Editing Night of the Long Knives (section)

==Growing pressure against the SA==
Despite his earlier agreement with Hitler, Röhm still clung to his vision of a new German army with the SA at its core. By early 1934, this vision directly conflicted with Hitler's plan to consolidate power and expand the Reichswehr. Because their plans for the army conflicted, Röhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. Moreover, it was not just the Reichswehr that viewed the SA as a threat. Several of Hitler's lieutenants feared Röhm's growing power and restlessness, as did Hitler. As a result, a political struggle within the party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including [[Free State of Prussia|Prussian]] premier [[Hermann Göring]], [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|Propaganda Minister]] [[Joseph Goebbels]], ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]], and Hitler's deputy [[Rudolf Hess]], positioning themselves against Röhm. While all of these men were veterans of the Nazi movement, only Röhm continued to demonstrate his independence from, rather than his loyalty to, Adolf Hitler. Röhm's contempt for the party's bureaucracy angered Hess. SA violence in Prussia gravely concerned Göring.{{sfn|Collier|Pedley|2005|p=33}}

Finally, in early 1934, the growing rift between Röhm and Hitler over the role of the SA in the Nazi state led former chancellor General [[Kurt von Schleicher]] to start playing politics again.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|pp=315–316}} 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, Röhm minister of defence, [[Heinrich Brüning]] foreign minister and [[Gregor Strasser]] minister of national economy.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|pp=315–316}} The British historian Sir [[John Wheeler-Bennett]], who knew Schleicher and his circle well, wrote that Bredow displayed a "lack of discretion" that was "terrifying" as he went about showing the list of the proposed cabinet to anyone who was interested.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=316}} Although Schleicher was in fact unimportant by 1934, increasingly wild rumours that he was scheming with Röhm to re-enter the corridors of power helped stoke the sense of crisis.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=317}}

As a means of isolating Röhm, on 20 April 1934, Göring transferred control of the Prussian political police (Gestapo) to Himmler, who, Göring believed, could be counted on to move against Röhm.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=29}} Himmler named his deputy [[Reinhard Heydrich]] to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=61}} Himmler envied the independence and power of the SA, although by this time he and Heydrich had already begun restructuring the SS from a bodyguard formation for Nazi leaders (and a subset of the SA) into its own independent elite corps, one loyal to both himself and Hitler. The loyalty of the SS men would prove useful to both when Hitler finally chose to move against Röhm and the SA. By May, lists of those to be "liquidated" started to circulate amongst Göring and Himmler's people, who engaged in a trade, adding enemies of one in exchange for sparing friends of the other.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=317}} At the end of May Brüning and Schleicher, two former chancellors, received warnings from friends in the ''Reichswehr'' that their lives were in danger and they should leave Germany at once.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=317}} Brüning fled to the Netherlands while Schleicher dismissed the tip-off as a bad practical joke.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=317}} By the beginning of June everything was set and all that was needed was permission from Hitler.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=317}}

[[File:Vonpapen1 crop.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Franz von Papen]], the conservative vice-chancellor who ran afoul of Hitler after denouncing the regime's failure to rein in the SA in his [[Marburg speech]]. The photo was taken in 1946 at the [[Nuremberg trials]].]]
Demands for Hitler to constrain the SA strengthened. Conservatives in the army, industry and politics placed Hitler under increasing pressure to reduce the influence of the SA and to move against Röhm. While [[Röhm scandal|Röhm's homosexuality]] did not endear him to conservatives, they were more concerned about his political ambitions. Hitler remained indecisive and uncertain about just what precisely he wanted to do when he left for Venice to meet [[Benito Mussolini]] on 15 June.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|pp=317–318}} Before Hitler left, and at the request of Presidential State Secretary [[Otto Meißner]], Foreign Minister Baron [[Konstantin von Neurath]] ordered the German Ambassador to Italy [[Ulrich von Hassell]]&nbsp;– without Hitler's knowledge&nbsp;– to ask Mussolini to tell Hitler that the SA was blackening Germany's good name.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=318}} Neurath's manoeuvre to put pressure on Hitler paid off, with Mussolini agreeing to the request (Neurath was a former ambassador to Italy, and knew Mussolini well).{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=318}} During the summit in Venice, Mussolini upbraided Hitler for tolerating the violence, hooliganism and homosexuality of the SA, which Mussolini stated were ruining Hitler's good reputation all over the world. Mussolini used the affair occasioned by the June 1924 kidnapping and murder of Italian socialist politician [[Giacomo Matteotti]] as an example of the kind of trouble unruly followers could cause a dictator.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=318}} While Mussolini's criticism did not win Hitler over to acting against the SA, it helped push him in that direction.{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|1967|p=318}}

On 17 June 1934, conservative demands for Hitler to act came to a head when Vice-Chancellor [[Franz von Papen]], confidant of the ailing Hindenburg, gave [[Marburg speech|a speech]] at [[University of Marburg|Marburg University]] warning of the threat of a "second revolution".{{sfn|Von Papen|1953|pp=308–312}} According to his memoirs, von Papen, a [[Roman Catholicism in Germany|Catholic]] [[aristocrat]] with ties to army and industry, privately threatened to resign if Hitler did not act.{{sfn|Von Papen|1953|p=309}} While von Papen's resignation as vice-chancellor would not have threatened Hitler's position, it would have nonetheless been an embarrassing display of independence from a leading conservative.