Explain how the removal of opposition in the period March 1933 to August 1934 allowed Hitler to become a dictator.

Nazi terror tactics reached a peak after the fire. The Enabling Act was then put in place. The Act gave Hitler power to make laws without the approval of either the Reichstag or the President. On voting day each voting station was policed by a mass of uniformed Nazi officers watching people as they made their vote. Hitler and his party were out of control.

He banned communists from serving in the Reichstag and then put his plan into action to convince other parties, that his way was the right way to go. Really, the parties had no choice as to whether or not they would follow Hitler. If they refused to align with him Hitler would simply run their party out of existence, making sure only he could have his say. Hitler’s final task was to remove any threats within his own party. Ernst Röhm wanted to take total control of the army. This startled Hitler as it would make Röhm more powerful than he himself was. Another reason Hitler saw him as a threat was because he held more socialist views than Hitler did.

  On the 30th June 1934 the Night of the Long Knives took place. Hitler let everyone know that the SA was plotting to seize power. Hundreds of SA leaders were arrested and many including Röhm were shot. Hitler explained his actions to the Reichstag. It accepted that he had supposedly ‘saved the nation’.

This event removed any opposition Hitler had inside of the Nazi party. He had succeeded in removing all opposition from inside and outside of his party.

On 2nd August 1934, just weeks after the Night of the Long Knives, Hindenburg passed away. Within hours Hitler had declared himself President. Every soldier was forced to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler. They took it very seriously

Hitler was now in complete and utter control. He was not only chancellor, but head of state and commander of the army. Hitler was unstoppable.