Nazi Consolidation on Power 1933-34

Flowchart nodes

• 30 January 1933 Hitler is appointed Chancellor and Goering minister for the interior. 

• 17 February  Goering orders the local police forces to cooperate with both the SA and SS. 

• 27 February  Reichstag fire, along with the arrest of 4,000 communists and other Nazi opponents. 

• 28 February  Emergency Decree from Hindenburg: police arrest suspects and hold them without trial, search houses and ban radio stations; Hitler took over regional governments. 

• 5 March  Reichstag elections; government used radio and the police to intimidate opponents. Nazis won 52% of the vote. 

• 13 March  Goebbels was appointed head of ministry for propaganda and began to take control of the media. 

• 24 March  Enabling Act allowed Hitler to pass decrees without the permission of the president, making his dictatorship legal. 

• 7 April  Civil service administration, education and court purged of Jews and other opponents of the Nazis. 

• 1 May  Workers were granted a May Day holiday. 

• 2 May  Trade unions are banned and all workers belonged to the new German Labour Front. 

• 9 June  Employment Law: this was a major programme of public works (e.g. road building) to create jobs for the unemployed. 

• 14 July  Laws against the formation of new parties are passed and Germany became a one-party state. 

• 20 July Concordat with the Roman Catholic Church: the government protects religious freedom but the Church is banned from political activity. 

• January 1934  All state governments taken over at this point. 

• 30 June Night of the Long Knives. 

• August 1934  Hindenburg dies, and Hitler becomes Führer. German armed forces swore oath of loyalty to Hitler.  

• Nazi Consolidation on Power 1933-34