Rise of the Führer

• Nazis set out to make Germany a dictatorship


  1. Eliminating political opposition

  2. Securing Hitler's authority
• Reichstag Fire


  27th February 1933
• Reichstag Fire


  The Reichstag was burned down
• The Nazis blamed a Dutch communist called Marinus van der Lubbe for the Reichstag Fire
• Reichstag Fire


  1. Allowed Hitler to pass an Emergency Decree

  2. Suspended the Weimar constitution

  3. Thousands of communists were arrested
• German election day


  5th of March 1933
• Fear of communist uprising had never been higher before the German election
• 1933 German Election


  • Nazi Party won 43.9%
  • DNVP won 7.9% of the votes
  • Nazi-DNVP coalition had 51.9% of the votes
• In the Weimar system of Proportional Representation, a coalition of parties needed over 50% to rule
• Enabling Act


  1. Hitler proposed it on 23rd March 1933

  2. Meant Hitler could make laws without the Reichstag

  3. Reichstag supported it by 444 votes to 94

  4. After this, the Reichstag could no longer stop Hitler
• After the Enabling Act, Germany was no longer a democracy
• Single party state


  1. All political parties banned apart from the Nazi Party on 14th July 1933

  2. All political opposition removed
• Trade unions


  1. Trade union leaders arrested and sent to concentration camps in May 1933

  2. Trade unions officially banned

  3. All workers forced to join the German Labour Front (DAF)
• Night of the Long Knives


  1. Hitler felt the SA and Röhm threatened his power

  2. Hitler created the SS to purge the SA

  3. 400 members of the SA killed, including Röhm

  4. Other opponents like von Schleicher also killed

  5. No internal opposition to Hitler remained
• Removing opposition to Hitler (Röhm) and von Schleicher


  One reason for the Night of the Long Knives
• Securing the support of General Werner von Blomberg


  Another reason for the Night of the Long Knives
• Hindenburg died


  August 1934
• Hitler becomes Führer


  1. Merged the roles of Chancellor and President

  2. Regime called the 'Third Reich' which would last 1,000 years
• Loyalty in the Third Reich


  • Shown through the 'Heil Hitler' salute
  • Army swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally, not Germany