Zusammenfassung der Ressource
How Hitler
consolidated
power? 1933
- 1934
- Reichstag Fire
27 Feb 1933
- The Reichstag building
is set on fire. A Dutch
Communist, van der
Lubbe, is caught
red-handed in the
burning building.
- It gave Hitler an opportunity to
imprison many communist
leaders, which stopped them
campaigning during the election.
- It allowed the Nazis to say that
the country was in danger from
the communists during its
election campaign.
- When the courts convicted Dutch
Communist van der Lubbe, but did
not convict other Communist leaders,
Hitler was furious and replaced the
courts with the Nazi People's Courts.
- General Election
5 Mar 1933
- Only 44 per cent of the
population vote for the Nazis,
who win 288 seats in the
Reichstag.
- Although it did not give the Nazis
the majority that Hitler had hoped
for in the Reichstag, it gave them
enough seats
- After Hitler had arrested all the
communist deputies and the
other parties had been
intimidated by the SA - to get the
Enabling Act passed, which is all
Hitler needed to do.
- Enabling Act
23 Mar1933
- The SA intimidates all the
remaining non-Nazi
deputies. The Reichstag
votes to give Hitler the right
to make his own laws.
- Arguably the critical event - it gave
Hitler absolute power to make his
laws.
- Local government
26 April 1933
- the country is carved up into 42 Gaus, which are
run by a Gauleiter. These Gaus are separated
into areas, localities and blocks of flats run by a
Blockleiter. Hitler sets up the Gestapo.
- This put the Nazis in control of local government,
and allowed the Gestapo to rule by terror.
- Trade Unions
2 May 1933
- abolished and their
leaders arrested.
- Abolishing the trade unions allowed Hitler to destroy a group
that might have opposed him. It also gave Hitler the opportunity to
set up the German Labour Front, which gave him control over
German workers.
- Concordat
20 June 1933
- Hitler makes an agreement with
the Pope who sees him as
someone who can destroy
communism. This agreement
allows Hitler to take over political
power in Germany as long as he
leaves the Catholic Church alone.
- Hitler's agreement with the Pope was a
temporary truce that allowed Hitler to ban the
Catholic Zentrum party without opposition from
the Catholic Church.
- Political parties
14 July 1933
- banned - only the
Nazi party is allowed
to exist.
- Banning political parties made Germany a one-party
state and destroyed democracy in the country.
- After this action, Germans could no longer get rid of
Hitler in an election.
- People's courts
24 April 1934
- Hitler sets up the Nazi
people's courts where
judges have to swear
an oath of loyalty to the
Nazis.
- These were set up to give Hitler
greater control over the
judgements made in courts. Hitler
was furious because the courts
did not sentence the communists to
death for starting the Reichstag
fire.
- Night of the long knives
30 June 1934
- some SA leaders are demanding that the
Nazi party carry out its socialist agenda,
and that the SA take over the army. Hitler
cannot afford to annoy the businessmen or
the army, so the SS murders perhaps 400
of the SA members, including its leader
Röhm, along with a number of Hitler's other
opponents.
- This destroyed all opposition within the Nazi Party. It
gave power to the brutal SS. It also showed the rest of
the world what a tyrant Hitler was.
- Fuher 19 Aug
1934
- when Hindenburg dies, Hitler
declares himself jointly
president, chancellor and
head of the army.
- This formally made Hitler the
absolute ruler of Germany.