In 1934, Ley was brought to the Nazi Party's Munich headquarters to take over as head of the party organisation (Reichsorganisationsleiter) following the murder of Gregor Strasser in The Night of the Long Knives.[5] Ley's impoverished upbringing and his experience as head of the largely working-class Ruhr party region meant that he was sympathetic to those elements in the party who were open to socialism, which Hitler opposed, but he always sided with Hitler in inner party disputes.