BUT Some within the Nazi Party opposed Hitler. Others were appalled at the scale of the executions and at the relative complacency of many of their fellow Germans. These acts removed peoples ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. How did the Night of the Long Knives help to create a dictatorship out of a democracy? [66], Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. The SA also ran a violent campaign of terror against any and all opponents of the Nazi regime. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). The army almost unanimously applauded the Night of the Long Knives, even though the generals Kurt von Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow were among the victims. [35] Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent propaganda justifying the purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude. Many were terrified of voting of at all, and many turned to voting for the Nazi Party out of fear for their own safety. Once inside Rhm's cell, they handed him a Browning pistol loaded with a single cartridge and told him he had ten minutes to kill himself or they would do it for him. It shows the Nazis using violenc. Over the next two months, they launched themselves into an intense election campaign. 1922 1923 1925 1943 1944 Albert Speer Art Auschwitz autobahn British Pathe Cartoon cartoons Catholic Church Chancellor Dada Denmark Disney Document Documentary Film Final Solution Four Year Plan Goebbels Hindenburg Hitler Holocaust Hyperinflation Jews July Bomb Plot . The "knives of the long night" episode, as it is now called, took place with brutal swiftness. "[46], Some SA members died saying "Heil Hitler" because they believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to their execution. [56] Germany's legal establishment further capitulated to the regime when the country's leading legal scholar, Carl Schmitt, wrote an article defending Hitler's 13 July speech. The undersigned Generals and senior officers swear to preserve to the last breath their loyalty to you and the Fatherland. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. Others killed included Gregor Strasser, a former Nazi who had angered Hitler by resigning from the party in 1932, and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the former Bavarian state commissioner who had helped crush the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. Gleichschaltung was the process of the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany. Historian Gavin Mortimer explains how Hitler nearly came unstuck as early as 1934 - and that the bloody purge that followed was a warning of horrors to come. They used any space they could get their hands on to create temporary camps. dutch tool chest pdf. He asked, "What would people have said if I had done such a thing? "[85], Papen, nonetheless, remained in his position although people quite close to him were murdered, including, "At least eighty-five people are known to have been summarily killed without any formal legal proceedings being taken against them. Once the Enabling Law was in place, the Nazis could bypass the Reichstag and rule by decree seemingly creating laws that stabilised Germany and got rid of its internal enemies. [49] In 1957, the German authorities tried Lippert in Munich for Rhm's murder. The Nazis secured 43.9% of the vote, an improvement of almost 10% on the previous Novembers election. The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Rhm and the SA. While Rhm's homosexuality did not endear him to conservatives, they were more concerned about his political ambitions. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. 'The Night of the Long Knives' is now commony associated with a particularly violent political purge in Nazi Germany in 1934. kato-eng. He stated that 61 people had been executed and 13 had committed suicide. This continued when a young Dutchcommunist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime. Why did Hitler turn on the SA in the Night of the Long Knives? [7] Complaints of "overbearing and loutish" behaviour by stormtroopers became common by the middle of 1933. The Gestapo arrested and later executed Papen's close associate Edgar Jung, the author of Papen's Marburg speech, and disposed of his body by dumping it in a ditch. The atmosphere of uncertainty following the Reichstag Fire secured many voters for the Nazi party. July 14-20, 1934 News articles, editorials, opinion pieces, letters-to-the-editor, and . [21] By the beginning of June everything was set and all that was needed was permission from Hitler. Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Rhm the so-called Rhm Putsch. [28] Hitler had hesitated for months in moving against Rhm, in part due to Rhm's visibility as the leader of a national militia with millions of members. The Night of the Long Knives was a major purge of the SA and Nazi Party. On 17 March 1935, 700 pastors of the Confessing Church, which opposed the Nazis, were arrested. Also known as the "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers," the SA became notorious for their street battles with the Communists. The Peoples Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. Kurt von Schleicher's stepdaughter received 250 marks per month up to the age of 21, and the son of General von Bredow received a monthly allowance of 150 marks.[59]. Moreover, it was not just the Reichswehr that viewed the SA as a threat. [73] Hitler's speech was not reported in the German press, but the army was appeased by the speech. On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. Doug and Tony land in nineteenth century Asia, meet Rudyard Kipling and become involved in the conflict between the British and local tribesman for control of the Khyber Pass. Both Himmler and Gring welcomed Hitler's decision, since both had much to gain by Rhm's downfall the independence of the SS for Himmler and the removal of a rival for the future command of the army for Gring. Slope Unblocked Games 66 Is A Popular Arcade Game For School And Work From Google And Weebly Sites.21. The Reichstag, the German lower house of parliament, was set on fire on the 27 February 1933. It's been called "the night of the long knives in the tropics.". 7 Night of the Long Knives - 30 June 1934 . Hitler and the rest of the Nazi leadership disagreed with their approach. What does Long Knives expression mean? Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Gring at 10:00 with the codeword Kolibri to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims. David Low responded to what became known as the Night of the Long Knives by producing a cartoon that deeply angered Hitler. On 15 March 1938, following the German annexation of Austria three days earlier, Hitler gave a speech in front of the palace in Vienna. [e] Over the next few months, during the so-called Gleichschaltung, Hitler dispensed with the need for the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as a legislative body[f] and eliminated all rival political parties in Germany, so that by the middle of 1933 the country had become a one-party state under his direction and control. On 1 July, at Hitler's behest, Theodor Eicke, Commandant of the Dachau concentration camp, and his SS adjutant Michael Lippert visited Rhm. [24] Before Hitler left, and at the request of Presidential State Secretary Otto Meiner, Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath ordered the German Ambassador to Italy Ulrich von Hassell without Hitler's knowledge to ask Mussolini to tell Hitler that the SA was blackening Germany's good name. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-03-19 01:01:54 Boxid IA1794905 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier urn:oclc:record:1150935398 This represents how Hitler betrayed the SA, as they had been led to believe that they would gain power alongside Hitler. Now that the NSDAP had seized the reins of power in Germany, he said, it was time to consolidate its control. consolidate com. It will first explore this topic in chronological order, from the Reichstag Fire through to the death of President Hindenburg, and then explore it thematically in the last section. By the summer of 1934, the SA's numbers had swollen to 2 million men. As such, the Nazis consolidation of power relied on maintaining the illusion of a stable democracy. In two brutal days in 1934 Adolf Hitler and his senior staff would capture and execute Ernst Roehm, the rest of the senior leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and perhaps 1000 other enemies and threats to his control of Germany. On 25 June, General Werner von Fritsch placed the Reichswehr on the highest level of alert. He also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival, in particular because of Rhm's ambition to merge the army and the SA under his own leadership. Definition of night of the long knives in the Idioms Dictionary. It did not escape Klemperer's notice that many of the victims had played a role in bringing Hitler to power. [m] Years later, in November 1945, while being interviewed by psychologist Gustave Gilbert in his cell during the Nuremberg trials, Gring angrily justified the killings to Gilbert, "It's a damn good thing I wiped them out, or they would have wiped us out! In August 1932 there were approximately 445,000 members of the SA. Night of the Long Knives. Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. If passed, the law would establish the conditions needed for dictatorial rule. [64] One retired captain, Erwin Planck, seemed to realize this: "If you look on without lifting a finger", he said to his friend, General Werner von Fritsch, "you will meet the same fate sooner or later. Not content solely with the leadership of the SA, Rhm lobbied Hitler to appoint him Minister of Defence, a position held by the conservative General Werner von Blomberg. The SA (sometimes known as the "Stormtroopers" or "Brownshirts") was the paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that played a key role in the Nazi . It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. Hitler entitled the purge the 'Night of the Long Knives' - a reference to the lyrics from a popular Nazi song. 95.7% of the population voted. The SS found Breslau SA leader Edmund Heines in bed with an unidentified eighteen-year-old male SA senior troop leader. Over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. On 13 July 1934 the Reichstag Nazis Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler wait for the code word from Hitler to begin what will become known as the "Night of the Long Knives". Surrounding this scene, members of the Army and SS stand with their weapons pointing towards the SA members. From 20 August onwards, the On the 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed as chancellor of the Weimar Republic. During the years of the rise of the Nazi Party, the SA had been instrumental in helping the party to gain support. In reality, the laws that the Nazis put forward secured their future as the sole ruling party in Germany. Night of the Long Knives: Directed by Lance Miccio, Grant Slawson. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. Hitler had become a chancellor in 1933 henceforth he had the power to establish his power. Adolf Hitler . Over the next two days, most of the SA leadership were placed under arrest and murdered without trial. On 30 June, Himmler's SS and Goering's special police arrested and executed the leaders of the SA and other He wrote about the cartoon in his book, Years of Wrath (1949): "Nazi Party members and S.S. men got out of hand, clamouring for jobs in a Nazified industry and in an army under Nazi control; but Hitler had promised the . Hitler was shrewd enough to understand that he could never fully consolidate his grip on the country without the support of the army. The SA were the thugs who Hitler had used to help him come to power. As S.A. membership grew, they were becoming harder . June 30, 1934 - July 12, 1934 News articles about the arrest and murder of leadership within the SA, as well as political opponents of the Nazis ("Night of the Long Knives"). [37] Arriving back at party headquarters in Munich, Hitler addressed the assembled crowd. 3. Night of the Long Knives 1. The Nazis also took steps to ensure they couldnt be openly opposed in the press. Among the few exceptions were General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who started a campaign to have Schleicher rehabilitated by Hitler. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. Although Hitler ordered him released days later, Papen no longer dared to criticize the regime and was sent off to Vienna as German ambassador.[43]. No one in the SA spoke more loudly for "a continuation of the German revolution" (as one prominent stormtrooper, Edmund Heines, put it) than Rhm himself. Hitler told the crowd that "undisciplined and disobedient characters and asocial or diseased elements" would be annihilated. Many of the prisoners were tortured and abused. coup ", Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:34, Night of the Long Knives (disambiguation), The History Place Triumph of Hitler Night of the Long Knives, German Culture The Third Reich Consolidation of Power, The German Embassy in the United States The Era of National Socialism, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Night_of_the_Long_Knives&oldid=1142048294, Operation Hummingbird, Rhm Putsch (by the Nazis), The Blood Purge. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. Following the purge, the Nazis sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and uncontrollable force, rather than a series of political murders. Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to a dictatorship. [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. Several of Hitler's lieutenants feared Rhm's growing power and restlessness, as did Hitler. The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. The Night of the Long Knives (aka Blood Purge) was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany. It's helped us to become more accustomed to acts of grim self-interested political butchery; but for those witnessing these events as they happened, they were simply unprecedented. This is a crucial part of Hitler's consolidation of power. Terror and intimidation became one of the main ways that the Nazis sought to control or suppress their opposition, and Germans in general. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies.[a]. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. Gring instructed police stations to burn "all documents concerning the action of the past two days". Goebbels became responsible for controlling the national media, film, theatre, arts, and other cultural aspects. Background Hitler was Chancellor (Prime Minister), but not yet completely in control. Following Hitlers appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler's Rise to Power - Part 2 | History DocumentaryWatch 'The Night of Long Knives - Part 1' here: https://youtu.be/7CeX6jBau. Browse 1,447 happy its friday cartoon stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. , was then given the choice of suicide or murder. The Night of the Long Knives was "an act of carnage" which had come out of the blue. By the end of May 1934, Hitler had been chancellor for 16 . The Night of the Long Knives commences. Cartoonist: des MONDE. The Night of the Long Knives. It is otherwise known as coordination or Nazification. SA violence in Prussia gravely concerned Gring. Called the Nacht der langen Messer in Germany, this event occurred over a series of days and entailed the Nazi regime's murder of those Hitler considered to be political enemies. The Night of the Long Knives involved the violent purge of certain members of the Nazi Party from June 30th to July 2nd in 1934. Having earlier imprisoned or exiled prominent Social Democrats and Communists, Hitler used the occasion to move against conservatives he considered unreliable. Rhm demurred, telling them, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself. The Night of the Long Knives. [70] It is noteworthy that even those officers who were most offended by the killings, like Hammerstein and Mackensen, did not blame the purge on Hitler, whom they wanted to see continue as Chancellor; they at most wanted a reorganization of the Cabinet to remove some of Hitler's more radical followers. Enraged, Hitler tore the epaulets off the shirt of Obergruppenfhrer August Schneidhuber, the chief of the Munich police, for failing to keep order in the city the previous night. Paul von Hindenburg was the president of the Weimar Republic from the 12 May 1925 until his death on the 2 August 1934. With Hindenburg gone, there was no longer a limit to Hitlers power. Under pressure from Hitler, Rhm reluctantly signed a pledge stating that he recognised the supremacy of the Reichswehr over the SA. [g] Many stormtroopers believed in the socialist promise of National Socialism and expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy. British cartoon by David Low, 1934. The Night of the Long Knives, which was originally published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories in 1960, feels surprisingly current the character names are the most dated-feeling aspect of the story. Hitler ordered the murders of conspicuous Conservative anti-Nazis such as Kurt Von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Left wing Nazis such as Gregor Strasser and many members of the SA including its leader Ernst Rohm. Hitler shouted at Schneidhuber and accused him of treachery. Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. 2. However, to gain power Adolf Hitler built up a close and friendly relationship with Germany's industrialists. Conservatives in the army, industry and politics placed Hitler under increasing pressure to reduce the influence of the SA and to move against Rhm. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party On 24 March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, allowing Hitler to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag. Night of the Long Knives 30 June 1934. Blomberg, who had been meeting with the president, uncharacteristically reproached Hitler for not having moved against Rhm earlier. During a trip to Warsaw in January 1935, Gring told Jan Szembek that Schleicher had urged Hitler in January 1933 to reach an understanding with France and the Soviet Union, and partition Poland with the latter, and Hitler had Schleicher killed out of disgust with the alleged advice. They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. Further, he recognized that the Sturmabteilung was becoming increasingly useless as their main job to intimidate was becoming unnecessary as more people heeled to Hitler's . ", followed by 12,263 people on Pinterest. One of the men Gring recruited to assist him was Willi Lehmann, a Gestapo official and NKVD spy. On 19 August 1934, the German people were asked to vote on whether or not they approved of the merging of the two offices and Hitlers new role as Fhrer. A more succinct understand of the years between 1920 - 1945 of Hitler would be hard to find. [35] Papen was unceremoniously arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, despite his insistent protests that he could not be arrested in his position as Vice-Chancellor. The speed and scale of the reshuffle caused it to be associated by its critics with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany.. info)), or the Rhm purge (German: Rhm-Putsch), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: Unternehmen Kolibri), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Give Hitler four years to rebuild it! [68] Besides working for the rehabilitation of Schleicher and Bredow, Hammerstein and Mackensen sent a memo to Hindenburg on 18 July setting out in considerable detail the circumstances of the murders of the two generals and noted that Papen had barely escaped. . The Night of Long Knives, also known as the Rhm Putsch, was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from 30 June 1934 to 2 July 1934. They were under the control of Ernst Rhm, a loyal follower of Hitler since the early days of the Nazi Party. [72] Fritsch and Blomberg suddenly now claimed at the end of 1934 that as army officers they could not stand the exceedingly violent press attacks on Schleicher and Bredow that had been going on since July, which portrayed them as the vilest traitors, working against the Fatherland in the pay of France. This included Vice-Chancellor Papen and those in his immediate circle. [19] Schleicher criticized the current Hitler cabinet, while some of Schleicher's followers such as General Ferdinand von Bredow and Werner von Alvensleben started passing along lists of a new Hitler cabinet in which Schleicher would become vice-chancellor, Rhm minister of defence, Heinrich Brning foreign minister and Gregor Strasser minister of national economy. Hitler told the gathered officials, "The stream of revolution has been undammed, but it must be channelled into the secure bed of evolution. Adolf Hitler was in a furious temper when his flight touched down in Munich at 4.30am on 30 June 1934. We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. By mid-1934, Hitler seemed to be master of all Germany. The three men that stand in front of the SA are Hitler (standing aggressively with an armband that reads: the double cross- a pun about the swastika and Hitlers betrayal), Goering (who is dressed as a violent god of war, showing how the Nazis have abandoned democracy and now rule by terror), and Goebbels (shown as Hitlers poodle, since in Britain, where this cartoon was published,he was seen to be cowardly and extremely loyal to Hitler). With Hitler's arrival in Bad Wiessee between 06:00 and 07:00, the SA leadership, still in bed, were taken by surprise. On the 23 March 1933, Hitler proposed the Enabling Law to the Reichstag. Goebbels engineered the media coverage following the attack to present it as a preventative measure, in response to the SAs plan to overthrow the government. Although President Hindenburg and the Reichstag continued to exist, Hitler could now govern by decree. "They give . In 1933, up to 200,000 people were seized and imprisoned by the SA and the SS. How seriously Hitler took the socialist character of National Socialism was to remain one of the main causes of disagreement and division within the Nazi party up to the summer of 1934. On the 5 March 1933, the elections took place, with an extremely high turnout of 89%. Pressured by German army commanders, whose support he would need to become President, Hitler directs the SS to murder SA Chief of Staff Ernst Rhm and his top commanders. The Nazis used the guise of moderationto conceal their rapid consolidation of power. [57][58], A special fund administered by SS General Franz Breithaupt was set up for the relatives of the murdered, from which they were cared for at the expense of the state. , who had previously been a separate organisation, now swore a personal allegiance to Hitler. [38] Joseph Goebbels, who had been with Hitler at Bad Wiessee, set the final phase of the plan in motion. Do Damage By Placing Guns, Knives And Rockets In. persecution Despite some initial efforts by local prosecutors to take legal action against those who carried out the murders, which the regime rapidly quashed, it appeared that no law would constrain Hitler in his use of power. Its membership plummeted from 2.9 million in August 1934 to 1.2 million in April 1938. This decree suspended the democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic and declared a state of emergency. She even compared him to Frederick the Great, the 18th-century king of Prussia.[2]. "[65] Another rare exception was Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who spoke about the murders of Schleicher and Bredow at the annual General Staff Society meeting in February 1935 after they had been rehabilitated by Hitler in early January 1935. Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. As the leader of the SA, Rhm was seen as a threat to Hitlers power. In Berlin, on Gring's personal orders, an armed SS unit stormed the Vice-Chancellery. [79] This story would be popularized across western Europe in the 12th century as part of the History of the Britons by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which introduced many of the Arthurian legends to Germany.[80][81]. Join MyTutor Squads for free (and fun) help with Maths, Coding & Study Skills. Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. You gave these parties 14 years to ruin Germany! The Night Of The Long Knives. The primary instruments of Hitler's action, which carried out most of the killings, were the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary force under Himmler and its Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (secret police) under Reinhard Heydrich. After Hitler and most of the army officers had left, however, Rhm declared that he would not take instructions from "the ridiculous corporal" a demeaning reference to Hitler. Mr Maracin has filtered out much of the historical minutia belabored by other historians of Nazi Germany during this period and given us a quick 209 page read for those with a mild passing interest on how this to barbarism came to be. However, there were also other events which helped Hitler in achieving the position of a dictator. The Night of the Long Knives was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany. Deprived of Communist party meetings to disrupt, the stormtroopers would sometimes run riot in the streets after a night of drinking; they would attack passers-by and then attack the police who were called to stop them. The novella is now in the public domain, so you can get it free on Kindle, but I want to recommend the audio version which is 3 hours and 17 . [i] Rhm, as one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, had participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by Hitler to seize power by force in 1923. This essentially meant that the Nazis used the atmosphere of panic following the Reichstag Fireto put forward the Enabling Law. [76], According to Albert Speer, "the Right, represented by the President, the Minister of Justice, and the generals, lined up behind Hitler the strong left wing of the party, represented chiefly by the SA, was eliminated. The Night of Long Knives, one of most noteworthy events during Hitler's rule, was a purge that occurred on the 30th June 1934. Both Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler's predecessor as Chancellor, and his wife were murdered at their home. The SS was moving into position for the first of its many deadly tasks. 3. This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments. Although many Germans approached the official news of the events as described by Joseph Goebbels with a great deal of scepticism, many others took the regime at its word, and believed that Hitler had saved Germany from a descent into chaos. . The SA used to be fiercely loyal to Hitler, and so would salute him with the Nazi salute (with one hand). "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. The SA evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years. Unblocked games. With the army limited by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand soldiers, its leaders watched anxiously as membership in the SA surpassed three million men by the beginning of 1934. Gestapo officers attached to the SS unit shot Papen's secretary Herbert von Bose without bothering to arrest him first. The atmosphere of terror that had followed the Reichstag Fire, and Hindenburgs and von Papens support, made the proposal seem legitimate and, to some, necessary. [35] Schneidhuber was executed later that day. As such the Nazis justified this measure as implementing necessary security measures, rather than revealing their true motive to remove opposition. The destiny of our country is at stake. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic.