Hitler's Consolidation of Power

• Election


  5th March 1933
• Atmosphere

  • Tense due to Goring's shooting decree, which meant political protestors could be shot
  • Led to the imprisonment of trade unionists and KPD members
• Shooting decree


  Political protestors could be shot
• The Nazis won a total of 288 seats, equal to 45% of government (increase from their previous 196 seats)
• With 52 Nationalist Party deputies' votes they had over 50% of the government
• He needed two thirds to pass new laws
• The Enabling Act


  1. After the Reichstag Fire German Parliament was held in the Kroll Opera house of Berlin

  2. Hitler wanted to amend the constitution to say that the Chancellor could pass laws without the President or the Reichstag

  3. To pass the Act he used the DDPS to ban KPD and put them in jail

  4. Got support from the Catholic centre party by agreeing to cancel DPPS and protect Catholicism

  5. The SS and the SA used intimidation by chanting for the Act in the street

  6. The final vote passed on the 23rd March 1933, with 441-94 votes, only Social Democrats opposing
• Gleichschaltung


  Bringing into alignment
• After March 1933, Hitler turned Germany into a totalitarian state, establishing a Nazi dictatorship


  1. All state parliaments closed down, then reopened with Nazi majorities

  2. In April Jews and other political enemies were removed from legal professions or the civil service

  3. Key government positions went to Nazis

  4. In May all trade unions were outlawed and replaced with DAF (German Labour Front)

  5. In July the Law Against the Establishment of Political Parties made Germany a one party state

  6. In December more Reichstag elections were held, with Nazis winning 92% of votes

  7. In January 1934 the Law for Reconstruction abolished all state governments except Prussia, run by Herman Goring
• Hitler attacked the SA

  • Because it was a poorly organised force of 2-4million men controlled by Ernst Rohm, who many disliked for being homosexual
  • Rohm believed Hitler's takeover would bring a revolution that would follow original Socialist ideals of the Nazi party, take away rich businesses and landowners and crush the army
  • This concerned Hitler as he needed the army to implement his foreign policy aims
• NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES

  1. In 1934 Hitler had been convinced that Rohm was trying to seize power

  2. On 29-30th June 1934 squads of SS broke into homes of leading figures in the SA and arrested them

  3. Over 100 people were executed, including Rohm, von Kahr who had no association with the SA and von Schlisor, a critic of Hitler

  4. Hitler accused Rohm of plotting to overthrow Hitler and kill him

  5. Anyone suspected of preventing dictatorship was executed

  6. Hitler's propaganda made people think Rohm was beginning a putsch

  7. They thought NotLK was necessary as these leaders were a threat

  8. On 3rd July the Reichstag passed a law making the actions that night legal

  9. The army and Hindenburg spoke of their appreciation for Hitler's actions
• Hindenburg died on 2nd August 1934, so Hitler became Fuhrer, merging the powers of Chancellor and President
• Hitler made the army swear an oath of personal loyalty to him, swearing to stay out of politics and serve Hitler
• In return he spent lots on rearmament to make Germany a military force again
• His authority was confirmed by a plebiscite of 43 million people, almost 90% agreeing with Hitler's actions
• Police state


  A government controls all aspects of life in a country through a police force
• Police state in Germany

  • The SS could arrest and imprison people with no reason/explanation
  • The Gestapo spied on people and tapped their phones, there were informants everywhere
  • Law courts were controlled by Hitler, judges swore an oath of loyalty to him
  • Concentration camp prisoners were treated brutally
  • Crimes punishable by death were telling an anti-Nazi joke and listening to foreign radio
• SS


  Led by Heinrich Himmler, responsible for police security and intelligence in Germany and enforcing Nazi rules
• Branches of the SS

  • Gestapo (secret state police)
  • Kripo (general policing duties)
  • SD (intelligence arm, monitoring the security of the Reich headed by Reinhard Heydrich)
• SS


  • Trained in junker schools and were taught unquestioning loyalty to Hitler
  • Had almost a quarter million members in 1939, had immense power
  • Purge in 1935 to get rid of unfit members, e.g. alcoholics, homosexuals and those who couldn't prove they didn't have Jewish ancestry
  • Ruthless and used to carry out massacres/illegal actions
• Gestapo


  The secret state police, had sweeping powers and were responsible for punishing enemies of the state
• In 1936 the Gestapo Law put them above the law, allowing them to arrest citizens and send them to concentration camps without trial
• By 1939 150,000 people were under protective arrest in prison
• Gestapo


  • Used informers, tapped phones and spied
  • People feared them so much they informed on each other
• People's Courts


  Set up by Hitler in 1934 to ensure the legal system didn't protect people the Nazis wanted to punish
• They had no juries and Nazi judges, and defendants often weren't allowed to defend themselves
• Estimated that between 1934-39 nearly a quarter million Germans were found guilty of political crimes, and sentenced to over 600,000 years in prison
• DPPS


  Allowed opponents to be placed in protective custody in concentration camps
• The first concentration camp was Dachau, Bavaria in March 1933
• By 1934 concentration camps were run by the Death's Head Unit of the SS
• Early inmates of concentration camps

  • Political prisoners
  • Jews
  • Communists
  • Gypsies
  • Homosexuals
  • Alcoholics
  • Prostitutes
• Volksgemeinschaft


  The Nazis sought to create a people's community
• Duties of Germans in the Volksgemeinschaft


  • Loyalty to the state and Fuhrer
  • Charity
  • Neighbourliness
• Germans found themselves signing papers giving permission to be taken to prison for owning a banned book/saying business was bad
• Nazis believed in clan responsibility, e.g. whole families were punished
• Many non-Nazi officials disappeared or ended up in poverty
• Most joined the Nazi party and followed the rules, but did not trust their neighbours
• Propaganda


  A means of controlling how people think
• Censorship


  The prevention of the publication of opinions which the government don't agree with
• Dr Joseph Goebbels


  • He was the Minister for Enlightenment and Propaganda
  • He believed Hitler was the saviour of Germany