History

• The Law for the Protection of the People and State was issued

  March 1933
• Hitler asked President Hindenburg for extra powers to deal with the alleged Communist danger
• Hindenburg believed Hitler and he issued a 'Law for the Protection of the People and State'
• The Law for the Protection of the People and State


  An emergency decree which suspended the articles of the Weimar Constitution that guaranteed personal liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly
• The law gave the police the power to search houses, tap telephones, ban meetings and close down newspapers in the interest of national security
• The Nazis used the powers granted against their political opponents, proceeding to intern Communists, disrupt their election campaign and intimidate the Communist voters
• The Law for the Protection of the People and State was meant to be an emergency decree but stayed in place for twelve years and was the legal basis for much of the Nazi reign of terror
• Inviolable


  Cannot be taken away
• The Reichstag fire on 27th February 1933 was used by the Nazis to blame the Communists and gain extra powers
• The election result on 5th March 1933 gave the Nazis their best result so far but they still failed to gain control of the Reichstag
• Results of the November 1932 election

  • Nazis (NSDAP): 196 seats, 33.1%
  • Nationalists: 51 seats, 8.3%
  • Centre Party: 70 seats, 11.9%
  • Social Democrats: 121 seats, 20.4%
  • Communists: 100 seats, 16.9%
  • Other parties: 52 seats, 9.4%
• Results of the March 1933 election

  • Nazis (NSDAP): 288 seats, 43.9%
  • Nationalists: 52 seats, 8.0%
  • Centre Party: 74 seats, 11.3%
  • Social Democrats: 120 seats, 18.3%
  • Communists: 81 seats, 12.3%
  • Other parties: 32 seats, 6.2%
• What Hitler wanted was an 'Enabling Law' passed which would place all power in his hands and allow him to pass laws without the Reichstag
• The Nationalists were willing to give their support to Hitler and the Nazis
• The emergency powers were used to ban the Communists from taking their seats in the Reichstag, preventing them from voting against the Enabling Law
• Hitler did a deal with the Centre Party to get their support for the Enabling Law
• These steps created the two-thirds majority the Nazis required to pass the Enabling Law
• Gleichschaltung


  The process of bringing all aspects of life under Nazi control
• Gleichschaltung measures


  1. Closing down state parliaments and re-establishing with Nazi majorities (31 March 1933)

  2. Appointing Nazis as state governors with powers to appoint/dismiss officials and make state laws (7 April 1933)

  3. Law for the Reconstruction of the State abolishing state institutions apart from Prussia (30 January 1934)
• Bringing trade unions into line

  1. Closing trade union offices, confiscating funds, arresting leaders (2 May 1933)

  2. Merging trade unions into the German Labour Front which reduced pay and took away right to strike
• Bringing other political parties into line

  1. Attacking offices and newspapers of political opponents, confiscating funds, arresting leaders (May-June 1933)

  2. Law Against the Formation of New Parties making the Nazi Party the only allowed party (14 July 1933)
• The Night of the Long Knives was carried out on the orders of Hitler
• Reasons for the Night of the Long Knives

  • Hitler feared Röhm was a threat to his leadership
  • To gain the support of the army who feared the SA may take over the army
• Hundreds of the leaders of the SA (including Ernst Röhm) were killed by the SS
• Der Führer


  The title Hitler took after becoming both President and Chancellor of Germany
• Army oath before 2 August 1934


  I will at all times loyally and honestly serve my people and country, and as a brave soldier, I will be ready at any time to stake my life for this oath
• Army oath after 2 August 1934


  I will render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, and, as a brave soldier, I will be ready at any time to stake my life for this oath
• The German Army largely stood by the personal oath of loyalty to Hitler throughout his dictatorship
• Nazi dictatorship


  • Abandoning democracy meant individuals and institutions lost freedoms and were placed under the power of the dictatorship
  • Germany became a one-party state where only the Nazi Party was allowed to exist
  • Every committee, club or organization was led by a Nazi
• Police state


  • Protective custody allowed opponents to be arrested and placed in concentration camps
  • The SS became a powerful organization within Nazi Germany, led by Himmler and Heydrich
  • The Gestapo was a branch of the SS that tapped phones, intercepted mail, and had a network of informers
• Reinhard Heydrich


  An important figure within the SS who supervised the SD which monitored the security of the Nazi Reich
• SS


  A very powerful organization within Nazi Germany, called a 'state within a state' with its own schools and 'race farms' to create the 'perfect' German children
• Gestapo


  A branch of the SS that operated as the secret state police from 1936, led by Himmler
• Gestapo activities


  Tapped telephones, intercepted mail, spied on people, had a network of informers throughout Germany
• Anybody who so much as whispered any opposition to Hitler could be reported to the Gestapo by an informer and arrested
• Opponents of the Nazi regime were taken to concentration camps where they faced questioning, torture and hard labour
• The concentration camps were not Nazi death camps responsible for mass killings until the Second World War
• The Gestapo could strike at any time against ordinary Germans and it was probably the Gestapo that ordinary people feared most in Nazi Germany
• SS and Gestapo


  Had absolute power to arrest, punish and if necessary, execute so-called enemies of the State, that is, those who did not give total loyalty and obedience to the dictator
• Groups interned (imprisoned) in the concentration camps

  • Criminals
  • Gypsies
  • Tramps
  • The 'work shy'
  • The 'anti-social'
  • Homosexuals
  • Jews