The legality in which Hitler came to power.

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Hamza Rahman

History H/W

Mr Lyon

The legality in which Hitler came to power

Hitler’s rise to power is an interesting issue that consists of many factors into how Hitler came to power and whether or not it was lawful or unlawful. We have to as historians appreciate that in reality both lawful and unlawful factors were crucial together, in the consolidation of power for Hitler.

Examples in how Hitler climbed his way up the political ladder in an illegal sense would be incidents such as the Reichstag fire and the Night of the long knives.

The Reichstag building was burned down on 27 February 1933. This helped Hitler to gain a majority in the upcoming March election. The Nazis blamed the fire on the communists, specifically Van der Lubbe - and they claimed that he intended to spark a communist uprising in Germany. It is debatable as to who really caused the fire. The majority of historians claim that the Nazis started the fire themselves deliberately to increase their chances of success. It is undeniable that Hitler did use the fire to help win the election, and if this majority of historians are correct, then Hitler has become the leader of Germany through and unlawful act along the way. He launched a propaganda campaign to whip up fears of a communist uprising. This was hoped to frighten the middle-classed landowners into voting for them.

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Another unlawful act I mentioned was the Night of the long knives, where many SA troops were killed (inc. Rohm). Hitler did this because the SA wanted a bigger role. Their leader, Ernst Röhm, wanted to merge the SA with the regular army, leaving them both under his absolute control. The regular army was not happy with this arrangement, and Hitler was alarmed, as a merger would make Röhm the most powerful man in Germany. Hitler thought something had to be done to prevent this from ever happening and with the advice from Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, and so ...

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