13 Flashcards
What happened to Rohm in the end?
On 30 June 1934 at the Stadelheim prison in Munich, the leader of the Nazi SA, Ernst Röhm, was executed by two SS officers. Earlier that day the SS had arrested Röhm and other SA leaders at a lakeside hotel. This was part of a wide-ranging purge of the SA that Hitler had ordered, as the organisation had outlived its usefulness and was becoming an embarrassment. Hitler ordered that a revolver be left in Röhm’s cell, but Röhm refused to commit suicide. ‘If I am to be killed, he was reported to have said, let Adolf do it himself. He was shot at point-blank range. This so-called ‘Night of the Long Knives’ was one of the final acts in Hitler’s consolidation of power in 1933-34.
Why was Hitler’s rise not complete after becoming Chancellor?
At the end of March 1933, Hitler’s government had been granted exceptional powers by the passing of the Enabling Act. However, there were still some political and constitutional limitations on Hitler’s power.
Hindenburg, as President, had the final say in constitutional matters and the army was loyal to Hindenburg, not to Hitler. There were a number of political parties that were independent of the regime, some of which, such as the SPD (Social Democratic Party), were prepared to openly voice their opposition.
Although the Nazis effectively controlled the state government in Prussia, the largest of Germany’s federal states, elected governments in most other German states were under the control of other parties. ‘The period between March 1933 and August 1934 saw the Nazis remove the remaining obstacles to their exercise of dictatorial power.
Hitler’s strategy to consolidate power
For Hitler and his Nazi Party, the coming to power in January 1933 was the beginning of a national socialist revolution. For Hitler this meant the conquest of political power. Many Nazis, however, especially the SA, had a very different view of the Nazi revolution. This was to cause continuing tensions between Hitler and the SA during the early months of the Nazi regime, and will be considered in more detail later in this chapter. For Hitler, the Nazi revolution began with acquiring dictatorial power, and then continued with the elimination of non-Nazi political parties and other independent organisations, together with Nazi control over the institutions of the state at both central and local government level.
Three Major Government and Administrative changes
-The creation of a one-party state
-Centralisation of power and control over local government
-Control over the civil service
Why did other parties have to be removed?
Hitler viewed conventional political parties with contempt, seeing them as mere election machines, which represented narrow, sectional interests rather than the interests of the nation as a whole. He claimed that the Nazi Party was the ‘racial core of the entire German people. Although its members were a minority of the population, even after a surge in party membership in 1933, Hitler believed it was nevertheless made up of the superior Germans and was committed to fighting and sacrificing on behalf of the entire German people. In the Nazi Volksgemeinshaft, therefore, there could be no parties other than the Nazi Party. By the middle of July 1933, this ambition had become a reality.
How were other parties removed? (4)
This was achieved in a number of stages:
• The KPD was effectively banned after the Reichstag fire in February.bMost of the communists who had not been arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps had fled into exile.
•Having stood up to Hitler in the Reichstag debate on the Enabling Act in March, the SPD 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.
• Realizing that their days as political parties were numbered, the DNVP and the Centre Party dissolved themselves - the DNVP on 27 June and the Centre Party on 5 July.
•On 14 July 1933, the Law against the Formation of New Parties outlawed all non- Nazi political parties.
Situation before centralisation of power
The 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. Prussia, the largest of the German states, comprised sixty per cent of the territory and fifty per cent of the population of the entire country. It was so large that its state government could operate largely independently of the central government. In July 1932, however, the Prussian state government had been dismissed by Papen and a Reich Commissioner had been appointed to run the state. In Hitler’s cabinet after January 1933 this position was held by Goering. This paved the way for the centralisation of power within the whole Reich, which the Nazis began in March 1933.
Four Laws passed to centralise power 1933-34
31 March 1933
First Law for the Coordination of the Federal States dissolved the existing state assemblies and replaced them with Nazi-dominated assemblies
7 April 1933
The Second Law for the Coordination of the Federal States created the
new post of Reich Governor (R) to oversee the government of each state Prussia was excluded as it already had a Reich Commissioner]. These
new Res were accountable to the Minister of the Interior and responsible for ensuring that the state governments followed the policies laid down the central government.
30 January 1934
The Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich took the centralisation process a stape further. State assemblies were abolished and the governments of the states were formally subordinated to the government of the Reich. This meant that the posts of RGs had now become redundant but Hitler did not abolish the posts. Rivalry and tension between state governments and RGs continued in the coming vears.
14 February 1934
The Reichsrat was abolished. This was the parliamentary assembly to which the state assemblies sent delegates. Since the state assemblies no longer existed, it was a logical next step to abolish the Reichsrat.
Nazi party at state and local level
The Nazi Party had its own organisational structures at both national and local level. At state level the Nazi leaders, known as Gauleiters, wanted to control local government and many of them took over the roles of Reich Governors within their areas. The Nazis also instituted violent campaigns to oust political opponents from important local positions, such as town mayors, and replace them with Nazi Party nominees. However, the precise relationship between the Party and the state at local level, as at national level, was never clearly defined.
What was a Gauleiter?
a Nazi party leader at regional or state level. The Nazi political organisation had leaders (leiters) at both national (Reich) and regional (Gau) levels;
Gauleiters were therefore the second ranking Nazi political officials
How was Control over the Civil Service achieved?
Under the Kaiser, civil servants enjoyed a status almost on a par with that of soldiers. The higher ranks of the Civil Service were recruited almost exclusively from the aristocracy and civil servants closely identified with the authoritarian values of the Second Empire. These conservative-minded civil servants would not embrace the democratic values of the Weimar Republic and many welcomed Hitler’s appointment in 1933. Their support for the new regime was based, however, on a misunderstanding. They believed that the conservative ministers in Hitler’s cabinet would restrain the Nazis and allow the Civil Service to continue serving the state in much the same way that it had done under the Kaiser. What they had failed to understand was that the Nazis had no intention of being bound by the rules and regulations that civil servants had to follow. The Nazis regarded the Civil Service as an obstacle to their exercise of dictatorial power. Many local officials were forced to resign and were replaced by Nazi Party appointees, most of whom had no experience of government. The Nazi SA also began to place Party officials in government offices to ensure that civil servants were carrying out the orders of the regime.
All of this placed the Nazis firmly in control.
How had the SA grown in power?
In January 1933, the SA was the Nazis’ main instrument of terror and violence.
One of the immediate results of the Nazis coming to power was the rapid expansion of the SA. From a membership of around 500,000 in January 1933, the organisation grew to around 3 million-strong a year later. Another result of the Nazis being in power was that the activities of the SA gained legal authority. In late February 1933, the SA and the Stahlhelm were merged and became recognised as ‘auxiliary police! Orders were issued to the regular police forces forbidding them from interfering with SA activities.
Balance of SA violence Hitler needed to maintain
Hitler benefited from the violence of his supporters, but he was not always in control of events. Much of the violence of the SA against the Nazis’ political opponents, and against the Jews, was unplanned, uncoordinated and piecemeal. In the period from February to June 1933, when the Nazis were eliminating opposition and establishing undisputed control, Hitler was prepared to go with the flow of SA violence. He was careful to ensure, however, that the SA did not attack the State itself. Assaults on the police and the army were avoided, as Hitler was careful not to alienate those conservative forces that had shoe-horned him into power. Violence was a vital tool in the hands of the Nazi leadership but, in its uncontrolled form, its usefulness was limited and at some point Hitler was bound to want to call a halt. Hitler was warning that, in the future, the SA could become the target for Nazi violence. However, he did not on this warning for another 11 months
warning for a further
Rohm aims after Nazi revolution
In July 1933, after passing the Law against Formation of New Parties, Hitler was able to declare that the Nazi revolution was over. He had acquired dictatorial powers, all other parties had been banned or had voluntarily dissolved themselves and the process of Gleichschaltung had been completed.
For Ernst Röhm, the leader of the SA, however, the Nazi revolution was far from complete and the SA were determined to continue with their violence until they had achieved the Second Revolution. Chief among Röhm’s aims was for the SA to become the nucleus of a new national militia that would eventually absorb and replace the existing army. With a combined SA and Stahlhelm membership of 4.5 million in January 1934, Röhm’s forces already vastly outnumbered the army,
How did the SA’s importance decline?
However, since the summer of 1933 the role and importance of the SA had declined. In August 1933, they had lost their ‘auxiliary police’ status and were subject to stricter regulations over their powers of arrest. In the election campaign of November 1933, there was only one party, hence there was no longer a need for SA violence and intimidation. Lacking an ‘official’ outlet for their violence, and feeling resentment at the way that former conservative opponents of the Nazis were allowed to join the Nazi Party and take important jobs in local and central government, SA members became disillusioned and restless. Drunken brawls, always a feature of the SA, became increasingly common and the police became targets of the SA when they tried to intervene.
