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Ultimately, Hitler ended up winning the chancery elections, and on January 30, 1933, the SA, alongside the SS, turned out in full uniform to celebrate his election victory, and also awaited for him to make an appearance alongside crowds of men, women and children with Nazi banners.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/named.htm</ref>

Ultimately, Hitler ended up winning the chancery elections, and on January 30, 1933, the SA, alongside the SS, turned out in full uniform to celebrate his election victory, and also awaited for him to make an appearance alongside crowds of men, women and children with Nazi banners.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/named.htm</ref>

To consolidate power, Hitler needed the backing of two groups considered fundamental to Germany's well-being: the big-business industrialists - such as I.G. Farben and Krupp - and the army.  Both eyed the SA as an uncontrolled mob, and Röhm as a power-seeker; indeed, evidence that he was an avid homosexual only added fuel to the fire,<ref name="Hitler: A Biography" /> although Hitler assured them that he had no plans to replace the army with the SA.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns">http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref> In addition, in order to ensure Nazi control was consolidated within the government, [[Hermann Göring]], by that time the Minister of the Interior, had hundreds of police officers who had been loyal to the Weimar Republic replaced with Nazi officials loyal only to Hitler, and also gave strict orders that the police not interfere with the SA, or the SS, under any circumstance, thus ensuring the SA could get away with beating up, harassing, and even murdering anyone with impunity.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /> On February 22, the SA, through Göring, managed to gain the power of the police force by setting up an auxillary arm of the police force that allowed for 50,000 men strong. On February 24, the SA raided the Communist headquarters in Berlin, and then, via the list of members of the Communist party, proceeded to list all 4,000 members of the German communists, with Göring falsely claiming that they uncovered a Communist plot to have the excuse to do so. On February 27, members of the SA led by Karl Ernst proceeded to commit arson on the Reichstag, with their also possibly recruiting Marinus van der Lubbe, a Communist arsonist who sought to instigate a revolution via arson, to also aid in the fire. After the resulting Reichstag Fire Decree was passed, the SA alongside the SS proceeded to raid known Communist hideouts and even private homes via trucks and then abduct them with the excuse of putting them under "protective custody, where many of them ended up beaten and tortured at the various SA barracks. Eventually, on March 5, after the elections, armed SA and SS members proceeded to raid the Reichstag to throw out legitimate office holders to replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners, using the aforementioned Reichstag Fire Decree as their justification. They then placed several political enemies in "wild" concentration camps, hastily constructed concentration camps that were stockades with little more than barbed wire, which were helmed by SA leaders as well as Gauliters. On May, there were flooded applications for them, with some going for the SA and SS after Hitler put a hiring freeze. 50,000 of them were later thrown out by Heinrich Himmler, with the older members cynically calling them "March Violets."<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/dictator.htm</ref>

To consolidate power, Hitler needed the backing of two groups considered fundamental to Germany's well-being: the big-business industrialists - such as I.G. Farben and Krupp - and the army.  Both eyed the SA as an uncontrolled mob, and Röhm as a power-seeker; indeed, evidence that he was an avid homosexual only added fuel to the fire,<ref name="Hitler: A Biography" /> although Hitler assured them that he had no plans to replace the army with the SA.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns">http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref> In addition, in order to ensure Nazi control was consolidated within the government, [[Hermann Göring]], by that time the Minister of the Interior, had hundreds of police officers who had been loyal to the Weimar Republic replaced with Nazi officials loyal only to Hitler, and also gave strict orders that the police not interfere with the SA, or the SS, under any circumstance, thus ensuring the SA could get away with beating up, harassing, and even murdering anyone with impunity.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /> On February 22, the SA, through Göring, managed to gain the power of the police force by setting up an auxillary arm of the police force that allowed for 50,000 men strong. On February 24, the SA raided the Communist headquarters in Berlin, and then, via the list of members of the Communist party, proceeded to list all 4,000 members of the German communists, with Göring falsely claiming that they uncovered a Communist plot to have the excuse to do so. On February 27, members of the SA led by Karl Ernst proceeded to commit arson on the Reichstag, with their also possibly recruiting Marinus van der Lubbe, a Communist arsonist who sought to instigate a revolution via arson, to also aid in the fire. After the resulting Reichstag Fire Decree was passed, the SA alongside the SS proceeded to raid known Communist hideouts and even private homes via trucks and then abduct them with the excuse of putting them under "protective custody, where many of them ended up beaten and tortured at the various SA barracks. Eventually, on March 5, after the elections, armed SA and SS members proceeded to raid the Reichstag to throw out legitimate office holders to replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners, using the aforementioned Reichstag Fire Decree as their justification. They then placed several political enemies in "wild" concentration camps, hastily constructed concentration camps that were stockades with little more than barbed wire, which were helmed by SA leaders as well as Gauliters. On May, there were flooded applications for them, with some going for the SA and SS after Hitler put a hiring freeze. 50,000 of them were later thrown out by Heinrich Himmler, with the older members cynically calling them "March Violets."<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-dachau.htm</ref><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/dictator.htm</ref> On August 1, 1933, a week after the Enabling Act had been passed by the Nazis, the SA during the resulting boycott stood in front of any Jewish shops, department stores, professional offices, and various business places and picketed in front of them with signs saying "Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops!" However, this ended up a failure on the part of the SA due to the German populace largely ignoring the signs in order to get discounts, as well as getting shopping chores out of the way (as it occurred on a Saturday), in addition to the smaller stores owned by Observant Jews being closed for the Sabbath in either case.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-boycott.htm</ref>

Eventually, the powerful men in the Nazi hierarchy - [[Heinrich Himmler]], Göring, and [[Joseph Goebbels]] - saw Röhm and the SA as a threat to their recently-won acquisition of power and decided on a plan to eliminate him.

Eventually, the powerful men in the Nazi hierarchy - [[Heinrich Himmler]], Göring, and [[Joseph Goebbels]] - saw Röhm and the SA as a threat to their recently-won acquisition of power and decided on a plan to eliminate him, with Hitler ultimately agreeing. At first, Hitler during a party meeting on February 1934 told Rohm that he won't be a military official in Nazi Germany, nor will the SA act as the official military, although he did intend to reserve them for certain political actions. Rohm publicly agreed with Hitler and signed the agreement, although after Hitler left, he made clear to the other members of the SA that he had no intention of honoring the agreement, viewing Hitler as a traitor. Two months later, Rohm dug himself and the SA into a deeper hole by boldly proclaiming to various foreign people in a press release that "[the Sturmabteilung] is the National Socialist Revolution", which ultimately made him a target by his rival, Himmler, alongside the latter's second in command, [[Reinhard Heydrich]]. After a long talk on June 1934, Rohm had the SA, by that time reaching well over four million members, go on leave for the month of July, with Hitler vowing to meet with the SA in a resort village near Munich to sort things out. However, on June 17 Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen ended up exposing the SA's rowdy behavior in a stump speech, as well as strongly insinuating that, far from being anti-Marxists, the SA were in fact actual Marxists, with President Hindenburg eventually, alongside General Blomberg, admonishing Hitler and warning him that if he doesn't get the SA under control, they will put Germany under martial law by the German military. In addition, Himmler and Heydrich were busy spreading rumors that Rohm and the SA were planning an overthrow. By June 28, Hitler, after being notified by telephone by Goring that various German conservatives were advocating for Hindenburg to declare martial law and that Rohm is planning an imminent overthrow during Josef Terboven's wedding, decided to put the plan in action, and eventually left his hotel at 2 a.m. to personally confront the SA leadership at the Bad Wiessee resort after Goring and Himmler made repeated late night phone calls indicating that the SA had somehow found out about the plans and are planning a counterattack. After arriving in Munich, he learned from Adolf Wagner that SA street demonstrations had occurred at Munich though they have since dissipated. Hitler then arrived at the Ministry of the Interior to confront the three SA members responsible, and ripped the Nazi insignia off their uniforms.<ref name="NotLK">http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-roehm.htm</ref>

Beginning on June 30, 1934, the [[Night of the Long Knives]] (''die Nacht der langen Messer'') took place near Munich at the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee where it was known that SA leadership were on holiday; the plan for execution was conceived by Himmler and [[Reinhard Heydrich]].<ref name="Hitler: A Biography">Kershaw, Ian. ''Hitler: A Biography'' (2008).</ref>  Röhm - caught in bed with a male SA lover by Hitler himself - was summarily executed, as well as many SA leaders over the next two days.<ref>Lively, Scott & Abrams, Kevin. ''The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party'', 4th Edition.</ref> Himmler gained enormously from the killings; his ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) became its own separate branch and would later grow from Hitler's personal bodyguard to become a terrifying force in World War II.<ref>Weale, Adrian. ''The SS: A New History'' (2010).</ref>  Its leadership decimated, the SA became a shadow of its former self. Thereafter, its only military use was that of training units for the German armed forces and later acting as the Home Guard during World War II.

Beginning on June 30, 1934, the [[Night of the Long Knives]] (''die Nacht der langen Messer'') took place near Munich at the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee where it was known that SA leadership were on holiday; the plan for execution was conceived by Himmler and [[Reinhard Heydrich]].<ref name="Hitler: A Biography">Kershaw, Ian. ''Hitler: A Biography'' (2008).</ref>  Röhm - caught in bed with a male SA lover by Hitler himself - was then arrested and eventually executed by Hitler in person at the prison, as well as many SA leaders over the next two days.<ref>Lively, Scott & Abrams, Kevin. ''The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party'', 4th Edition.</ref> The only exception was Edmund Heines, who was summarily executed on Hitler's orders after seeing him in bed with a male lover. The Night of the Long Knives eventually spanned Berlin and 20 other cities, which had included the SA leader of Berlin, Karl Ernst.<ref name="NotLK" /> Himmler gained enormously from the killings; his ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) became its own separate branch and would later grow from Hitler's personal bodyguard to become a terrifying force in World War II.<ref>Weale, Adrian. ''The SS: A New History'' (2010).</ref>  Its leadership decimated, the SA became a shadow of its former self. Thereafter, its only military use was that of training units for the German armed forces and later acting as the Home Guard during World War II.

The term is sometimes erroneously broadened to include all Nazis and even all [[fascists]], although strictly speaking Italian fascists were [[Blackshirts]], for similar reasons of their uniform.<ref>http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERsa.htm</ref> The term "Stormtrooper" was used earlier by the Imperial German Army to denote special trench assault units during [[World War I]] (although in that case, they were referred to as "Stoßtruppen", literally "Shock Troops" or "Siege Troopers", and the companies they operated in were known as "Sturmtruppen").

The term is sometimes erroneously broadened to include all Nazis and even all [[fascists]], although strictly speaking Italian fascists were [[Blackshirts]], for similar reasons of their uniform.<ref>http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERsa.htm</ref> The term "Stormtrooper" was used earlier by the Imperial German Army to denote special trench assault units during [[World War I]] (although in that case, they were referred to as "Stoßtruppen", literally "Shock Troops" or "Siege Troopers", and the companies they operated in were known as "Sturmtruppen").