nazi control and dictatorship 1933-39

• Dictatorship


  A form of government in which one person or a small group possesses absolute power without effective constitutional limitations
• Creation of a dictatorship in Germany, 1933-34

  1. Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933

  2. Hitler destroyed opposition to his control of the Nazi Party

  3. Hitler destroyed democracy in Germany, banning all other political parties and trade unions

  4. By end of 1934, Hitler was a dictator with almost complete personal power over the country

  5. Hitler controlled the attitudes, beliefs and actions of the German people using propaganda, censorship and police forces
• Weimar Constitution


  • Controlled what the Chancellor could do
  • Hindenburg retained all the powers of the President
  • Hitler's cabinet had only 2 NSDAP members out of 12
  • NSDAP members only about one-third of the Reichstag
• Most people thought other politicians would restrain Hitler, but they were wrong
• Reichstag Fire


  A fire that destroyed the Reichstag building on 27 February 1933
• A young Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, was caught at the scene with matches and firelighters and confessed
• Hitler and Goering claimed the fire was part of a communist conspiracy against the government
• Hitler: 'Now we'll show them! The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official must be shot. All Communist deputies must be hanged tonight. All friends of the Communists must be locked up. And that goes for the Social Democrats too.'
• Four thousand communists were arrested on the night of the Reichstag Fire
• Hitler used the fire to pressure Hindenburg into declaring a state of emergency, allowing Hitler to use decrees to govern Germany
• Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to call an election for 5 March 1933, hoping for more Nazi seats in the Reichstag
• Hitler issued the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State, giving him powers to imprison political opponents and ban communist newspapers
• Hitler controlled the police force, allowing the SA to carry out violent activities
• Hitler persuaded industrialists to bankroll the Nazi campaign, with 3 million marks donated in one meeting
• The election campaign was bloody, with 70 deaths from violent clashes
• The Nazis increased their Reichstag members to 288, and Hitler used his emergency powers to ban the Communist Party from taking up its 81 seats
• With the support of other nationalist parties, this gave Hitler a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag, allowing him to change the constitution
• Enabling Act


  A law proposed by Hitler in March 1933 that gave the Reich Cabinet the power to pass new laws that could overrule the Weimar constitution, with laws proposed by the Chancellor (Hitler)
• The Reichstag vote on the Enabling Act took place under very threatening circumstances, with SS men posted in the corridors and a mob of SA chanting outside
• On 24 March 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act by 444 votes to 94, supported by the Nazis, the National Party and the Centre Party
• The Enabling Act marked the end of democratic rule and the end of the Weimar constitution
• After gaining the power to pass laws without the Reichstag, Hitler set about removing other sources of opposition
• Removing trade unions


  Nazis broke into trade union offices, arrested officials, and banned trade unions and strikes
• Removing political parties


  1. Nazi stormtroopers entered the offices of the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party, destroyed their newspapers and confiscated their funds

  2. Hitler issued a decree making all political parties in Germany illegal, except the NSDAP
• Removing local government


  Hitler abolished the Länder (regional) parliaments and declared that governors appointed by him would run every region of Germany
• Between January 1933 and January 1934, Hitler's growing power was gained through a mix of legal and illegal means
• Night of the Long Knives


  An event in 1934 where Hitler eliminated potential rivals within the Nazi Party, including Ernst Röhm, the leader of the SA
• Ernst Röhm


  • Leader of the SA, which had grown to 3 million members
  • Opposed Hitler's policies and criticized his links with industrialists and army generals
  • Wanted more socialist policies to help the working class
• German army officers were worried that Röhm wanted the SA to replace the German army
• Leaders of the SS, such as Himmler and Heydrich, resented Röhm and wanted to reduce the power of the SA to increase their own power and status
• In 1934, leaders of the SS and the army warned Hitler that Röhm was a threat
• The German state which Hitler created after 1933 was a police state
• Police state


  A state in which the government uses the police, often the secret police, to control what people do and say. People who do or say anything to harm the state or the party are punished.
• When Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, Germany already had a police force controlled by central government but run by local authorities
• Hitler's control of the police was weak


  So he set up his own police and security forces run by the Nazi Party and accountable to him
• Main Nazi police and security organisations

  • SS (Protection Squad)
  • SD (Security Service)
  • Gestapo (Secret State Police)
• SS (Schutzstaffel or Protection Squad)

  • Originally a military group of 240 men set up in 1925 as a personal bodyguard for Hitler
  • Expanded to 240,000 men in the 1930s and put in charge of all other police and security services
  • Himmler did not believe the SS were obliged to act within the law
  • Recruited based on 'perfect German manhood' and 'racial purity'
• SD (Sicherheitsdienst or Security Force)


  • Formed in 1931 by Himmler to monitor opponents of the Nazi Party
  • Kept a card index of everyone suspected of opposing the Nazi Party or government
• Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei or State Secret Police)

  • Set up in 1933 by Goering, placed under SS control in 1934
  • Main aim was to identify anyone who criticised or opposed the Nazi government
  • Used spying, phone tapping and informants to identify suspects
  • Officially given permission to use torture
  • Feared by the public due to unpredictability and lack of uniform
• There were never more than 30,000 Gestapo to police a population of about 80 million