Germany - 2.3.1 The Establishment of the Dictatorship

Question 1

Now that the Nazis and Hitler were in power, they used the opportunity caused by the Reichstag fire to pass the __________ ___ (1933) and then removed the remaining political opposition to secure a dictatorship

Answer 1

Enabling Act

Question 2

When was the Reichstag burned down?

Answer 2

27th February 1933

Question 3

What were the consequences of the Reichstag Fire? (5)

Answer 3

• A lone Dutch communist (Marinus van der Lubbe) was executed for starting the fire but Hitler seized the opportunity to accuse the Communist Party of a conspiracy against the government. Four thousand communists were arrested
• It gave Hitler an excuse to issue the emergency Decree for the Protection of People and the State, suspending the Weimar constitution and giving him powers to imprison political opponents and ban opposition newspapers
• He persuaded Hindenburg to call an election on 5th of March 1933, 1 week after the Reichstag Fire to secure more Nazi seats
• The Nazi Party managed to secure two-thirds of the seats by using the emergency powers to prevent the communists from taking up their 81 seats
• Hitler was now able to change the constitution

Question 4

What percentage of the votes did the Nazi Party get in the 1933 german election?

Answer 4

43.9%

Question 5

What percentage of the votes did the Nazi Party get in the 1933 german election?

Answer 5

7.9%

Question 6

What percentage of the votes did the Nazi-DNVP coalition have in the 1933 german election?

Answer 6

51.9%

Question 7

When did Hitler propose the Enabling Act?

Answer 7

23rd March 1933

Question 8

Why did Hitler propose the Enabling Act? (3)

Answer 8

In order to destroy the power of the Reichstag and give himself total power to make laws. It stated that:
- the Reich Cabinet could pass new laws
- the laws could overrule the constitution
- Hitler would propose the laws

Question 9

In what way did the Reichstag support the Enabling Act?

Answer 9

The Reichstag supported the Enabling Act by 444 votes to 94

Question 10

What happened in February/March 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler?

Answer 10

The Communist Party was finished after the Reichstag fire; most communists who had not been arrested and put into concentration camps left the country

Question 11

What happened on 31 March 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler?

Answer 11

Regional parliaments were closed down and reorganised with Nazi majorities (they were banned in January 1944)

Question 12

What happened in April 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler?

Answer 12

Nazi opponents were rooted out from the civil service and the law

Question 13

What happened in May 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler? (2)

Answer 13

• Offices and finance of other political parties were confiscated by the Nazis
• Trade union offices were broken into, and officials were arrested and sent to concentration camps; then trade unions were banned - all workers belonged to the new German Labour Front (DAF)

Question 14

What happened on 22 June 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler?

Answer 14

The SPD was banned as ‘hostile to the nation and the state’, then the Centre Party and German Nationalist Party dissolved themselves before they too could be banned

Question 15

What happened on 14 July 1933 which helped lead to the removal of political opposition for Hitler?

Answer 15

The Law against the Formation of New Parties banned any political party except the Nazis. After this, all political opposition was removed

Question 16

When did The Night of the Long Knives take place?

Answer 16

30th June 1934

Question 17

Describe The Night of the Long Knives (4)

Answer 17

• Hitler decided he wanted to rid himself of the threat of Rohm and the SA. He did this by inviting Rohm and 100 SA leaders to a meeting in the town of Bad Wiessee on 30 June 1934. It was a ruse - when the leaders arrived they were arrested by the SS, taken to Munich and shot.
• 400 members of the SA were killed, including Rohm. As well as this, Hitler used this opportunity to kill other opponents, such as the former Chancellor, von Schleicher.
• After the arrests, Papen’s staff were arrested and he was put under house arrest. Papen was no longer able to watch what Hitler was up to.

Question 18

What did people think of The Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 18

It was thought that not many people fully realised how many people were being killed - many were relieved that the power of the SA had been reduced

Question 19

Who were the SS?

Answer 19

The SS was set up by Hitler in 1925 to act as his bodyguards. They were a select group run firstly by Schreck and then by Himmler. They appeared menacing in their black uniforms

Question 20

Why did the Night of the Long Knives happen?

Answer 20

Removing opposition to Hitler (Rohm) and von Schleicher was one reason. Another was to secure the support of General Werner von Blomberg. On the 9th of April 1934, aboard a German battleship, historians believe Blomberg agreed to support Hitler as the leader of Germany after Hindenburg if he reduced the SA’s power and grew the German army under Blomberg

Question 21

Why were Rohm and the SA removed? (4)

Answer 21

• Rohm led at least 3 million SA, which potentially made him a very serious rival, especially as he disagreed with some of Hitler’s policies
• Many important people in Germany, including Hindenburg, disapproved of the SA. Some of them were violent thugs who lacked any discipline
• The German army only numbered about 100,000. Officers believed Rohm wanted to make the SA the new army. Hitler needed the army’s allegiance
• The other Nazi paramilitary force, the SS, was more disciplined. Its leader, Himmler, was closer to Hitler than Rohm; he wanted to reduce the size and influence of the SA to increase the power of the SS. Hitler agreed, partly because he was worried about the SA’s reputation

Question 22

How did Hitler become Fuhrer after the Night of the Long Knives? Describe events on 2nd August 1934 and after

Answer 22

• On 2nd August 1934, just a few weeks after the Night of the Long Knives, President Hindenburg died. By this time, he was the only person preventing Hitler from having total power in Germany. Within hours of his death, a law concerning the Head of State merged the offices of Chancellor and President to create a new office of Fuhrer. Hitler also announced that from now on the army would swear an oath of allegiance to him, not to Germany. Hitler called his regime the ‘Third Reich’ which he believed would last 1,000 years
• After 2nd August 1934, Hitler had complete control. Other political parties and opponents had gone, there was no longer a president and the armed forces were now under his command

Question 23

What did Hitler call his regime and how long did he believe it would last?

Answer 23

Hitler called his regime the ‘Third Reich’ which he believed would last 1,000 years

Question 24

Loyalty to the Fuhrer was shown through the ____ _______ salute

Answer 24

‘Heil Hitler’

Question 25

When did Blomberg add a new oath to the German army and what did it do?

Answer 25

2nd August 1934, it was used for swearing loyalty to the ‘Fuhrer’

Question 26

How did Hitler control local government? (4)

Answer 26

• Local government in provinces was brought under Nazi control
• Provinces (called Gaue) were all run by a Gauleiter, who was a Nazi trusted by Hitler
• Each Gauleiter reported to Reichsleiters, who reported to Hitler. Goebbels was a Reichsleiter focused on propaganda.
• In 1934, the law for the Reconstruction of the Reich gave Hitler total control of local governments

Question 27

Who ran provinces in Nazi Germany?

Answer 27

Gauleiters

Question 28

Which law gave Hitler total control of local governments?

Answer 28

the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich

Question 29

Who was the chief of the SS?

Answer 29

Himmler

Question 30

Why did Hitler call his regime the ‘Third Reich’? (2)

Answer 30

• Hitler was trying to show how his regime linked to a long German and European history
• The name ‘Reich’ linked back to the German Empire and underlined that Hitler’s mission was to bring Germany back to a strong and glorious position that it used to have in the world

Question 31

Did the night of the Long Knives damage Hitler’s reputation? (3)

Answer 31

• No, by this point the cult surrounding Hitler was strong and the German people managed to find excuses for his behaviour
• Hitler gave a long speech in the Reichstag after the Night of the Long Knives. He said that his actions had been in the interests of the German people and he was protecting the ordinary citizen against the SA.
• Gestapo reports from the localities show that Hitler’s popularity might have actually increased after the murders

Question 32

Why was the Reichstag Fire a significant moment in Hitler’s rise to power? (2)

Answer 32

• The Reichstag Fire provided the justification for Hitler to pass the Emergency Decree which suspended the Weimar constitution
• The Reichstag Fire showed that Hitler was prepared to suspend laws where necessary in his rise to power. It showed that the Weimar constitution would not be able to hold the Nazis back from achieving a dictatorship in Germany