Consolidation of Power

• January 1933 - when Hitler became chancellor he was in a precarious position

  • few people thought he would hold on to power
  • even fewer thought that by the summer of 1934 he would be the supreme dictator of Germany
• Hitler achieved his power through a combination of methods which some are legal while others aren’t

  • managed to defeat or reach agreements with those who could have stopped him
• March 1933 - Hitler called for an election to try get an overall Nazi majority in the Reichstag

  • Germany’s cities witnessed speeches, rallies, processions and street fighting
  • Hitler used the same tactics as in the prebious elections but he had the resources of state media and control of the streets - success was still in the balance
  • Won the largest-ever share of the votes with the support of the smaller Nationalist Party and Hitler had an overall majority
• 27th February, March 1933 - Reichstag building burns down

  • Hitler blamed the communists and delcared the fire as the beginning of a communist uprising
  • demanded special emergency power to deal witht he situationa nd wa sgiven them by Hindenburg
  • Nazis used the power to arrest communists, break up meetings and frighten voters
  • Many theories about what caused the fire - it was an accident, work of a madman, or a communist plot and many believed the Nazis started the fire themselves
• Hitler used the SA and SS intimidated the Reichstag into passing the Enabling Act which allowed him to make laws without consulting the Reichstag - SPD voted against him
• After the elections, the communists had been banned

  • Catholic Centre Party decided to cooperate with the Nazis rather than be treated like the Communists - able to retain control of catholic school
• Hitler still wasn’t entirely secure after banning all his opponents

  • leading officers in the army weren’t impressed by him - particularly suspicious of Hitler’s SA and its leader Ernst Röhm
  • SA was a badly disciplined force and Röhm talked of making the SA into a second German Army
  • Hitler was also suspicious of Röhm - feared Röhm’s control over the SA men made him a potentially dangerous rivald
• Within a year, any opponents of the Nazis had either left Germany or have been taken to special concentration camps run by the SS

  • other political parties were banned
• Hitler had to choose between the army and the SA

  • made his choice and acted ruthlessely
• Night of the Long Knives - On the weekend of 29-30 June, squads of SS men broke into the homes of Röhm and other leading figures in the SA and arrested them

  • Hitler accused Röhm of plotting to overthrow and murder him
  • Röhm and possibly as many as 400 others were executed over the weekend
  • Chancellor Von Schleicher was also executed who was a fierce critic of Hitler
  • Those who had no connection with Röhm was also esecuted
• Hindenburg thanked Hitler for his ‘determined action which has nipped treason in the bud’

  • army said it was well satisfied with the events of the weekend
  • SA wasn’t disbanded - remained as a Nazi paramilitary organisation but was a subordinate to the SS, many of its members were absorbed by the army and the SS
• Hindenburg died and Hitler took over as Supreme Leader (Führer) of Germany
• 2nd August 1934 - the entire army swore an oath of personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler as Führer of Germany

  • army agreed to stay out of politics and to serve Hitler
  • Hitler in return, spent vast sums on rearmament, brought back conscription and made plans to make Germany a great military power again
• What date was the Night of the Long Knives?

  30th June 1934