loyal to Hitler, the spiritual leader. On the other hand, many people also feel that he has betrayed the "Brown Revolution" and is selling himself to the right.

They see themselves as symbols of activism within the party, dissatisfied with reforms made in their year in power.For months, Roma (“ideals come from those who are not pessimistic”) have been preaching a “second revolution” in order to reap the social and material benefits they fought for. "Anyone who thinks that the task of the stormtroopers is done," he told a crowd of 8,000 brownshirts at Tamberov Airport, "has to think that we are still here and want to stay here, regardless of what happens. what's the situation." While most party members shared anti-capitalist and conservative sentiments, the most radical and fervent were the SA.Rohm repeatedly preached that he and his men were the real defenders of National Socialism (“We are incorruptible guarantors of the completion of the German Revolution”).

Hitler, despite his sympathy for the Radicals, told him in his head that further revolution was out of the question unless Germany recovered from its economic catastrophe and rebuilt its armed forces.This cannot be done without the full support of industry and the military.At the same time, in order to calm things down, he let Rohm serve as an independent minister in the cabinet and promised to make him the minister of defense.Therefore, he commended him in writing on January 1, 1934.Testimonials are excellent because the nickname "you" is generally second-person singular.Hitler's original intention was to praise him on the one hand and gently warn him on the other hand that the defense of the country should be left to the army, but Rohm failed to grasp this.He thought that with Hitler's backing, he was emboldened, and he sent a note to the Ministry of Defense, claiming that it was the prerogative of the SA to defend the country's security.

This intensified the contradiction.General von Blomberg then appealed to Hitler for a ruling. On the last day of February 1934, Hitler dejectedly invited the leaders of the SA and the Wehrmacht to a meeting in the Ministry of Defense's training hall with marble columns.In his "moving, heart-wrenching" speeches, Hitler urged both sides to compromise.He said that the party solved the unemployment problem, but after 8 years, the economy will decline again, and the only remedy is to create living space for the surplus population.This may necessitate brief, decisive military action first in the West and then in the East.However, the militia suggested by Rohm was "not at all suitable for national defense".The solution is to create a people's army, train them rigorously, and arm them with the latest weapons.The stormtroopers had to confine themselves to internal political affairs.

At this point, Hitler forced Blomberg and Rohm to sign the agreement in his presence.The Stormtroopers were given two semi-trivial tasks: to serve as police officers along the state border; to conduct military training for youths aged 18 to 21, and to train in "Stormtroop Sports" for youths aged 21 to 26 who had not served in the armed forces — This is the code name for organized military training. It was a blow to Romm, but after the meeting he invited everyone to a reconciliation lunch at his home (his former millionaire's mansion). "Hitler did not attend," recalled General von Wisch, "the food was good—the atmosphere was frosty. Anyway, peace seemed to have been restored. It was certainly believed that Hitler had great power in the party and that their decisions were critical to the charge. The team will be binding."

As soon as the soldiers left, Romm, perhaps drunk, burst into genuine emotion: "What that utterly ridiculous corporal says is nothing," he told his followers, "I don't want to abide by this agreement at all. Hitler is a traitor, at least he needs to go on vacation... If we have him, we can't achieve our goal, so we don't want him at all." At least one listener was taken aback.According to Victor Luzer, the captain of the stormtroopers, this was a betrayal.So he reported to Hess.The Führer's adjutant was indecisive and dared not act.Junkdo went to Obersalzburg in person to report serious dissatisfaction among the senior leadership of the SA to Hitler.The Führer was again indifferent. "Things have to be allowed to develop," the Führer declined to discuss further, as if unwilling to acknowledge the near-riot grievances of his beloved stormtroopers.However, a few weeks later, he flatly rejected Rohm's comments: "The graystone (army) must be flooded with brown." He said "the new troops are gray, not brown."

Rom fought back. In April, he held a press conference in Berlin, attended by foreign journalists and officials from various diplomatic missions.He was short and fat, full of strength, majestic, and his tone of speech was aggressive, as if he had to obey him. "The SA is the heroic embodiment of the will and the ideas of the German Revolution," he said to foreigners, but the next paragraph was clearly addressed to Hitler.He said that those who opposed the SA in the party were all reactionaries and bourgeois conservatives. "Only the Stormtroopers represent the National Socialist Revolution!"

Within the SS, Rohm's secret enemies were already plotting to crush him.At the head was the head of the Secret Service, Reinhard Heydrich, not the head of the SS.This may seem strange at first glance—himmler was reluctant to support the plot for some days, perhaps because he feared that a public outburst with the SA would split the party—but, when one learns that Geoffrey When Lin also participated in this conspiracy, he was eager to try.Göring was not only the Führer's confidant, but he could also give him a long-coveted post-the head of the Prussian State Secret Police. (*The German word for the word Secret Police is Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt, which is convenient for postal delivery. A certain post office carved a seal for this new organization and abbreviated it as Gestapa. , it became Gestapo, translated into Chinese as "Gestapo"—annotation) As soon as Himmler colluded with this party leader, he immediately became the head of the Gestapo.He then hinted to all SS units that an open struggle with the SA was imminent.Heydrich reported that he had gathered material proving Rohm's treachery.In this way, the struggle will be a foregone conclusion.In fact, Roma had no intention of launching an uprising at all.All he wanted was to separate the Führer from his shady advisers with "a golden cage" and press Hitler to give the SA its proper place within the Reich.He was waging nervous warfare, not betrayal, but his threatening language was a source of panic. On June 4, Hitler summoned Roehm to the Chancellery. According to Hitler, their conversation lasted 5 hours. "I implore him to voluntarily object to this insanity - and to use his powers to prevent the development of the situation. Because it can only end in disaster anyway... The Chief of Staff assured me that the report was partially inaccurate, It was exaggerated in part, and he will do everything in his power to rectify the situation. After that, he is gone."

Although one eyewitness, Papen's adjutant, swore that he heard them "arguing loudly," Hitler's version finds no sign of it.Roehm, who probably left late at night, had the impression that the Führer, although sympathetic to the SA, had to curb its activities under pressure from the military.It is also possible that Hitler thought he had really shaken hands with Rohm.For almost at the same time the Secret Service reported that the Führer had reached an agreement with the SA commander on several issues. It was agreed that the stormtroopers' scheduled one-month vacation for all will begin as scheduled.The news was announced by the German Press Agency on June 7.The next day, the German Press Bureau announced the puzzling "Order of the Rohm Chief of Staff"."I have been suffering for several weeks from a painful neurological disease that has impaired my health. It is now decided to follow the doctor's orders for treatment for recovery," the order said.

These two messages reassured the military.They sensed that this was a sign of Rom's fall.Heydrich was taken aback - he only needed 3 weeks to complete his plan against the SA.These two messages forced Hitler to take decisive action.Roehm's sister-in-law, among others, warned Roehm of rumors of a Göring-Goebbels-Himmler conspiracy to get rid of him. "He also sensed that something was wrong," she recalls, "but he didn't take it seriously. He never had the slightest doubt about Hitler."