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| Question | Answer |
| --ESTABLISHING A DICTATORSHIP 1933-34-- | --ESTABLISHING A DICTATORSHIP 1933-34-- |
| TIMELINE: ESTABLISHING THE DICTATORSHIP OF NAZI PARTY | TIMELINE: ESTABLISHING THE DICTATORSHIP OF NAZI PARTY |
| 30th January 1933 | Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. |
| 27th February 1933 | The Reichstag fire destroys the parliament building; communist conspiracy blamed, communists lose support. |
| 28th February 1933 | A Presidential Decree giving Hitler emergency powers is passed. |
| 5th March 1933 | Elections to the Reichstag see the Nazi vote increase. |
| 24th March 1933 | The Enabling Act is passed by the Reichstag. |
| 31st March 1933 | Länder stripped of much of their power; they now only carry out federal laws. |
| 7th April 1933 | Law to restore the civil service; Jews and opponents of Nazis can be removed and people can be retired 'for technical reasons'. |
| 22nd June 1933 | SPD banned |
| 27th June 1933 | DNVP dissolved |
| 14th July 1933 | All political parties except the Nazis banned |
| 20th July 1933 | Cabinet discussion of laws no longer needed, written agreement is enough. |
| 12th November 1933 | Elections to the Reichstag see the Nazi vote increase. |
| 30th January 1934 | Hitler abolishes the Länder altogether in the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich. |
| 14th February 1934 | Hitler officially dissolves the Reichsrat |
| 24th April 1934 | Hitler set up a 'people's court' to try cases of treason. |
| 30th June 1934 | The SA is destroyed in 'The Night of the Long Knives' |
| 2nd August 1934 | President Hindenburg dies. Hitler declares himself Führer (to replace president and chancellor). He also makes himself head of the armed forces, and the armed forces take an oath of loyalty to him, NOT Germany. |
| 19th August 1934 | Hitler is confirmed as Führer by plebiscite. |
| --Legality of Hitler's dictatorship-- | --Legality of Hitler's dictatorship-- |
| How did Hitler rise to power? | By taking advantage of the problems of the Weimar Constitution. |
| How strong was the Nazi Party's position in January 1933? | Strong, but they only had one third of all seats in the Reichstag, not a majority. |
| What key turning point happened on the 27th Feburary 1933, that changed the political landscape in favour of the Nazis? | The Reichstag Fire. |
| Who, supposedly, caused the Fire? | Dutch communist, Marinus van de Lubbe. |
| Give 5 ways in which the Nazis benefited from the Reichstag Fire (FACES). | -Financial support. -Anti-Communist propaganda. -Credit for catching the arsonist. -Election for 5th March. -State of Emergency. |
| Why did the Nazi Party gain financial support? | Industrialists started to contribute generously to Nazi funds as their fear of communism rose. |
| What did the State of Emergency mean for Hitler? | He had control of the police and the power to govern Germany by decree without the Reichstag (with Hindenburg's consent to his actions). |
| What was the decree called that he passed in response to this State of Emergency? | Protection of the People and the State. |
| What did this decree do? | Suspended civil rights of German citizens. This meant he could: -Legally arrest political opponents. -Ban opposition newspapers. |
| What legal and illegal tactics did Hitler use in the 5th March 1933 election? | Legal: Use of his emergency powers to arrest some opponents. Illegal: Violent campaign tactics, using the SA. |
| What were the results of the 5th March election? | Nazi's won 17.5 million votes and 288 seats in the Reichstag. |
| Which party did Hitler take advantage of using his emergency powers? | The Communist Party by banning their 81 seats in the Reichstag. |
| How did Hitler gain overall majority of the Reichstag? | DNVP (52 seats). |
| What does the Nazi management of the March election show us? | How the Nazi's used the law to get what they wanted, but also violent, illegal elimination of opponents. |
| --ENABLING ACT-- | --ENABLING ACT-- |
| What was passed on the 24th March 1933? | The Law for the Removal of the Distress of the People and Reich (the Enabling Act). |
| What were the results of the 'voting in' process of the Enabling Act? | 444 votes to 84 (all SPD voted against it). |
| What did this Act allow Hitler to do? | Pass laws without the Reichstag for four years. |
| What did this do to the Weimar Constitution? | Destroyed it. |
| What did Hitler do to gain political totalitarianism? | 14th July 1933: banned ALL political parties, making a one-party state. |
| What did Hitler do when Hindenburg died? | Combined the offices of the President and the Chancellor, to create the role of Führer. |
| How did Hitler complete the consolidation of his power? | He held a plebiscite which made his actions more acceptable abroad. |
| --THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES-- | --THE NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES-- |
| What were the two issues with the SA? | -They were bad for the Nazi image. -They were loyal to Röhm who was increasingly critical of Hitler's 'conciliation' of the old government, the army and industrialists. |
| Why did Hitler not need the SA anymore? | -He had the SS and Gestapo. -Feared that Röhm might try to seize power. |
| Which prominent figures were killed on 'The Night of the Long Knives' on 30th June 1934? | -Ernst Röhm. -Kurt von Schleicher and his wife. -Other major SA officers. |
| Why were people relieved that the SA had been tamed? | People were scared of them and their brutal tactics had become widely hated. |
| --NATURE OF THE NAZI GOVERNMENT-- | --NATURE OF THE NAZI GOVERNMENT-- |
| What two issues did the new one-state nation solve? | -Problem of election majorities. -Problem of coalitions. |
| How many laws did the Reichstag pass between 1934 and 1945? | 7 laws. |
| What did Hitler keep the same after his takeover? | The bureaucracy. |
| What were the aspects of the bureaucracy? | -Civil service had been purged of Jews and opponents in 1933. -Many clerks had been Nazis even when there were other parties to choose from. -Kept ministers who were not Nazis before the one-party system. |
| Why did Hitler keep parts of the bureaucracy the same? | -To provide a sense of continuity. -This allowed officials and citizens to think that they understand the system. |
| Why was this an illusion? | Some ministries had different levels of power than the other ones. |
| What operated alongside the foreign ministry from 1934? | The Bureau Ribbentrop. |
| What role did the Bureau Ribbentrop have? | They were entrusted with important foreign diplomatic missions as 'special envoy'. |
| What effect did Hitler, leaving out key details about who was in charge of what, have? | It created a good deal of overlap, duplication of work and confusion. |
| Why would Hitler deliberately do this? | -To introduce a spirit of competition among various ministries and departments. -To make sure that people don't feel too settled in their positions and that they owed their situation to Hitler. |
| Who was in charge of the Reich Propaganda Ministry? | Joseph Goebbels. |
| --KEY FEATURES OF NAZI GOVERNMENT-- | --KEY FEATURES OF NAZI GOVERNMENT-- |
| What is the main principle of the Nazis? | Volksgemeinschaft |
| What is Volksgemeinschaft? | 'People's community'; the German nation as a racially united body working for the good of the nation. Individuals were expected to obey the Nazi government and make sacrifices for the nation. |
| Give 5 basic features of the Nazi government (DOCAL) | Decision-making One nation Control Administration Leadership |
| What was the idea behind leadership? | That Hitler was the leader of the nation and had ultimate power. |
| What policy did the whole Nazi state operate on? | Führerprinzip |
| What was Führerprinzip? | A strict hierarchical order, where every area of life had someone in charge to tell the people what to do. |
| Why was Führerprinzip essential in Nazi society? | Allowed people to work together and not make their own decisions; initiative was FROWNED upon. |
| What was the issue of decision-making? | Hitler couldn't make every decision in the country. |
| What happened to ministers who 'worked towards the Führer'? | They were given more power and more responsibility. |
| Did Hitler promote teamwork? Why/why not? | No, he encouraged that groups didn't work together to form policy so that it was harder for opposition groups to form. |
| Who took control of administration during the Nazi Regime? | -The Civil Service. -They were led by the new minister Wilherlm Frick in the Ministry of the Interior. |
| What was the issue with Frick's Ministry? | They often came into conflict with the Reich special agencies, Nazi party officials and other ministries. |
| How much power did the civil service decisions have? | Even though a lot of planning went into them, they were often over-ruled by 'Nazi principle'. |
| Under a Nazi regime, what should the structure of Germany look like? | -A unified country with a centralised government. -They were strongly against the idea of the Länder. |
| How did the Nazi regime make sure this structure prevailed? | -March 1933, the Länder were stripped of most of their powers. -January 1934, Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich terminated them completely. |
| Why were the Länder terminated? | -The Nazi regime wanted a centralised administration. -German people now had a unity that overrode regional differences, so the Länder weren't needed. |
| How did the Nazi Party establish tight levels of control over 'political matters'? | Using the Gestapo which was set up under Goering on 26th April 1933. |
| What was special about the SS and Gestapo? | They ran their own judiciary that ran alongside the existing court system. |
| What were set up to control political prisoners? | Concentration camps, which were outside the established judicial system. |
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