The Third Reich: Third Edition D.J.

Williamson
Conclusion of Chapter 2
(20) Hitlers appointment as Chancellor of Germany was not inevitable: despite the fanatic supporters of the Nazi Party, there was no truly deep faith in its platform. Support for the party was already disintegrating by the autumn of 1932. However, there were compelling reasons for his appointment: o By 1932, the Weimar Republic was seriously weakened, and unlike other European states, the traditional elite were too powerless to support an authoritarian regime. Governing bodies were compelled to form alliances with the Nazis out of desperation and because Nazi popularity had fallen in the November 1932 election They thought that the NSDAP might be more easily manipulated. (21) On January 30th 1933, President Hindenburg acting under Article 48 had appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. o Hitlers immediate goal was to secure absolute power while maintaining the illusion of legality (as he repeatedly emphasized a legal revolution and national unity) Papen had thought that due to the strong anti-Nazism in the Cabinet, Hitlers power would be squashed, but he was mistaken. o Gring and Frick were two Nazi ministers responsible for Minitry of Interior in Prussia and the Reich o Papens attempt to dissolve the Reichstag in July 1932 allowed Hitler to exploit the state of emergency that had existed since 1930 and invoke Article 48 to issue a set of emergency decrees o Hitler was also able to draw on the power of his massive right-wing party, their loyalty to him and their desire for power and its rewards Hitlers first step in achieving absolute power was in eliminating all of the Reichstags powers: o He rejected the opportunity of a pact with the Centre Party which would have given him a majority and the chance for a new election o The Nazis began a long electoral campaign beginning on February 1st 1933 with a broadcast to the German people. (22) Hitler played on the countrys desire for unity and recovery, hid his anti-Semitic views and plans for eastern European expansion and stressed the inaptitude of the previous governing bodies and the pressing danger of a Communist putsch.

Chapter 3 The Legal Revolution and the Consolidation of Power, 1933-34

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The Dissolution of the Reichstag and the election of March 5th 1933
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He appealed to the Conservative audience by promising to make Christianity and family the centre of the state His economic plans were vague, but he outlined two Four Year Plans to benefit the farmer and attack unemployment o Even before he assumed power, the Nazis were already collecting the rights of dictatorship On February 4th, they assumed the power to prevent political meetings and forbid newspapers. The Prussian Landtag was dissolved two years later o Gring became key in the Nazis takeover of power and began purging the Prussian police. On February 17th, the Prussian police (3/5 of Germanys police force) were ordered to support the Nazi Party and an additional 50,000 from the SA were enrolled as additional support. The Communist Threat was central to the Nazi campaign, but the Communists were in reality of no threat at all. The Nazis were forced to create proof of a Red threat by raiding Communist headquarters in Berlin Hitler fully exploited the Reichstag fire, which was suspiciously opportune On February 28th 1933, the Decree for the Protection of People and State was drafted and passed: it allowed the central government to arrest individuals at will and post and search private houses and take over state governments if they refused to enact measures for the restoration of public security. This gave Hitler enough power to protect himself and ensure that the Nazis fate didnt depend on the election it was a pre-justification for a coup dtat. o Hitler began forging the de facto coalition with generals, big business and industry. He won their grudging admiration for his dedication to the (23) defence of the country against democracy and socialism This section of his campaign won him considerable campaign funds. On the March 5th 1933 elections, the Nazis failed to secure a majority of the vote (only won 43.9%) and could only claim a majority through their alliance with the Nationalist Party, which was (8%).

The Revolution from Below and the Enabling Act

The Nazi failure in the elections released an surprising burst of revolutionary and terrorist activity from the lower Nazi supporters o Hitler initially had no choice, but to go with the flow of the violence, but was also worried that all of the terrorism might compensate his partys popularity.

On March 10th he had to appeal to the SA an the SS to end gratuitous violence and obstruction and disturbance of business life, and again two days later. o Nazis were seizing administrative positions everywhere, and there was danger that incompetent activists would destroy the power of the Reich On March 21st at Potsdam, Hitler celebrated the opening of the new Reichstag (24) and brought up old memories of the unity of August 1914 o Two days later, the Reichstag met to consider the Enabling Bill, which transferred full legislative and executive powers to the cabinet for a period of 4 years. A two thirds majority was needed in favour since it was such a large change in the constitution. o Hitler jailed 81 Communists and won over the divided Liberals and the Centre Party which mistakenly believed that through time they would be able to influence Hitler. At the official debate over the Bill, the Kroll Opera House was lined with SA and SS men and surrounded by Nazi supporters. Under these conditions, Hitler stressed that the Reichstag, Reichstrat, Presidency, Christian Churches and the Lnder would not be permanently impaired by the bill, but he also threatened that if not given the majority he desired, he would continue in face of the refusal o Hitler won his votes The Enabling Law was a veil that curtained his invalid power with the illusion of constitutional validity and a legal revolution.

The Process of Gleichschaltung

Hitler quickly brought the Lnder in compliance with the new National Socialist regime Gleichschaltung, which was already in process before the Enabling Bill had been passed. o After the March 5th elections (1933), there was increased pressure on other Lnder governments not in control from revolutionary pressure from below and the power above (25) o National Socialist Reich Commissioners were first took over police forces in city-states: Hamburg, Bremen etc. and then other Lnder such as Hesse, Baden etc. o On March 31st, the lnder Diets were reformed to mimic the ratio of the parties in the Reichstag and the Reich Governors, who were usually the local Gauleiter, were bestowed full power to dismiss opposing ministers and were made senior administrative officials o In January 1934, Hitler abolished the Deits and all state governments were subordinated to the Reich government Hitlers most dangerous opponents were the trade unions, but most of them were too affected by the economic slump in 1933 to resist Hitler

o The Socialist trade unions (which were the most powerful) hoped to maintain the basics of their organizations by vowing not to interfere with Hitlers politics and only promising to protect the economic and social welfare of their members Even partially promised to the Reichskommissar for the unions o On May 2nd 1933, SS and SA took over trade union offices throughout Germany and all workers (including non-unionised) were enrolled in the German Labour Front He ensured that he would not be held responsible by the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization NSBO by handling wages at the plant level and purging the NSBO of radical members and subordinating it to the DAF Hitler also began to reform all extra-parliamentary organizations and armies that existed before 1933 o Left-wing organizations were dissolved and right-wing were incorporated into respective the Nazi organizations such as the SA etc. (26) th o The Law against the New Formation of Parties was passed July 14 and all but the SPD and KPD (Communist) dissolved themselves, making the Nazi Party the only legal party Ernst Oberfohren (head of Nationalist Partys Reichstag delegation: one who criticised and opposed Hitlers policies) mysteriously died Control of education, media and cultural life was easily established in spring 1933 by Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, who controlled broadcasting and imposed uniform interpretation and publication in papers o September, all intellectual workers were forced to join the Reich Chamber of Culture to monitor their activities o New syllabuses were introduced into schools and universities and Nazi student gangs terrorised lecturers who did not comply with Nazi standards until they resigned. Businessmen and industrialists somewhat escaped Nazi coordination because Hitler realized that he needed an effective modern industry to fix the economic situation o In June 1933, employers associations were formed into the Reich Estate of German Industry and all business was regrouped along functional and territorial lines in 1934 o Businessmen and industrialists still managed to maintain some control by keeping radical Nazis out of key positions (27) Gustav Krupp von Bohlen suggested a voluntary Adolf Hitler donation to thank Hitler for the elimination of trade unions and upcoming economic boom his real rational was that with a voluntary donation the Nazis would likely not demand as much money.

The Churches

Catholic churches wanted to negotiate an agreement with Hitler that would preserve its independence o July 14th 1933, Concordat signed between the Vatican and the German government gave the illusion that the Catholic church was receiving advantages that it didnt have with the Weimar Republic (ratified Sept. 33) Guaranteed religious freedom, right to administer and appoint clergy itself, right for parents to demand Catholic confessional schools (provided sufficient demand) Hitler made these concessions because he didnt want anymore Catholic intervention in political affairs Article 31 caused friction between the Nazis and the Catholic church because it sought to distinguish between Catholic organizations that were purely religious and those that were of social or professional interest, hoping to dissolve the latter Hitler met unexpected opposition from the Protestant church when he tried to unite the 28 regional Protestant churches into one under one elected bishop, which would be easier to control o It was only after a second attempt that he was able to have Bishop Otto Mller installed in July 1933 (28) This was met with opposition from the Pastors Emergency League The conflict became so intense that it threatened to embarrass Hitler, so he withdrew support from Mller and instead created a new Ministry of Church Affairs, which failed to coordinate German Protestants who remained divided into three main groups; the German Christians, the Confessional Church and the mainstream Church establishment. The obvious compromises of the legal revolution of 1933, which left military and business elites intact were increasingly criticised by the SA and populist wing party o Hitler couldnt afford to allow his more radical policies free reign or a complete Nazi Revolution, which would have entailed: destruction of large-scale capitalism, replacement of the Reichswehr and traditional bureaucracy with new party dominated structures Ernst Rhm was chief of staff of the SA and had enough power to challenge Hitler and destroy Nazi opposition In July 1933, Hitler declared an end to the legal revolution and the SA became a stain on his party he tried to cover it by subordinating it to raise money and run propaganda activities. (29) o Rhm wouldnt accept this and continued to expand the SA and SS until by the end of 1933 it had a force of 2.5 million (he saw the unit as a guarantee of a much more successful and radical second revolution)

The Defeat of the Second Revolution

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o He sought for Germany to be reorganized by the SA under nationalBolshevik lines o Rhm was so powerful and had the SA at his beckon, so Hitler had no choice but to confront him, especially with the question of presidency at hand with Hinderburgs ill-health and old age Hitler also needed the continuation of the Reichswehr if he was to complete his rearmament program and reintroduce conscription. He believed that the SA should be subordinate to the Reichswehr and that it should be relegated to supervising the education of military youth groups January 1934, Hitler allowed the planning of reintroducing traditional military conscription (destroying Rhms hope of a peoples army and protecting the Reichswehr) The fact that Hindenburg was on his deathbed in spring 1934 presented him with another reason to stem another possible counter-revolution, because the conservative elites in industry and Civil Service hadnt been coordinated yet (30) o They presented a threat of demanding the restoration of monarchy to stem Hitlers advances. They thought that a crisis over the SA might allow them to establish a government under their control. o The Nazi regime was also becoming unpopular throughout Germany: unemployment had not improved significantly, peasants were disillusioned by excessive red tape, businessmen were critical of currency and credit restrictions and there were continual shortages of raw materials There was a deep overall mistrust of the regime However, many political figures were impressed with Hitlers determination to rearm Germany, both parties had strong motives for cooperation, o The Reichswehr supplied weapons and trucks to the SS units that liquidated Rhm at the end of June 1934 From March through May 1934, Hitler, supported by Hess, Himmler and Gring, moved towards neutering the potentially threatening SA. o Papen reminded him that the longer he delayed solving the Rhm problem, the more likely he would be to receive conservative opposition. He also warned against a second revolution. (31) o On June 21st, when he visited the President at his estate at Neudeck, he was told to control Rhm or hand power over to the army. Hitler had no choice but to take action against Rhm, but he also wanted to eliminate his Right-wing critics Jung was arrested June 25th o appointed Himmler and Heydrich to discover evidence of SA insurrection to allow him to purge o June 30th, on accounts of SA protest demonstrations, Hitler arrived in Munich SA leaders were arrested and shot, to key conservative monarchists in Papens office, and other political enemies such as Schleicher and Strasser and many lesser figures were all liquidated

Police files show that 85 were executed, but other sources indicate 401 to be the true number Night of Long Knives st On August 1 1934, Hindenburg died and Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President (confirmed by plebiscite on August 19th) o He was head of state and automatically commander of armed forces, they swore an oath of loyalty to him o The SA and the economic radicals had no choice but to accept this SA became a propaganda arm unable to compete with the army