<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Casualties </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> 85 officially and upwards to 150--200 total </Td> </Tr> <P> The Night of the Long Knives (German: Nacht der langen Messer (help info)), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: Unternehmen Kolibri) or, in Germany, the Röhm Putsch (German spelling: Röhm - Putsch), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazis, carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Adolf Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany . Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' own paramilitary organization, colloquially known as the "Brownshirts" due to the color of their uniforms . The best - known victim of the purge was Ernst Röhm, the SA's leader and one of Hitler's longtime supporters and allies . Leading members of the left - wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis, such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Bavarian politician Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 . The murders of SA leaders were also intended to improve the image of the Hitler government with a German public that was increasingly critical of thuggish Brownshirt tactics . </P> <P> Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power . Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr, the official German military who feared and despised the SA, in particular Röhm's ambition to merge the Reichswehr (the German Army) and the SA under his own leadership . Additionally, Hitler was uncomfortable with Röhm's outspoken support for a "second revolution" to redistribute wealth . In Röhm's view, President Hindenburg's appointing of Hitler as German Chancellor on January 30, 1933 had accomplished the "nationalistic" revolution but had left unfulfilled the "socialistic" purpose of National Socialism . 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 . </P>

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