Hitler Cabinet in which Schleicher would become vice-chancellor, Röhm minister of defense, Brüning foreign minister and Strasser minister of national economy. Schleicher believed that as a Reichswehr general and as a close friend of Röhm that he could successfully mediate the dispute between Röhm and the military over Röhm's demands that the SA absorb the Reichswehr, and that as such Hitler would fire Blomberg and give him back his old job as Defense Minister. Hitler had considered Schleicher a target for assassination for some time. When the Night of the Long Knives occurred from 30 June to 2 July 1934, Schleicher was one of the chief victims. At about 10:30 am on 30 June 1934, a group of men wearing trench coats and fedoras emerged from a car parked on the street outside Schleicher's villa (Griebnitzstrasse 4, Neubabelsberg near Potsdam) and walked up to Schleicher's home. While Schleicher was talking on the phone, he heard somebody knocking at his door, and placed the phone down. Schleicher's last words, heard by his friend on the phone, were "Jawohl, ich bin General von Schleicher" ("Yes, I am General von Schleicher"), followed by two shots. Upon hearing the shots, his wife Elisabeth von Schleicher ran into the front lobby, where she was gunned down as well. Schleicher died at the scene, while his wife succumbed to her injuries en route to the hospital, without ever regaining consciousness. Funeral At his funeral, Schleicher's friend von Hammerstein was offended when the SS refused to allow him to attend the service and confiscated wreaths that the mourners had brought. Hammerstein and Generalfeldmarschall August von Mackensen began trying to have Schleicher rehabilitated. The army somehow obtained Schleicher's file from the SS. Mackensen led a meeting of 400 officers that drank a toast to Schleicher, and entered his and Bredow's names into the regimental honor roll. In his speech to the Reichstag on 13 July justifying his actions, Hitler denounced Schleicher for conspiring with Röhm to overthrow the government. Hitler alleged that both Schleicher and Röhm were traitors working in the pay of France. As Schleicher had been a good friend of André François-Poncet, and because of his reputation for intrigue, the claim that Schleicher was working for France had enough surface plausibility for most Germans to accept it, although it was in fact not true. The falsity of Hitler's claims could be seen in that François-Poncet was