territorial divisions called Reichsgaue which cut across traditional federal boundaries. The Party heads of the new areas would be undisputed viceroys of their jurisdictions. However, Wagner’s “Reichsreform” never got beyond the planning stage for Germany proper because, due to the competing interests involved and significant push-back from the State organs, Hitler soon lost interest. However, it eventually would serve, more or less, as the model when foreign territories were absorbed into the Reich. Role in the SA purge, Jewish pogroms and religious persecution Wagner played a key role during the purge of the SA leaders known as the Night of the Long Knives on 30 June 1934. When Hitler arrived in Munich, he found that Wagner had already arrested the leaders of the Munich SA. He had also set up patrols at the Munich railway station to check for wanted SA leaders as they arrived in the city. Later that day, when the governor of the Stadelheim prison refused to hand over six SA leaders to the SS execution squad because the list of names he received was unsigned, Wagner signed the document in his capacity as Bavarian Interior Minister, and the six were turned over to the SS and summarily executed. In carrying out the Nazi Party's anti-semitic policies, Wagner instigated and organized violent anti-Jewish demonstrations in the city center of Munich in May 1935 that were carried out by a mob of about 200 members of the SA and the SS. Additionally, on 9 July 1938, the main synagogue in Munich near the Marienplatz was destroyed on Wagner's orders. A few months later, during the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9-10 November 1938, rampaging Nazis also destroyed other historic synagogues throughout the city and looted Jewish shops. Then on 12 November, following a speech in which Wagner denounced Roman Catholics as allies of the Jews, a violent mob stoned the residence of Archbishop Michael Faulhaber who had been at times critical of the Nazis. As Bavarian Education Minister, on 23 April 1941 Wagner ordered that school prayer be replaced by Nazi songs and that crucifixes and religious pictures be removed from Bavarian classrooms, which outraged the Roman Catholic Church and the heavily Catholic general public. The opposition to this move was so strong that Wagner was forced to rescind the order on 28 August, one of the rare circumstances of successful public opposition in Nazi Germany. Relationship with Hitler Despite