One of Hitler’s aspirations was to become the sole leader of Germany, but before he could reach his aspired goal, he had to conquer the obstacles in his way. First he had to gain total control of the Reichstag and the government, and absolve it (if possible); he had to eliminate the German Communists as well as gaining the loyalty and support of the German Army and the expulsion of Hindenburg.
Once all of these were achieved, Hitler would then be . Hitler could accomplish one of these aims was to gain full control of the Reichstag, and managed this by instigating the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act was an article set up by a committee at Versailles in 1919 which said that if one of the members of the Reichstag wished to relinquish their rights and abilities as members of parliament they could vote upon the enabling act, and if two-thirds of the majority was reached in favour of those who wished to pass the act, the responsibilities of the Reichstag could be passed on to the Chancellor (a the time) giving them the power to pass laws, hold trials, make major decisions ect .by themselves.
Passing this act was necessary for Hitler to gain power, not only over the Reichstag; but over Germany as well. If he didn’t control the Reichstag, he had no power to do anything: any laws he wished to employ had to be voted on by the parliament, even with Hitler’s 193 seats in November 1932, Hitler didn’t hold the majority of seats. Therefore to gain two-thirds of the majority needed, Hitler had to exonerate himself of the competition and gain [more] support.
In February 1933, two days before the Enabling Act elections, the Reichstag building was burnt down. Near by the scene of the crime was a communist supporter, Van der Lubber, painted with evidence that suggest he caused it. After a guilty confession from Van der Lubber taking all the blame for starting the fire, Hitler went to President Hindenburg and convinced him to activate Article 48 (somewhat of a martial law which when stimulated allowed the president the facility to make and pass laws in addition to handing out punishment without going through the Reichstag or parliament).
Using this, Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to outlaw the Communists, (who just happen to be one of the Nazis principal rivals in the Reichstag. Many men and women were imprisoned; members of the communist parties as well as people who were not communists, but were a political threat to Hitler and the Nazis.
At the next Reichstag elections the Nazis received 44% of seats, but even without opposition of the communists the Nazis still didn’t have two-thirds of the majority of the votes that they needed. Then there was the concordat of March 1933.
The Catholic Pope was worried about the state of the church and how it would be run if Hitler took power. Seeing that Hitler had a possibility of gaining power the power he sought after, the pope wanted to assure the Catholic stability inside Germany. The concordat secured the Catholic Centre Party’s support to Hitler in the next Enabling Act vote, at the same time, promising that when Hitler came to power he would leave the church to run itself and is exempt from any measures the Nazi Party might execute.
With the support of the Catholic Centre Party, the Nazis held the two-thirds of the majority needed. On March the 23rd 1933, the Enabling Act was passed with 444 votes against 94. Hitler had achieved goal number one: absolving the Reichstag.
After the Enabling Act was approved, Hitler was well on his was to power. He only had to gain the support of the German Army and eliminate Hindenburg. These were both achieved by the absolution of the SA, lead by Ernst Roehm, in June 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives or Kristalnacht.
The army were highly trained but were small in number, whereas the SA were a large number (2 million) of men who were untrained. The German Army vowed their elegance provided that the SA was removed. Leaders, including Ernst Roehm were brought to Hitler’s chateau in the mountains and killed. The troops that once made up the German Army were all spread out between different units.
In August 1934, Hindenburg died of old age, leaving Hitler (as chancellor) to take his place, and declared that Germany no longer needed a chancellor and expelled the position altogether making himself Der Fuhrer of Germany.