Gleichschaltung

• Enabling Act gave Hitler law-making power and neutralised the Reichstag.
• However, there were powerful groups outside the Reichstag and outside of the government that threatened Hitler's power. The Nazis dealt with these threats through a process of Nazification that they called Gleichschaltung.
• It extended Nazi power over Germany through Nazifying important institutions such as newspapers and the trade unions.
• It neutralised threats to the Nazi regime and it 'co-ordinated' aspects of the German government.
• Co-ordinating government:

  January 1934 the Landtages (regional parliament) were abolished. Some Nazi opponents controlled some Landtages and senior Nazis were concerned that they could become the basis of opposition to the new regime.
• Co-ordinating government:

  Democratically elected landtages were replaced by Reich governors, appointed by the government. The majority of these Reich governors had been the Nazi Gauleiters.
• Co-ordinating government:

  The Ministry of Interior was given more power over the federal regions, which achieved the Nazi drive towards the centralisation of control over Germany and the ending of federalism.
• Co-ordinating government:

  The Nazis also wanted to 'co-ordinate' the civil service to stop civil servants opposing Nazi initiatives.
• Co-ordinating government:

  April 1933 - Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, was passed, which meant that anyone whose 'racial purity' or political loyalty was in doubt could be dismissed.