Hitler consolidates power, 1933-34

Question 1

Give TWO ways in which Hitler’s power was limited when he became Chancellor on 30 January 1933

Answer 1

Any two from:

• Chancellor was controlled by the Weimar Constitution
• Hindenburg retained all the powers of the President (including sacking the Chancellor)
• Only two of Hitler’s 12 cabinet members were Nazi members
• Only one-third of the Reichstag were Nazis

Question 2

When was the Reichstag building destroyed by a massive fire?

Answer 2

27 February 1933

Question 3

Who was caught on the site with matches and firelighters on the evening of the Reichstag Fire?

Answer 3

Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist

Question 4

What did Hitler and Hermann Goering claim about van der Lubbe and the Reichstag Fire?

Answer 4

Van der Lubbe was part of a communist conspiracy against the government

Question 5

How many communists were arrested on the night of the Reichstag Fire?

Answer 5

4,000

Question 6

What did Hitler pressure Hindenburg to do the morning after the Reichstag Fire?

Answer 6

Declare a state of emergency and call Reichstag elections

Question 7

Before the election of March 1933, Hitler pass the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State. What two things did this do?

Answer 7

1) Gave Hitler powers to imprison political opponents

2) Allowed Hitler to ban communist newspapers

Question 8

How many deaths were there during the March 1933 Reichstag election campaign?

Answer 8

70

Question 9

What happened to the Nazis’ number of seats in the Reichstag in the March 1933 elections?

Answer 9

Increased, to 288

Question 11

Why could the Communists not take up their 81 seats in the Reichstag after the March 1933 elections?

Answer 11

Hitler banned them using his emergency powers (Article 48)

Question 12

Why was it important that Hitler teamed up with other nationalist parties in the Reichstag following the March 1933 elections?

Answer 12

It gave him a two-thirds majority - enough to change the Weimar constitution

Question 13

What did Hitler want to destroy using the Enabling Act of March 1933?

Answer 13

The power of the Reichstag

Question 14

Under the Enabling Act, who would PROPOSE new laws?

Answer 14

The Chancellor (i.e. Hitler)

Question 15

Under the Enabling Act, who would PASS new laws - and why was this a change?

Answer 15

Hitler’s Reich Cabinet (government)

Previously, it was the Reichstag (parliament)

Question 16

For how long did the Enabling Act give Hitler the right to make laws without the Reichstag?

Answer 16

4 years

Question 17

By what margin in the Reichstag was the Enabling Act passed?

Answer 17

444 votes in favour, to 94 votes against

Question 18

What happened to the Enabling Act four years after it was first passed?

Answer 18

It was renewed

Question 19

Why were trade unions potential sources of opposition to Hitler?

Answer 19

Communists could control them and use strikes to undermine the government

Question 20

Who did the Nazis arrest on 2 May 1933?

Answer 20

Trade union officials

Question 21

What did Hitler ban using the Enabling Act on 2 May 1933?

Answer 21

Trade unions and strikes

Question 22

What did the SA do to the offices of the KPD and SPD in May 1933?

Answer 22

Broke in, destroyed their newspapers and confiscated their funds

Question 23

In what month and year were all political parties except the Nazis made illegal in Germany?

Answer 23

July 1933

Question 24

What was the name given to the 18 parliaments of each region of Germany?

Answer 24

Länder

Question 25

What did Hitler do to the Länder parliaments in January 1934?

Answer 25

Abolished them

Question 26

Who replaced the Länder parliaments when Hitler abolished them?

Answer 26

Governors (Gauleiters) appointed by Hitler himself

Question 27

How many members of the SA were there by 1933?

Answer 27

3 million

Question 28

What percentage of the SA were permanently unemployed by 1933?

Answer 28

60%

Question 29

How did Ernst Röhm (leader of the SA) criticised Hitler’s policies in 1933?

Answer 29

Röhm wanted more socialist policies and opposed Hitler’s links with rich industrialists

Question 30

Why did the leaders of the SS, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, oppose Röhm?

Answer 30

They wanted to reduce the power of the SA to increase their own power and the status of the SS

Question 31

What did leaders of the SS and army tell Hitler about Röhm in 1934?

Answer 31

He was planning to seize power in a ‘second revolution’

Question 32

What happened to Röhm and other SA officials when they arrived at a meeting with Hitler on 30 June 1934?

Answer 32

They were arrested, imprisoned and shot

Question 33

How many people were shot over the course of four days in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’?

Answer 33

400

Question 34

How many of the 400 shot dead in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ were senior SA members?

Answer 34

150

Question 35

Give TWO examples of people shot dead in the Night of the Long Knives who were not members of the SA

Answer 35

Von Schleicher (former Chancellor)

Gregor Strasser (a Nazi with socialist views)

Question 36

What happened to von Papen during the Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 36

He was told to return home for his own safety - his home was surrounded and his telephone was cut off

Question 37

How did Hitler defend the ‘Night of the Long Knives’?

Answer 37

He said he was defending Germany against Röhm and the ‘degenerate homosexuals’ around him

Question 38

How did most ordinary Germans respond to the Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 38

Grateful that the SA had been restrained

Question 39

In what month and year did President Hindenburg die?

Answer 39

August 1934

Question 40

What did Hitler declare following the death of Hindenburg?

Answer 40

He was now the Führer - the President’s powers would be combined with his own as Chancellor

Question 41

What did every soldier now have to do following Hindenburg’s death?

Answer 41

Swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler

Question 42

What percentage of voters voted to accept Hitler’s position as Führer in a public vote?

Answer 42

90%