The Seizure Of Power And Gleichschaltung

Question 1

When was Hitler appointed as chancellor?

Answer 1

January 30th, 1933

Question 2

How many other Nazis were in Hitler’s initial cabinet? What were their roles?

Answer 2

Wilhelm Frick- Minister of the Interior

Hermann Göring- Minister Without Portfolio

Question 3

What were the strengths and weaknesses of Hitler’s position as chancellor?

Answer 3

Strengths:

• Hitler could now decide when to hold elections.
• Members of the Nazi party could gain influence over key institutions in German society. Goring asserted control over the police, while Goebbels began to muzzle the press.

Weaknesses:

• Hitler only had two other nazis in his cabinet, Göring and Frick.
• Hitler’s coalition did not have a Reichstag majority after the November 1932 elections.
• Hitler could be dismissed at any time by President Hindenburg, who loathed the ‘Bohemian corporal’.

Question 4

What did Hitler do within 24 hours of his appointment?

Answer 4

Call for another election, due to be held on the 5th of March.

Question 5

What did Göring do during this election?

Answer 5

Göring enrolled 50,000 SA and SS men as ‘auxiliary police’ in the run up to the election. These, along with the existing paramilitaries, would persecute left-wing parties in the run up to the election.

This demonstrates the control Göring had over the police.

Question 6

What happened on February 27th, 1933?

Answer 6

The Reichstag was set on fire. The Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was arrested, and the Nazis claimed the attack prefigured a wider communist uprising. The true culprit is unknown to this day.

Question 7

What decrees did the Nazis pass on the 28th of February?

Answer 7

Due to the state of emergency fabricated by the Nazis, the party was able to pass the ‘Decree for the Protection of People and State’ on the 28th of February.

The law suspended civil liberties and expanded the power of the central government, which it used to arrest and otherwise oppress socialists and communists.

Question 8

What was opened at Dachau and when?

Answer 8

The first concentration camp at Dachau became operational on the 22nd of March, 1933. It was initially used to detain socialists and communists.

Question 9

What was the percentage of votes the Nazis received in the March 1933 election? Why was this considered a setback?

Answer 9

In spite of the election being neither free nor fair, the NSDAP only increased their share of the vote from 33.1% to 43.9%. This was a political setback because the party required a 2/3rds majority in the Reichstag to alter the constitution.

Question 10

What happened on the 21st of March? What motivated it?

Answer 10

With the SA becoming increasingly impetuous, along with the election results meaning that Hitler would have to rely on conservatives to pass an enabling act, Goebbels arranged a ceremony at Potsdam Garrison Church on the 21st of March.

The event, attended by national figured such as the Crown Prince and President Hindenburg, made the National Socialists appear more palatable to conservatives.

Question 11

What party did the Nazis need to pass the Enabling Act on the 24th of March? How did they secure their support.

Answer 11

In order to attain a two-thirds majority, the Nazis were reliant upon the support of the ZP, conservative Catholics. In order to secure this support, Hitler promised to respect the rights of the Catholic Church; this was a lie. On the 24th of March, 1933, the Reichstag meeting in the Kroll Opera House passed the Enabling Act, which effectively made Hitler dictator.

Question 12

What did the Enabling Act do?

Answer 12

The Enabling Act, passed on the 24th of March 1933 allowed the Chancellor to pass laws without regards to the Reichstag or the constitution for four years (there were no provisions left to enforce this after four years); Hitler became dictator after it was passed.

Question 13

When did the Nazi state suspend state parliaments? When did they establish a new system of Reichstatthälters (Reich Governors)?

Answer 13

Regional state parliaments, a staple of German society since the Holy Roman Empire, were dissolved in March 1933 and abolished in January 1934.

In their place, Hitler created a new system of Reichstatthälter on the 7th of April with the ‘Second Law for the Synchronization of the States with the Reich’. The Reichstatthälter were often the local party Gauleiter, tasked to ‘excecuye the will of the supreme
leadership of the Reich’.

Question 14

When were German trade unions dismantled? What were they replaced with?

Answer 14

On the 2nd of May, SS and SA men broke into the offices of trade unions. They were then dismantled and replaced with the German Labour Front (DAF), which lacked the ability to negotiate for better wages and conditions.

Question 15

When did the Nazi Party become the sole legal party

Answer 15

After having picked apart parties such as the KPD, SPD and ZP, the Nazi Party declared itself the sole legal party on the 14th of July, 1933.

Question 16

How did the SA differ from the rest of the Nazi Party? What were its aims?

Answer 16

The SA, which by 1934 had 3 million members, was the radical paramilitary edge of the party. Their largely working class composition gave them a more socialist bent. The SA called for a ‘second revolution’ to sweep away the remnants of traditional German society, namely the army, which it wanted to replace with itself as a people’s militia.

Question 17

What did Röhm say about Hitler in a private interview in 1934?

Answer 17

‘Adolf is a swine. He will give us all away. He only associates with the reactionaries now.’

Question 18

Why did Hitler side with the army, rather than the SA?

Answer 18

Hitler sided with the army as they were more professional than the SA, which was needed if he wanted to accomplish his foreign policy aims. Hitler also needed the backing of the army in order to ensure he could succeed Hindenburg, who was moribund at this time, unopposed.

Question 19

Who were the main instigators of the Night of the Long Knives? When did it occur?

Answer 19

The army and the SS, both of whom stood to gain from the erosion of the formidable SA, conspired with Hitler to eliminate the SA as early as April 1934.

The plan came into effect on the 30th of June, 1934?

Question 20

Who were killed during the Night of the Long Knives?

Answer 20

Most importantly, the main leaders of the SA were all shot, Röhm included. The Nazis also seized the opportunity to get revenge on old political enemies such as Kurt von Schleicher, Gregor Strasser and Gustav von Kahr. Franz von Papen managed to escape and continued to serve the party.

200 people died in all.