1. The Consolidation
of Power
By: Clarissa & SuYoung
IB History HL
Bandung International School

4. Hitler is appointed
Chancellor by Hindenburg
30 January 1933

5. Strengths & Weaknesses of Nazi in ‗33
• By far the largest party in Reichstag (Jan 1933)
• Nazi support was vital
• Hitler was Chancellor, Frick was Interior Minister
in Reich, Goering was Interior Minister of Prussia
• Did not possess an overall majority
• Still only numbered three out of twelve
• Any member of party could be sacked by the
President at any point
– Their survival was by no means guaranteed at this
stage

6. Internal Minister of
Prussia: Goering
Internal Minister in the
Reich: Frick
Chancellor Hitler

7. Hitler‘s Aim
• Wished to destroy the democratic system
• Speech in electoral success of 1930,
• His first speech as Chancellor was careful
– Tone down about anti-Semitism and
aggressive foreign policy
– Focus on importance of family and evils of
communism

8. STEP ONE:
The Election Campaign

9. The Election Campaign
• Hitler succeeded to persuade Hindenburg
– New elections, suspend meetings, ban newspaper
• Five-week election campaign
– Deaths, destruction of Communist Party, propaganda and intimidation
• Goebbels made use of radio
– All Hitler‘s speeches to be broadcasted by all stations
• Goering took control of Prussian police
– Insisting they serve Nazi interests, if not, sacked
– Extra men (mainly SA) 50,000
– To intimidate political opponents
“Every bullet that now leaves the mouth of a pistol is my bullet. If you call
that murder, then I am the murderer, for I gave the order, and I stand by
it.”

10. The Reichstag • February 27th
Fire • Marinus van der Lubbe
• Nazi immediately claimed that
the suspect is a communist
• Goering was also suspected
– Claimed to say “the only one
who really knows the Reichstag
is I, for I set fire to it.”
– But he denied it, said that it was
nonsense for “the Reichstag
was known to every
representative in the
Reichstag.”

11. The Reichstag Fire
• In the end, we still do not know who did it.
• Significance
– The way Nazis exploited it to their advantage
• 4000 communists were arrested
• Hitler alarmed Hindenburg for emergency decree
– The Decree of the Protection of People and State
– Government could arrest people without trials—legally
– And it seemed just fine for the President
• Many believed that Nazi did it themselves

13. “Much has been written (about the Reichstag fire) and more will be
before the full truth is known—if it ever is. Van der Lubbe was
personally involved, but what his motives were, who prompted
him, whether he acted alone, is sill disputed. Contemporary opinion
was in no doubt whatever. It was known that an underground
passage connected Goering‟s office with the Reichstag itself. It was
widely believed that the leader of the Berlin SA, Karl Ernst, had led
a fire-party through his passage to assist van der Lubbe in his work.
Within hours, the wags of Berlin had devised a riddle: „Why did van
der Lubbe take his shirt off?‟ „Because‟ was the answer, „it was a
brown one‟. It was also of interest that at a later date, Karl Ernst
and all those allegedly implicated in the fire were executed by Nazi
firing-squads…”
—Adapted from Knaves, Fools and Heroes, 1974, the memoirs of Sir
John Wheeler-Bennett, a British diplomat, who witnessed the fire
himself!

14. March 1933 Propaganda
“In the deepest need
Hindenburg chose Adolf Hitler
for Reich Chancellor. You too
should vote for List 1.”
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hindhit.jpg

15. The March Election
• 5 March
• Gov control over radio, police, unofficial pressure to
intimidate the opponents
• Nazi was once more failed to win majority (44%)
• Hitler claimed it was a great victory
• Jews were attacked
• Hitler replaced the legal government with Reich
Commissioners
• Day of Potsdam: celebration of the new Reichstag

17. The Enabling Act
• ―Law for Terminating the Suffering of the People and the
Nation‖
• Gave the Cabinet emergency power for four years
• Hitler could pass decrees without the President‘s
involvement
– Killed Weimar Constitution
– Hitler  dictator

18. The Reichstag voted itself out—
441 votes to 94, why?
– Communists and socialists
• KPD and socialists refused admission into
Reichstag, only SPD voted against
– Nazi deal with the Center Party
• Hitler promised to Catholic Church in return for the
support of the Center
– Intimidation by the SA
• The place where the vote took place was surrounded
by SA and SS
– Limiting provisions
• Clause stating that it would become invalid after 4
years—encouraged some deputies to vote

19. STEP TWO:
Gleichschaltung

20. Trade Unions
• 2nd May 1933- Members of the SA & SS to
power
• Abolished all existing trade unions

21. • Nazis: German Labour Front (DAF)
- Led by Robert Ley
- Membership = compulsory
- No workers‘ rights : wages / working
conditions

23. Political Parties
• Reichstag fire -> banning communism
• Only oppose of Hitler: SPD
: BUT voted for Hitler‘s foreign policy
statement to survive
• 22nd June 1933) SPD = ‗party hostile to
the nation and state‘ - > Outlawed

24. • Other parties: dissolved eventually
• July 1933) Decree was passed – Germany
is a ONE PARTY STATE 

25. State Government
• After Jan 1933
• Nazis- infiltrate state governments
: Power to issue laws without
parliaments‘(Landtage) agreement
• Appointed Nazi Reichstatthalter (Reich
governors) = very POWERFUL

26. • Jan 1934
: Landtage were abolished
• State governments = subordinate to the
Reich government in Berlin

27. Civil Service
• Hitler
: Dependent on efficient & well –
established bureaucracy
: Civil servants retained their posts
• Membership of the Nazi party
: Not compulsory until 1939

28. • BUT law for the ‗Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service‘ (April 1933)
• : Dismissed people with doubtful political
obedience & racial purity
• : Jews = victims
• 12.5 % of Prussian civil service =
dismissed on political / racial grounds

29. LITTLE DISCUSSION?
Two Groups that survived from
Nazi‘s takeover?

30. LITTLE DISCUSSION?
Church
Army

31. Bibliography
Hite, John. Weimar & Nazi Germany. London: John Murray
(Publishers), Ltd., 2000.
Kitson, Alison. Germany: 1858-1990 Hope, Terror, and Revival.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
YouTube. Reichstag Fire. 28 September 2011
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c7Wi8ILGcM&feature=
related>.
—. The Rise of Evil - The Reichstag Fire. 28 September 2011
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfQiy0_6BIo>.