While President Hindenburg was still alive and while other political parties continued to exist, he would face potential opposition in his aim to achieve total power. However, he was aware that he owed his appointment as Chancellor to the traditional members of the conservative elite in politics and society. It was very important for him to reassure the leaders of the civil service, big industry, the armed forces and conservative politicians that he was ‘safe’ and respectable. He also had to reassure opinion in other European countries that he was not a dangerous revolutionary. This move towards ‘respectability’ and the ‘legal revolution’ contrasted strongly with the aims of some of the SA.Rohm resented and was suspicious of Hitler’s ‘deals’ struck with conservative politicians.
At Potsdam, Hitler publicly associated himself with the forces of tradition, respectability and the German Army.
The March election was a familiar mixture of street violence performed by the SA and the reassurance of the German population.
With Hitler promising to return Germany to its former glory, reinforcing the point that so many felt, particularly the SA themselves many of who were soldiers in the First World War, that Germany had been “stabbed in the back” the treaty of Versailles had been signed.
This obviously was total fallacy, they blamed the “November criminals” for Germanys loss of the war, but it was really just a scapegoat for the members of the military such as General Ludendorff, the political groups and even the German people themselves to blame for their defeat.
Hence why support grew for the party and in the in the election on 5th March, 1933. The NSDAP (Nazi party) received 43.9% of the vote and only 288 seats out of the available 647 still failing to win an overall victory, but they had still increased their influence within the Reichstag and gained yet more interest and support, particularly from the German army and its leaders, although there were some who still opposed the party,
If compared with models of resistance it such as Kershaw’s concentric circles you could claim the army’s opposition was merely dissent, but what truly is resistance? These models although useful in the task of categorising resistance are totally devoid of detail and consideration.
Disbelief in someone’s ideology and failure to comply I personally would consider resistance, not just such actions as protest and attempts of sabotage if we look at only active opposition then, yes, there was little resistance
Yet these individuals lack of belief in the entire ideology meant Hitler’s strangle hold on the group was loosened and therefore he needed to be cautious of not being too radical.
This intimidation in itself was at the time enough to be sufficient.
The Nazi’s now had favour of one of the most powerful groups within the republic.
But what did they do to oppose Hitler?
The German army could potentially be the most damaging to the Nazi party and the regime.
Army opposition to Hitler began during the early days of his rule. The fact that Hitler was Austrian, lower middle class, and had achieved only the rank of a corporal during his military service was frowned upon by many officers. Army leaders were also weary of Hitler's SA troops, which they viewed as a threat to their own power. Hitler managed to alleviate some of these fears during the "Night of the Long Knives", when he purged most of the SA leadership thus guaranteeing his own control over SA troops. Most SA organizations were either disbanded or infused into the SS.
But this was not only a most favourable display of his alliance to the army, but as a message to his party members.
The SA had been causing concern for Hitler for quite some time, they were out of control and any attempts Hitler made to control their violent outburst were ignored. But the biggest problem posed for Hitler was the leader of the SA, an old friend of Hitler’s. , Ernst Rohm, Rohm felt greatly unrewarded for the work he and his group were carrying out, surely they should receive recognition rather than often stern disciplines for carrying out the party’s more controversial work, Rohm insisted on incorporating the German army into the SA's organizational framework. This distressed many of the army's leaders. Hitler, who needed the military to establish total control and needed their man power to fight the upcoming planned European war, realized the problem Rohm presented. Hitler needed Rohm out of the way in order to solidify his command and win the army's support. Rohm’s aim
Was to sweep away the old order and achieve a full ‘National Socialist revolution’.
For Rohm, the events of February and March 1933 marked the beginning, not the end, of the ‘revolution’. A ‘second revolution’ was needed against the forces of tradition and order. But Hitler required the support of the army if he was ever to continue with his regime and he finally came to the decision that the SA needed to be dealt with once and for all.
The Army was in no way won over by Hitler immediately. During the "Night of the Long Knives" Hitler not only purged the SA, he also took the opportunity to murder other governmental, military and civilian opponents. Two such victims were General Schleicher and his assistant General Ferdinand von Bredow.
The murders themselves were actually carried out by the SS, although the weapons and transport were provided by the army. Although their was no real resistance.
The army had finally aligned itself with the regime.
On the second of August, after a long period of illness, President Hindenburg passed away and now furher Hitler demanded all officers to take a personal oath of loyalty to him, this was an important point in the history of the Nazi party, due to the army officials loyalty and honour, this oath meant that any rebellion that would lead to opposition to him was strongly unlikely.
Hitler then set about expanding the army.
Yet he was restricted initially by the treaty of Versailles which had limited the armed forces Germany was allowed to posses as well as enforcing war reperations.Yet the Lausanne Conference of 1932, had diminished the financial provisions of the . So Hitler was determined to overturn the remaining military and territorial provisions of the treaty.
Hitler introduced military conscription on the 16th of march 1935 although this totally violated the treaty and simultaneously announced the expansion of the army to more than 500,000 men.
I conclude that although active resistance was minimal there were still those who opposed the Nazi ideology and the regime,in the time period 1930-1938
but this opposition its must be noted had started within this groups disbelief in Hitler which lead to the series of assassination attempts in the 1940’s.
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