Consolidation of power

Question 1

What did Gellately believe about the Nazi regime?

Answer 1

There was an authoritarian dictatorship set up

Question 2

What was the Reichstag fire decree?

Answer 2

Restricted the rights of personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of press
Allowed for imprisonment without trial

Question 3

Why was the Reichstag fire decree passed?

Answer 3

Passed under article 48 (legal) with Hindenburg’s blessing under the context that there was a communist plot to overthrow the state after the Reichstag fire.

Question 4

What was the enabling act?

Answer 4

It changed the constitution, meant Hitler could pass laws without the approval of Hindenburg and the Reichstag
Only for 4 years however

Question 5

What number was the enabling act passed by?

Answer 5

441:94

Question 6

How did the Nazis get round the SPD boycotting the act?

Answer 6

They had to provide a valid reason for not turning unto the Reichstag or they would still be counted. Hiding for their lives was not a valid reason- 26 SPD deputies were in hiding.

Question 7

What happened to the KPD?

Answer 7

The 81 KPD deputies had been arrested so they couldn’t vote against the bill

Question 8

What happened in August 1934?

Answer 8

There was a vote to decide if Hitler should be given the role of Fuhrer, a merge of the chancellor and president.
Before, Hindenburg’s son Oskar spoke publicly in favour of Hitler and Hindenburg’s political testament was ‘discovered’, speaking of warmly of Hitler

Question 9

What was the vote for merging into Fuhrer?

Answer 9

90% of people voted in favour of it

95% voter turnout

Question 10

What were the consequences of Hitler becoming fuhrer?

Answer 10

The army swore allegiance to Hitler by name

there was no opposition

Question 11

What did Kershaw believe about mid-August?

Answer 11

By mid August 1934 Hitler ‘had secured total power’

Question 12

What did Evans believe about terror?

Answer 12

There was limits to the power of the SS

Question 13

What did the SS control

Answer 13

They controlled Dachau, which was set up into intimidating people into not speaking out against the regime.
There was 26,000 people being detained at Dachau by summer 1933

Question 14

What did Noakes believe about the SS?

Answer 14

They gave the Nazi leaders an ‘awesome power’

Question 15

What did the SA control that helped consolidate Hitler’s power?

Answer 15

They created makeshift torture cells in Berlin to torture opponents, 240 in Berlin 1933.
They also had a wave of Violence against communists in Köpenick blood week, where an estimated 91 people were killed.

Question 16

Why were the SA a hinderance?

Answer 16

Papen spoke out against the violence of the SA at his Public speech in Marburg

Question 17

What happened at NOLK?

Answer 17

Up to 200 killed by SS in the night that were threatening to Hitler
Rohm, leader of the SA was killed as he wanted a revolution.
Kurt Von Schleicher and his wife both murdered
Gregor Strasser killed

Question 18

What were the effects of NOLK?

Answer 18

The SA were under control
Newspaper heading announced Hitler had crushed a revolt- public thought he had saved Germany
Elite and Hindenburg were won over by Hitler’s decisive actions to eliminate a threat and stop the SA from becoming too powerful.

Question 19

What does Geary believe about NOLK?

Answer 19

It showed the public that the Nazis would ‘brook no opposition’

Question 20

Why was terror more successful than the acts?

Answer 20

Without terror the acts may not have been passed, there was SA men outside the Kroll opera house and there was SA men at polling stations watching people vote.

Question 21

What was done under Gleichshaltung?

Answer 21

All other political parties were banned so that the Nazi party was the only one
The concordant ensured the church would not interfere with politics
Trade unions were banned

Question 22

What shows that churches were not completely under control?

Answer 22

The emergency league of pastors was set up in 1933 September to resist Nazis changing the protestant religion

Question 23

What replaced trade unions?

Answer 23

The German labour front, DAF

Question 24

What did Koonz believe about Gleichshaltung?

Answer 24

It occurred so stealthily, most Germans hardly noticed

Question 25

What was terror more important than Gleishaltung?

Answer 25

Political party meetings broken up and their presses broken, whilst the concordant was signed with ‘a pistol to their head’ according to Pope Pius XII

Question 26

Why was laws more important than Gleichshaltung?

Answer 26

Without the enabling act, Hitler would never have had the power to ban parties or trade unions without facing opposition.

Question 27

What did Lee believe about the legality of consolidation?

Answer 27

Throughout the period there was at best a very thinly disguised use of legality, and, at worst a blatant disregard for it.

Question 28

What did Burleigh believe about the communists?

Answer 28

There was no evidence of a communist conspiracy after the Reichstag fire.

Question 29

Was the Enabling act legal?

Answer 29

It passed and it had the required 2/3 of the Reichstag present for it to be valid

Question 30

What did Fritzche believe about the enabling act?

Answer 30

‘the political establishment voted for dictatorship’

Question 31

How many civilians were detained unlawfully detained during Köpenick blood week?

Answer 31

500

Question 32

Was the night of long knifes legal?

Answer 32

At least 85 people killed without a trial, many of them not even immediate threats to Hitler, eg Kurt Von Schleicher’s wife

Question 33

What did Stackleberg believe about NOLK?

Answer 33

The NOLK was not regulated by law

Question 34

What happened in Hindsight with NOLK?

Answer 34

it was legalised reterospectively

Question 35

What did Hildebrand say about the Nazis?

Answer 35

They used terrorist tactics

Question 36

Was Gleichshaltung legal?

Answer 36

No public vote for banning of political parties, and was against the constitution
Concordant was legal in itself, but the Nazis broke the terms of it.
Trade unions were banned with a law, but before hand violence was used to forcefully shut down the groups
Gleichshaltung would never have happened if terror had not been used to pass the enabling act.

Question 37

Why was the judiciary service not fully Natzified?

Answer 37

In September 1933, Van der Lubbe and his 4 accomplices went on trial for the Reichstag fire.
Van der Lubbe was guillotined, whilst the other 4 were acquitted

Question 38

What was the Nazi people’s court?

Answer 38

Set up due to Hitler dissatisfaction with the Reichstag fire trial, the court had jurisdiction over a rather broad array of “political offences” including treason against the third Reich.

Question 39

What was the Nazi party origins?

Answer 39

NSDAP formed in 1919, Hitler was the 55th member. He soon rose through the ranks and turned the party into a fuhrerprinzip
It gained publicity after the Munich Putch and by 1923 had 20,000 members

Question 40

When did the Nazi party grow?

Answer 40

After Hitler worked on the anti-young campaign, and the Great Depression the Nazi party became the largest party in the Reichstag
In 1933 Hitler connived Hindeburg to let him become chancellor

Question 41

What changed between 1933-34?

Answer 41

The Nazis went from having not a majority in the Reichstag to establishing a authoritarian dictatorship

Question 42

What challenges did Hitler have to overcome to consolidate his power?

Answer 42

He didn’t have a majority in the Reichstag and Hindenburg still could dismiss him