Nazi Germany initially consolidated power from 1933-1934 through the process of Gleichschaltung, which coordinated all aspects of German society under Nazi control. This included eliminating non-Nazi political parties and organizations, establishing a one-party Nazi state after passing the Enabling Act, and systematically suppressing dissent through laws restricting civil liberties and establishing concentration camps.
5. Hitler established a one-party dictatorship
to realise the Nazi ideology of
Volsgemeinshaft, a racially unified and
hierarchically society in which the
interests of individuals would be strictly
subordinate to those of the nation, or
Volk.
Monday, 18 March 13
6. The period from 1933 to 1937 was
characterised by the systematic
elimination of non-Nazi organisations
that could potentially influence
people, such as trade unions, political
parties and religious groups.
Monday, 18 March 13
7. The Nazis used the term
“Gleichschaltung” to refers to the specific
legal measures taken by the government
from the first months following January 30,
1933, when Adolf Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany.
It is through this process that Germany
becomes a fascist state.
Monday, 18 March 13
9. November election,
1932
Hitler’s attempts to become Chancellor
are rebuffed by Hindenburg who said:
A presidential cabinet led by you would
inevitably develop into a party dictatorship
with all the consequences of drastic
intensification of the antagonism within the
German nation
Monday, 18 March 13
11. January
28, 1933
Despite his earlier reservations, President Hindenburg
agrees appoint Hitler as Chancellor in a bid to end
the ongoing political instability (in the previous year
there had been 4 elections in 8 months)
Monday, 18 March 13
12. January
30, 1933
Hitler is appointed Chancellor.
"We have the power.
Now our gigantic work begins."
Monday, 18 March 13
13. January
30, 1933
From a window in the Reich Chancellery, German
president Paul von Hindenburg watches thousands
of Nazis in a torchlight parade to celebrate of
Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor.
Monday, 18 March 13
14. New York Times, January 31, 1933
“HITLER MADE CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY BUT
COALITION CABINET LIMITS POWER; CENTRISTS HOLD
BALANCE IN REICHSTAG.”
After losing several elections to President Von Hindenburg, Franz
von Papen makes a deal with the WWI general to make Adolf
Hitler, leader of the National Socialist Party, Chancellor of Germany
even though they don’t have a majority in the Reichstag. The story
includes this fascinating statement: “The composition of the Cabinet
leaves Herr Hitler no scope for gratification of any dictatorial
ambition.”
Yet, the front page also contains a story by the AP headed, “HITLER
PLEDGES FIGHT IN CABINET.” The Nazi statement says, in part,
“After a thirteen-year struggle the National Socialist movement has
succeeded in breaking through to the government; the struggle to
win the German nation, however, is only the beginning.”
Monday, 18 March 13
15. "It is almost like a dream – a fairytale.
The new [Third] Reich has been
born. Fourteen years of work have
been crowned with victory. The
German revolution has begun!"
Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary Jan. 30, 1933
Monday, 18 March 13
17. Under the Weimar Constitution, the chancellor had
little political power and was little more than a
chairman.
Cabinet decisions were made by majority vote and
there were 8 Conservative politicians and two
Nazis: Frick and Goering
These two factors meant that the Conservatives
(made of the Reichswehr, industrialists and Junkers),
led by von Papen, believed they could use the Nazis
to get control of Germany and end the rising
support for Communists (up from 80 to 100 seats
in the Nov, ’32 election)
Monday, 18 March 13
18. "Within two months we will
have pushed Hitler so far in
the corner that he'll squeak."
von Papen, 1933
Monday, 18 March 13
19. The infighting and jockeying for power
had led the Conservatives to make a
massive political miscalculation - within
two years Hitler destroyed all who stood
in his way and many who had supported
him were dead (SA leaders,
von Schleicher), in concentration camps
or under house arrest (von Papen)
Monday, 18 March 13
21. February
4, 1933
“Decree for the Protection of the German People,” issued,
using Article 48 - gives govt. temporary powers to:
•prohibit public meetings
•suppress publications deemed “dangerous”
•ban strikes in vital areas.
•expanded powers of arrest,
This decree allowed the government to round up
Communist and Social Democratic candidates in the
weeks leading up to the March general elections.
Monday, 18 March 13
22. February
22, 1933
Göering (Minister of the Interior for Prussia) has
control of the police
Göering replaces hundreds of police officials with Nazis
Göering set up an auxiliary police force (Hilfspolizei)
of 50,000 men, composed mostly of members of the SA
and SS.
Monday, 18 March 13
23. February
27, 1933
“Democracy burns” - the infamous burning of
the Reichstag.
This event is seen as a pivotal moment in the
beginning of Nazi Germany.
Monday, 18 March 13
24. February
27, 1933
The alleged arsonist was Marinus van der Lubbe, a
young Dutch Communist of questionable sanity; he
was arrested on the spot and executed the
following year. Nazi officials immediately claimed
the fire was an attempt by the Communists to
overthrow the government and took drastic action.
Monday, 18 March 13
25. This is the beginning of the Communist
revolution! We must not wait a minute.
We will show no mercy. Every
Communist official must be shot, where
he is found. Every Communist deputy
must this very day be strung up."
Hermann Goering
Monday, 18 March 13
26. February
27, 1933
Decree for the Protection of the People and the State of
February 28. Popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree
Hitler convinced Hindenburg to use Article 48 to permanently
suspend civil liberties protected by the Weimar Constitution
These included:
habeus corpus
right to assembly
freedom of speech
freedom of the press
all restraints on police investigations
Monday, 18 March 13
27. The “Decree for the Protection of the
German People,” was a significant step to
establishing a one-party Nazi dictatorship
•Thousands were imprisoned in the days following the fire,
including leading KPD (Communists), Social Democrats and
trade unionists
•March and April 1933 alone, over 45,000 women and men
were taken in so-called protective custody and incarcerated in
prisons and newly established concentration camps,
Monday, 18 March 13
28. March 5,
1933
General election, NSDAP win only 44% of the vote.
Whilst they are unable to win a clear majority, the
election gives the NSDAP a sense of legitimacy
despite the fact that other parties were prevented
from campaigning by new laws and SA violence
Monday, 18 March 13
29. March
23, 1933
The Enabling Act, a law giving Hitler dictatorial
powers, was passed. This “Law to Remedy the
Distress of the People and the Reich”, allowed
Hitler’s government to pass laws without
approval of the Reichstag or President.
Monday, 18 March 13
30. Otto Wels, leaders of the SPD,
had his citizenship revoked in
1933 and fled to Paris
Social Democratic Party (SPD), the only party to
vote against the Enabling Act, was banned. Its
members were stripped of their citizenship
(above) or arrested. All other parties disbanded
to avoid persecution, arrest and being sent to
concentration camps.
Monday, 18 March 13
31. March-
April, 1934
March 4 - SA raids on gay bars
March 11 - SA attack Jewish-owned shops
March 20 - Nazis build Dachau, first permanent concentration camp
March 26 - Hitler calls for boycott of Jewish shops
April 1 - SA prevent people from entering Jewish shops
April 7 - Jews and dissenters banned from civil service
April 21 - Kosher tradition outlawed
April 25 - quotas introduced on Jewish children in schools
Monday, 18 March 13
32. April 26,
1933
The Nazis took over state and local government. The Nazis
started to replace anti-Nazi civil servants, teachers and
University professors. Hitler set up the Gestapo (the secret
police) and encouraged Germans to report opponents.
Tens of thousands of Jews, Communists, Protestants,
Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and
prostitutes were arrested and sent to concentration camps
for 'crimes' as small as writing anti-Nazi graffiti, possessing a
banned book, or saying that business was bad.
Monday, 18 March 13
34. May 2,
1933
The Trade Unions offices were closed, their
money confiscated, and their leaders put in prison.
In their place, Hitler put the German Labour
Front (DAF) which reduced workers' pay and
took away the right to strike.
Monday, 18 March 13
35. May 10,
1933
In 34 university towns across Germany, the “German
Student Association” of Nazi Germany ceremonially
burnt 45,000 books in an attempt to “purify” the
German language and culture.
The books by liberal, anarchist, socialist, pacifist,
communist, Jewish, and other authors were viewed as
“degenerate” or subversive or whose ideologies
undermined the National Socialism.
Monday, 18 March 13
36. “ The era of extreme Jewish intellectualism is now at an end.
The breakthrough of the German revolution has again
cleared the way on the German path...The future German
man will not just be a man of books, but a man of character.
It is to this end that we want to educate you. As a young
person, to already have the courage to face the pitiless
glare, to overcome the fear of death, and to regain respect
for death - this is the task of this young generation. And thus
you do well in this midnight hour to commit to the flames
the evil spirit of the past. This is a strong, great and symbolic
deed - a deed which should document the following for the
world to know - Here the intellectual foundation of the
November Republic is sinking to the ground, but from this
wreckage the phoenix of a new spirit will triumphantly rise. ”
— Joseph Goebbels, Speech to the students in Berlin
Monday, 18 March 13
37. July 14,
1933
The "Law against the establishment of political parties"
declared the Nazi Party to be the country's only legal party.
However, for all practical purposes Germany had been a
one-party state since the passage of the Enabling Act.
Monday, 18 March 13
38. April 24,
1934
People's Courts - Hitler sets up the Nazi people's
courts where judges have to swear an oath of loyalty
to the Nazis. The "People's Court" was set up outside
the operations of the constitutional frame of law. The
court had jurisdiction over a rather broad array of
"political offenses".
Monday, 18 March 13
39. David Low, 1934, “They salute with both hands now
June 30,
1934
Night of the Long Knives - members of the Nazi paramilitary
Storm Division (SA) demanded that the Nazi party carry
out its radical socialist agenda, and that the SA take over the
army. The SS murdered the leader of the SA Ernst Rohm
and 85 SA members, along with a number of Hitler's other
opponents including former Chancellor von Schleicher. This
operation eliminates opposition to Hitler within Nazi ranks.
Monday, 18 March 13
40. August
19, 1934
When Hindenburg died, Hitler assumed the office
of President and leader of the army (the soldiers
had to swear to die for Adolf Hitler personally).
Hitler called himself 'Fuhrer'.
Monday, 18 March 13