HOW DID HITLER CONSOLIDATE HIS LEADERSHIP UP TO 1934?

  On the 23rd of March 1933, Hitler called parliament together in the Kroll opera house, since the Reichstag was still being repaired. He intended to pass a law call the ‘Enabling Act.’ This would ban all other political parties, and allow Hitler to become a virtual dictator, as the parliament would only have to be called every four years, and the only people left in parliament would be Hitler’s supporters.  Hitler got the SA to intimidate to voters in parliament, having them standing in the aisles watching menacingly and wielding batons. It was an obvious threat, vote in favour of Hitler of suffer the consequences.

  At this point Hitler was wary of anyone who had power that could compromise his position, and the SA was very powerful. This is why between the 30th of June and the 2nd of July, Hitler started Operation Hummingbird, otherwise known as ‘The Night of the Long Knives.’ Hitler viewed the SA’s independence and the violence they used as a direct threat to his regime, so he had all of its leaders murdered, including his friend from the start Ernst Rohm. At this time the SA outnumbered the German Army, and when Ernst Rohm suggested that the army be absorbed into the SA, the army’s leaders were alarmed. Their was intense friction between the two forces and Hitler saw this as a major threat to his leadership. Hitler made a pact between himself and the leaders of the army that should the leaders of the SA be removed then the SA’s everyday soldiers would be taken into the army. The leaders of the army like this idea because it increased their size and power. However, in return, Hitler wanted everyone in the army to swear an oath of allegiance to him.  This was unusual because normally the army swears allegiance to the country and not the leader. This was yet another way that Hitler consolidated his leadership.

  The death of President Hindenburg allowed Hitler to make a new law, combining the powers of President and Chancellor to become the Fuhrer. Even with all the power he held before Hindenburg’s death he was still only Reich Chancellor, so becoming the Fuhrer cemented in the fact that he now controlled the country with no opposition. The law was technically illegal because it violated the constitution and the Enabling Act, but there was no opposition to Hitler anymore. Hitler himself was becoming the law. In these ways Hitler consolidated his power up to 1934.