The consolidation of power

January to June 1933

Aims of the lesson

By the end of this lesson you should

• Understand how and why Hitler was able to increase his grip on power in the wake of taking the Chancellorship

• Evaluate Hitler’s success in gaining total power in Germany by the summer of 1933

• Analyse the importance of each of the reasons for this

The March 1933 election

• 30th January 1933 – Hitler became Chancellor and called an immediate election in order to gain total power

• Opposition meeting were interrupted and smashed up by the SA

• Many opponents were put in prison• The aims was for the Nazis to get a majority in

the Reichstag so that they could abolish it and establish a Nazi dictatorship

The Reichstag fire

The Reichstag Fire

• 27th February 1933 – the Reichstag building was set alight

• Inside a young Communist called Marius Van Der Lubbe was caught red handed

• He was a good scapegoat• Communist• Foreigner

Van Der Lubbe – Guilty or a patsy?

• He was arrested immediately after the crime and signed a confession

• Under torture!!!!!!!!!!• He was mentally ill and

showed signs of confusion• Was he the guilty man or

was he set up either by the Nazis or the Communists

Van Der Lubbe was part of a Communist plot

• Van Der Lubbe was part of a Communist plot to take over the country

• This is what the Nazis claimed• No real evidence for this except for his

confession gained under torture• Why would the Communists pick such an

unstable and unreliable arsonist to start the fire

• Too easy an idea – little evidence

Van Der Lubbe acted alone

• Van Der Lubbe was mad and acted alone without help from anyone else

• Possible as there is no evidence of a Communist conspiracy

• This fits with most of the evidence but does not explain the fact that there was more than one fire and they were all started at the same time

Van Der Lubbe was “helped” by the Nazis

• Van Der Lubbe was set up by the Nazis – he started off plotting alone but when this was discovered by the Nazis they made his task easier

• There was a tunnel from Nazi HQ to the Reichstag

• If the SA knew of the plot why did they not try to stop it earlier

• The most likely scenario

The fallout of the Reichstag fire

• Hitler claimed that the fire was proof of a Communist plot

• Demanded powers – Law for the Protection of the State and the People

• Ended freedom of speech and of the press

• Opposition meeting were banned and leaders were put in prison without a trial

The Propaganda machine

• Goebbels embarked on a mass propaganda campaign designed to win the election decisively

• Mass rallies• Radio broadcasts• Posters• Speeches• Violence

The election result

• Nazis got their biggest share of the vote – 44%

• Still did not have a majority – only 288 seats. Other parties had 359

• Saved by the Nationalists who had 52 seats which gave the Nazis a majority

• Next step was to gain total control by abolishing the Reichstag

The Enabling Law

• The Nazis needed a 2/3 majority to change the constitution

• March 23rd 1933 – Nazis proposed the Enabling Law

• This would abolish parliament and put all real power in the hands of Hitler

• In effect it would mean the end of the Weimar Republic and Democracy

The passing of the Enabling Law

• To get this majority he threw the 81 Communist MPs into prison

• The Social Democrats were “encouraged” not to attend the vote by the SA

• The other political parties gave in and agreed to support the law – scared

• The law was passed by 444 votes to 94

• Hitler now had total power, except …….