Establishing the Nazi Dictatorship, 1933–34 (Edexcel IGCSE History: Paper 1: Depth Studies): Revision Note

Timeline & Summary

• Within 18 months of becoming chancellor, Hitler turned Germany into a dictatorship with himself as its undisputed leader

• The Reichstag Fire of February 1933 gave Hitler the excuse to suspend civil liberties and arrest his Communist opponents

• The Enabling Act of March 1933 let Hitler make laws without the Reichstag's approval

  • He used it to ban trade unions, rival parties and independent local government

• In June 1934, Hitler used the Night of the Long Knives to destroy the leadership of the SA and settle old scores with other rivals

• When President Hindenburg died that August, Hitler declared himself Führer and made the army swear personal loyalty to him

The Reichstag fire, 1933

Before the fire

• Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, but still did not have complete control of Germany

  • The Nazi Party only controlled one-third of the Reichstag

  • Hindenburg was President of Germany

  • The Weimar Constitution limited the power of the chancellor

The fire

• On 27 February 1933, a fire destroyed the Reichstag building

• A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was found on site with matches and firelighters, confessed, and insisted he had acted alone

  • He was found guilty and executed by guillotine in January 1934

• Historians still disagree about who was really responsible

  • Some believe that van der Lubbe started the fire

  • Others state that the Nazis started the fire themselves and blamed van der Lubbe

• The one certain fact is that van der Lubbe was a communist, and the Nazis used this to their advantage

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R99859 / Unknown / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Firemen at the burning Reichstag, Berlin, 27 February 1933.

Consequences of the fire

• Hermann Goering, the new Nazi police chief, claimed the fire proved a communist plot

  • He urged the Nazis to seize the opportunity to destroy communist opposition

    • 4,000 communist leaders were arrested on the night of the fire alone

• On 28 February, Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree

  • This was an emergency decree that let police search homes and imprison people without trial, and ban meetings and close newspapers

  • Goering used it to take over the state radio

The Enabling Act, 1933

The March 1933 election

• The election Hitler had called for 5 March 1933 took place only six days after the fire

  • He claimed the fire proved a serious communist threat that only a Nazi vote could stop

• Before the election, Goering replaced police officers with Nazi supporters and recruited 50,000 SA members as "police auxiliaries"

  • SA violence went largely unpunished

  • Thousands of Communists and Social Democrats were arrested and sent to concentration camps

  • Opposition newspapers were closed

  • Industrialists funded the Nazi campaign

• On election day, Nazi supporters were posted at polling stations to threaten voters

• The Nazis won 288 of 647 seats (43.9% of the vote)

  • They remained the largest party, but still did not have a majority

Passing the Act

• The Enabling Act changed the constitution, so it needed a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag

• Hitler won the Centre Party's votes by promising to protect the Catholic Church

• The Act became law on 24 March 1933, by 444 votes to 94

  • All 81 members of the Communist Party were absent

  • Only the SPD opposed the Act

  • Other members of the Reichstag were intimidated by the SA before the vote took place

• The Act gave Hitler's government several powers such as:

  • as chancellor, Hitler could propose new laws

  • Hitler’s cabinet could pass these laws

  • these laws could overrule the Weimar Constitution

Impacts of the Enabling Act

• The Enabling Act was only valid for four years, but it was renewed in 1937

• Parties in the Reichstag could no longer oppose new laws, marking an end to democratic rule in Germany

• Hitler used the powers of the Enabling Act to remove forms of public opposition:

The Night of the Long Knives, 1934

Why Hitler acted against the SA

• The Enabling Act allowed Hitler to remove external opposition to the Nazi Party

• Hitler was concerned about internal opposition, particularly from the SA

• Ernst Röhm threatened the Party because he:

  • led around three million SA members, around 60% of whom were unemployed by 1933

  • wanted the SA to take over the German army

    • Army leaders opposed this plan, and Hitler needed their support to become President when Hindenburg died

  • wanted a greater focus on supporting the working class, which threatened Hitler's support from big business

  • clashed with the SS, led by Heinrich Himmler

The purge, 30 June 1934

• SS members arrested around 200 SA officers

  • Many of them, including Röhm, were shot

    • Around 90 people are believed to have died, though the exact figure is uncertain

• Hitler also took revenge on old enemies

  • Von Schleicher, Gregor Strasser and von Kahr were arrested and killed

Justification and reactions

• On 13 July 1934, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag, which was broadcast on radio and defended acting outside the regular courts

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

  • They were also told that Röhm was gay

    • The Nazis persecuted gay men, and Hitler used this to justify the killings

  • Hitler claimed that he had become "the supreme judge of the German people"

• SA members felt weakened and betrayed

• SS members felt rewarded with independence and Hitler's direct command

• Opponents felt Hitler had shown himself a murderer

Hitler becomes Führer

• On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died, aged 86

• Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President and declared himself "Führer" of Germany, now known as the Third Reich

• From then on, the army's loyalty oath was made directly and personally to Hitler, not to the constitution

  • This meant that soldiers swore to obey him personally

• Hitler held a plebiscite to get public approval for these changes

  • After a huge propaganda campaign, he gained around 90% of the public vote

How did Hitler establish a dictatorship by 1934?

• Four steps each removed a check on his power:

  1. The Reichstag Fire let him crush the Communists.

  2. The Enabling Act let him rule by decree.

  3. The Night of the Long Knives removed his rivals from within the party and won the army's loyalty.

  4. Hindenburg's death let him combine the offices of President and Chancellor to become Führer.

• At every stage, Hitler combined force with legal or semi-legal methods

  • This made his dictatorship look constitutional even as it destroyed the constitution and democracy

• By August 1934, Hitler had eliminated every rival source of power, such as:

  • the Reichstag

  • other political parties

  • the trade unions

  • the SA

  • the presidency

• He also secured the loyalty of the one institution, the army, that could otherwise have stopped him