The Consolidation of

PowerBy: Clarissa & SuYoungIB History HL

Bandung International School

Hitler is appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg30 January 1933

Strengths & Weaknesses of Nazi in ‘33• By far the largest party in Reichstag (Jan 1933)• Nazi support was vital• Hitler was Chancellor, Frick was Interior Minister

in Reich, Goering was Interior Minister of Prussia• Did not possess an overall majority• Still only numbered three out of twelve• Any member of party could be sacked by the

President at any point– Their survival was by no means guaranteed at this

stage

Chancellor Hitler

Internal Minister in the Reich: Frick

Internal Minister of Prussia: Goering

Hitler’s Aim

• Wished to destroy the democratic system• Speech in electoral success of 1930, • His first speech as Chancellor was careful

– Tone down about anti-Semitism and aggressive foreign policy

– Focus on importance of family and evils of communism

STEP ONE: The Election Campaign

The Election Campaign• Hitler succeeded to persuade Hindenburg

– New elections, suspend meetings, ban newspaper• Five-week election campaign

– Deaths, destruction of Communist Party, propaganda and intimidation• Goebbels made use of radio

– All Hitler’s speeches to be broadcasted by all stations• Goering took control of Prussian police

– Insisting they serve Nazi interests, if not, sacked– Extra men (mainly SA) 50,000– To intimidate political opponents“Every bullet that now leaves the mouth of a pistol is my bullet. If you call

that murder, then I am the murderer, for I gave the order, and I stand by it.”

The Reichstag Fire

• February 27th

• Marinus van der Lubbe• Nazi immediately claimed that

the suspect is a communist• Goering was also suspected

– Claimed to say “the only one who really knows the Reichstag is I, for I set fire to it.”

– But he denied it, said that it was nonsense for “the Reichstag was known to every representative in the Reichstag.”

The Reichstag Fire• In the end, we still do not know who did it.• Significance

– The way Nazis exploited it to their advantage• 4000 communists were arrested• Hitler alarmed Hindenburg for emergency decree

– The Decree of the Protection of People and State– Government could arrest people without trials—legally– And it seemed just fine for the President

• Many believed that Nazi did it themselves

“Much has been written (about the Reichstag fire) and more will be before the full truth is known—if it ever is. Van der Lubbe was personally involved, but what his motives were, who prompted him, whether he acted alone, is sill disputed. Contemporary opinion was in no doubt whatever. It was known that an underground passage connected Goering’s office with the Reichstag itself. It was widely believed that the leader of the Berlin SA, Karl Ernst, had led a fire-party through his passage to assist van der Lubbe in his work. Within hours, the wags of Berlin had devised a riddle: ‘Why did van der Lubbe take his shirt off?’ ‘Because’ was the answer, ‘it was a brown one’. It was also of interest that at a later date, Karl Ernst and all those allegedly implicated in the fire were executed by Nazi firing-squads…”—Adapted from Knaves, Fools and Heroes, 1974, the memoirs of Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, a British diplomat, who witnessed the fire himself!

March 1933 Propaganda“In the deepest need Hindenburg chose Adolf Hitler for Reich Chancellor. You too should vote for List 1.”

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hindhit.jpg

The March Election• 5 March• Gov control over radio, police, unofficial pressure to

intimidate the opponents• Nazi was once more failed to win majority (44%)• Hitler claimed it was a great victory• Jews were attacked• Hitler replaced the legal government with Reich

Commissioners• Day of Potsdam: celebration of the new Reichstag

The Enabling Act• “Law for Terminating the Suffering of the People and the

Nation”• Gave the Cabinet emergency power for four years• Hitler could pass decrees without the President’s

involvement– Killed Weimar Constitution– Hitler dictator

The Reichstag voted itself out—441 votes to 94, why?

– Communists and socialists• KPD and socialists refused admission into

Reichstag, only SPD voted against– Nazi deal with the Center Party

• Hitler promised to Catholic Church in return for the support of the Center

– Intimidation by the SA• The place where the vote took place was surrounded

by SA and SS– Limiting provisions

• Clause stating that it would become invalid after 4 years—encouraged some deputies to vote

STEP TWO: Gleichschaltung

Trade Unions• 2nd May 1933- Members of the SA & SS to

power• Abolished all existing trade unions

• Nazis: German Labour Front (DAF) - Led by Robert Ley - Membership = compulsory - No workers’ rights : wages / working

conditions

Political Parties• Reichstag fire -> banning communism• Only oppose of Hitler: SPD : BUT voted for Hitler’s foreign policy

statement to survive• 22nd June 1933) SPD = ‘party hostile to the

nation and state’ - > Outlawed

• Other parties: dissolved eventually• July 1933) Decree was passed – Germany

is a ONE PARTY STATE

State Government• After Jan 1933• Nazis- infiltrate state governments : Power to issue laws without

parliaments’(Landtage) agreement• Appointed Nazi Reichstatthalter (Reich

governors) = very POWERFUL

• Jan 1934 : Landtage were abolished • State governments = subordinate to the

Reich government in Berlin

Civil Service• Hitler : Dependent on efficient & well –

established bureaucracy : Civil servants retained their posts • Membership of the Nazi party : Not compulsory until 1939

• BUT law for the ‘Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’ (April 1933)

• : Dismissed people with doubtful political obedience & racial purity

• : Jews = victims• 12.5 % of Prussian civil service =

dismissed on political / racial grounds

LITTLE DISCUSSION?

Two Groups that survived from Nazi’s takeover?

LITTLE DISCUSSION?

ChurchArmy

BibliographyHite, John. Weimar & Nazi Germany. London: John Murray

(Publishers), Ltd., 2000.Kitson, Alison. Germany: 1858-1990 Hope, Terror, and Revival.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.YouTube. Reichstag Fire. 28 September 2011

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c7Wi8ILGcM&feature=related>.

—. The Rise of Evil - The Reichstag Fire. 28 September 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfQiy0_6BIo>.