Achieving total power, July 1933 to August 1934 (OCR GCSE History B (Schools History Project)): Revision Note

Summary

Between July 1933 and August 1934, Hitler consolidated his power. When President Hindenburg died, Hitler had complete power over Germany.

Having taken power from the Reichstag using the Enabling Act, Hitler then targeted the law courts and local governments. All judges had to be Nazi Party members, trial by jury was scrapped and local state parliaments were replaced with Nazi Party governors.

It was the Night of the Long Knives that really secured Hitler's power. The execution of the SA leaders removed both the SA and the Army as a threat to Hitler. Once the Röhm and his SA colleagues had been killed, the Army gave its loyalty to Hitler.

When Hindenburg died in August 1934, all members of Germany's armed forces swore a personal oath of allegiance to Hitler - their new Führer.

Nazi control of local government and courts

• Control of the legal system allowed the Nazi Party to remove opposition under the illusion that it was fair and just

  • However, cases were often pre-determined and biased in favour of a conviction

Judges and lawyers  

• Judges and lawyers were required to prioritise the interests of the Nazi Party above all else:

  • Judges joined the National Socialist League for the Maintenance of the Law

    • Judges were dismissed if they did not join

  • Lawyers joined the German Lawyers Front

• Judges had to wear the swastika from 1936

• Judges decided the outcome of cases, not the jury

Law courts

•  Trial by jury was removed so that judges could decide the outcome of the case

• The People’s Court was introduced to hear cases of treason

  • Judges radically loyal to the Nazi Party were selected

  • Trials were held in secret

  • The right to appeal was removed

• Control of the legal system led to a rapid rise in the number of political opponents executed

  • Between 1930 and 1932, only eight people were executed

  • Between 1934 and 1939, this increased to 534 people

Local government

• In January 1934, the 18 Länder parliaments (local parliaments) were shut down and never reopened

  • Instead, loyal Nazi Party local governors were appointed

The causes of the Night of the Long Knives

• By 1933, Hitler had removed most threats to his power

  • However, two potential threats remained

The Army

• Hitler was concerned that the generals in the Army might move against him

  • Some generals had been alarmed by Hitler's rise to power and his threats to disband the army and replace it with the SA

    • They had the weapons, the organisation and the numbers to overthrow him in a coup d'tat

The SA

• The second threat came from within Hitler's own party in the form of the SA

• By 1934, its numbers had swelled to three million men

  • Their thuggish behaviour was becoming increasingly embarrassing to Hitler

• The SA leader, Ernst Röhm, was growing frustrated with Hitler and had taken to publicly criticising him

  • Röhm believed Hitler was backtracking on promises made to replace the Army with the SA

  • Rumours began to spread that Röhm was planning to overthrow Hitler, although there was no evidence to support this

• The rivalry between Himmler's SS and the SA was increasing

  • Himmler may have encouraged Hitler to move against Röhm

The Night of the Long Knives

• Hitler arranged a meeting with Röhm and other SA leaders on 30th June 1934:

  • Röhm and around 400 SA members were arrested and shot

  • Other opponents, such as von Schleicher, Gregor Strasser and von Kahr, were also arrested and killed

  • The public was informed that Röhm had been planning to replace Hitler, and therefore, his death served the interests of the country

The consequences of the Night of the Long Knives

The decline of the SA

• Once its leaders had been executed, the SA declined as a force in Nazi Germany

  • Its numbers also drastically reduced and had halved by 1935

The rise of the SS

• The SA leaders were executed by members of the SS

  • The Night of the Knives was a turning point for the SS

  • From that moment on, the SS grew into one of the most important organisations in Nazi Germany

  • Its leader, Heinrich Himmler, became one of the most powerful people in Nazi Germany

Support of the Generals

• The leaders of Germany's Army saw the Night of the Long Knives as Hitler choosing them over the SA

  • They repaid him for this support with their loyalty

Hitler showed he was a ruthless murderer

• Hitler announced in the papers and on the radio that the killings had been necessary to protect Germany

• But it wasn't just the SA leaders who were accused of hatching a plot against him who were killed

  • Former political rivals such as von Schleicher, Gregor Strasser and von Kahr were brutally murdered

The Death of President Hindenburg

• Paul von Hindenburg had been the President of Germany since 1925

• On 2nd August 1934, he died of lung cancer aged 86

Hitler becomes the Führer

• Upon Hindenburg's death, Hitler combined the positions of president and chancellor to make himself Führer (the word literally meaning leader)

  • Every member of Germany's armed forces was forced to swear a personal oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler

  • This marked the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Hitler’s Nazi Germany

  • This is sometimes called the Third Reich - or Third Empire