13 - Hitler's consolidation of power, March 1933-August 1934

Question 1

Creation of a one-party state

Answer 1

• Hitler saw conventional political parties as election machines, which represented narrow, sectional interests.
• Claimed that the Nazi Party was the ‘racial core’ of the entire German people.
• In the Nazi ‘Volksgemeinshaft’ there could be no other parties.

Question 2

Volksgemeinshaft

Answer 2

• Significant to the Nazi ideology
• Hitler advocated a state based on a racial community where only Aryans could be citizens.

Question 3

The KPD

Answer 3

• Effectively banned after the Reichstag fire.
• Most of the communists who had not been arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps had fled into exile.

Question 4

The SPD

Answer 4

• Continued to voice its opposition to the regime until it was outlawed as a ‘party hostile to the nation and the state’ on 22 June 1933.

Question 5

DNVP and the Centre Party

Answer 5

• Realised their days as political parties were numbered.
• DNVP dissolved on 27 June and the Centre Party on 5 July.

Question 6

Law against the Formation of New Parties

Answer 6

On 14 July 1933, the Law against the Formation of New Parties outlawed all non-Nazi political parties.

Question 7

Centralisation of power and control over local government

Answer 7

• Weimar Republic was a federal state in which a large number of powers were devolved to state governments.
• Each state, for example, controlled its own police force.

Question 8

Prussia

Answer 8

• Largest of the German states.
• Compromised 60% of the territory and 50% of the population.
• So large that its state government could operate largely independently of the central government.

Question 9

July 1932

Answer 9

• July 1932 the Prussian state government dismissed by Papen and a Reich Commissioner appointed to run the state.
• In Hitler’s cabinet this position was held by Goering.
• Paved the way for the centralisation of power within the whole Reich.

Question 10

Laws passed to centralise power in 1933-34

Question 11

First Law for the Coordination of the Federal States

Answer 11

• 31 March 1933
• Dissolved the existing state assemblies and replaced them with Nazi-dominated assemblies.

Question 12

Second Law for the Coordination of the Federal States

Answer 12

• 7 April 1933
• Created the new post of Reich Governor to oversee the government of each state.
• Accountable to the Minister of the Interior and responsible for ensuring state governments followed the policies of the central government.

Question 13

Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich

Answer 13

• 30 January 1934
• State assemblies were abolished and the governments of state were formally subordinated to the government of the Reich.

Question 14

Reichsrat abolished

Answer 14

• 14 February 1934
• Reichsrat was abolished (parliamentary assembly to which the state assemblies sent delegates).

Question 15

Organisational structures

Answer 15

• Nazi Party had its own organisational structures at both national and local level.
• At state level the Nazi leaders wanted to control local government and many took over the roles of Reich Governors within their areas.
• Nazis also instituted violent campaigns to oust political opponents from important local positions and replace them with Nazi Party nominees.

Question 16

Control over the Civil Service

Answer 16

• The higher ranks of the Civil Service were recruited almost exclusively from the aristocracy and closely identified with authoritarian values.
• Many welcomed Hitler’s appointment in 1933.
• Believed the conservative ministers in Hitler’s cabinet would restrain the Nazis and allow the Civil Service to continue in the same way.

Question 17

Nazi intention

Answer 17

• Nazis had no intention of being bound by the rules and regulations that civil servants had to follow.
• Nazis regarded the Civil Service as an obstacle to their exercised of dictatorial power.
• Many local officials were forced to resign and replaced by Nazi Party appointees.
• SA also began to place Party officials in government offices to ensure that civil servants were carrying out the orders of the regime.

Question 18

SA’s position before June 1934

Answer 18

• In January 1933 the SA were the Nazis’ main instrument of terror and violence.
• Membership of around 500,000 in January 1933 grew to around 3 million a year later.
• Activities of the SA had gained legal authority.

Question 19

Hitler and the SA

Answer 19

• Hitler benefited from the violence of his supporters, but was not always in control.
• Much of the violence of the SA against political opponents and the Jews was unplanned, uncoordinated and piecemeal.
• From February-June 1933 Hitler was prepared to go with the flow of the SA violence.
• He was careful to ensure that the SA did not attack the State itself.
• In July 1933 Hitler declared that the Nazi revolution was over.

Question 20

Ernst Rohm

Answer 20

• Leader of the SA.
• Turned the SA into a formidable fighting force.
• His radical views and lifestlye (drank heavily and was homosexual) proved a source of embarrassment to Hitler.

Question 21

Second Revolution

Answer 21

• For Ernst Rohm the Nazi Revolution was far from over and the SA were determined to continue with their violence until they had achieved the Second Revolution.
• Rohm’s forces vastly outnumbered the army but since the summer of 1933 the role and importance of the SA had declined.
• August 1933 they lost their ‘auxiliary police’ status and were subject to stricter regulations over their powers of arrest.
• Lacking an ‘official’ outlet for their violence SA members became disillusioned and restless and drunken brawls became increasingly common.

Question 22

The army

Answer 22

• Remained the only institution with the power to remove Hitler from office.
• Was loyal to Hindenburg not Hitler.
• The ambitions of the SA and Rohm were regarded as a serious threat by the army leaders.
• Summer of 1934 SA began stopping army convoys and confiscating weapons and supplies.
• Blomberg, with Hindenburg’s support, threatened to declare martial law and give the army power to deal with the SA.

Question 23

The Night of the Long Knives, June 1934

Answer 23

• Hitler had dithered since the spring of 1934 but in June he knew he could wait no longer.
• A ruthless purge of the SA was launched on 30 June 1934 when the SS eliminated the leadership of the SA and many other political opponents of the Nazis.

Question 24

Victims of the Night of the Long Knives

Answer 24

• At least 84 were executed and another 1000 or more were arrested.
• Included Rohm and other leaders of the SA but also other opponents.

Question 25

Hitler’s reaction

Answer 25

• Hitler accepted full responsibility for the executions.
• He said he was acting as the ‘supreme judge’ of the German people and acted to save the country from the SA.
• This secured the army’s support.
• SA declined sharply after the purge and without Rohm as its leader, its political power was destroyed.

Question 26

Question of succession

Answer 26

• Hindenburg had drawn up a political will in which he expressed his preference for a restoration of the monarchy.
• Hitler aimed to merge the offices of Chancellor and President.
• The army owed allegiance to the President and that President, with the support of the army, could removed Hitler from power.
• Hindenburg had considered handing power to the army and dismissing Hitler.
• With the threat of the SA removed, Blomberg and the army leaders had no further objection to Hitler succeeding Hindenburg as President.

Question 27

President Hindenburg’s death

Answer 27

• Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934.
• The announcement that the office of President would be merged with that of Chancellor was made within an hour of his death.
• On the same day the officers and soldiers of the army took an oath of allegiance to Hitler.

Question 28

Plebiscite

Answer 28

• A direct vote on an important political or constitutional issue, similar to a referendum.
• 19 August 1934 a plebiscite was held to get the German people’s seal of approval on Hitler’s appointment as Fuhrer.
• 89.9% of the voters approved.
• This was the final act in the Nazi consolidation of power.