What Role did the Reichstag Fire Play In Allowing Hitler to Consolidate his Power

What Role did the Reichstag Fire Play In Allowing Hitler to Consolidate his Power?

A week before the Reichstag elections, on the 27th February 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin burned down. The Nazis claimed that this was the work of a Dutch Communist- Marinus van der Lubbe. If it was the work of the Nazis, as some historians suspect, Hitler had no connection. Since 1930, all of the chancellors had been able to use Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. This allowed them to rule by decree. However, President Hindenburg did not offer Hitler this, probably because he did not trust Hitler. However, after the Reichstag Fire, Hitler declared a state of emergency and persuaded Hindenburg to allow him to use part of the Article 48 which stripped people of their civil rights and allowed the police to make arrests without warrant. Hindenburg signed a 'Decree for the Protection of the People and the State', taking away freedom of speech and assembly. Within hours of the fire, Hitler arrested around 4,000 communists. In the last few days before the elections, only the Nazis and Nationalists were allowed to campaign freely.
Due to these arrests of his oppositions, Hitler was seen as a man of action, which is what people were looking for to pull Germany from the Depression. The Reichstag was seen as a symbol of German independence, built by the first chancellor of the second German Empire in 1871. Bismarck had created Germany through a series of wars leading up to 1870. The Reichstag building was a reminder to people of Germany's great past and the burning was an insult to Nationalism and Democracy. Hitler justified his actions by declaring a state of emergency after the building was burned down.
Hitler wanted to maximize his votes, as 50% was all that he required to push bills through the Reichstag. Voting took place on 5 March. Hitler gained 288 seats, more than the Nazis had ever gained before. However, this was still under the 50% of votes that Hitler required. Even so, the Communists (who had won 81 seats) could not take their seats as they were under arrest. Hitler was now in a strong position. He formed a coalition with the DNVP and built concentration camps, such as Dachav for his political enemies. He had overcome the handicap that he started with- not having access to Article 48. The Reichstag fire, which may not have even been caused by the Nazis, was a major stepping stone to Hitler becoming the Fuhrer of Germany. If Hitler could get the support of 2/3 of the members of the Reichstag he would be able to pass an Enabling Bill which would make him virtually dictator of Germany for four years. However, there was still a long way for Hitler to go- the President, Hindenburg, at any time could remove Hitler.

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Study the events of January 1933- August 1934. How far do you agree that Hitler's appointment as chancellor was the most important factor in his achievement of complete power?

In 1933 Hitler was chancellor of Germany. However, there were only three out of twelve Nazi ministers in the cabinet and Hitler promised not to bring in more. Also, the President, Hindenburg, could remove Hitler at any time, because in Germany the President appointed the chancellor. Finally, Hitler could not use Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which allowed a chancellor to rule by decree with the President's consent. The chancellors before Hitler, Bruning, Papen and Schleicher had been given access to the part of Article 48 which allowed them to rule by decree. This was not a position of total power. Without becoming chancellor, Hitler would not have become Fuhrer of Germany. However, it was the things that happened after Hitler became chancellor that caused him to obtain total power.

Firstly, a week before the Reichstag elections, on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin burned down. The Nazis claimed that this was the work of a Dutch Communist- Marinus van der Lubbe. After the Reichstag Fire, Hitler declared a state of emergency and persuaded Hindenburg to allow him to use part of Article 48 which stripped people of their civil rights and allowed the police to make arrests without warrant. This was not the same part of Article 48 that Hitler's predecessors had which allowed them to rule by decree, but was a part that previous chancellors had not been able to use. Within hours of the fire, Hitler arrested around 4,000 communists. Hitler was therefore seen as a man of action, which is what people were looking for to pull Germany from the Depression.
Hitler only needed 50% of the votes to push bills through the Reichstag. Hitler gained 288 seats but this was still under the 50% of votes that Hitler required. Hitler formed a coalition with the DNVP and built concentration camps, such as Dachau for his political enemies. He had overcome the handicap that he started with- not having access to Article 48. The Reichstag fire, was a major stepping stone to Hitler becoming the Fuhrer of Germany. However, there was still a long way for Hitler to go- the President, Hindenburg, at any time could remove Hitler from the post of chancellor.

The second factor which helped Hitler achieve total power was the Enabling Bill. The Chancellor of the Weimar Constitution could get the right, from the Reichstag, to rule by decree for a given length of time. This would be better for Hitler than Article 48 because he could say that it was the people who gave him this power, not the president. To pass this Enabling Act, Hitler would need a 2/3 majority in the Reichstag. The communists could not vote against the bill for fear of being arrested. The Socialist party would vote against it and so Hitler needed to convince the Catholic Centre Party to vote for the bill. Hitler managed to do this by saying that he had been a catholic schoolboy, that he shared some of the same interests as them and that he was in the process of signing a concordat with the pope. The Enabling Act was passed on 23 March, making Hitler virtually dictator of Germany.

The Night of the Long Knives was another reason why Hitler managed to achieve complete power. In my opinion, it was not as important as the other factors, but the two million strong SA could have turned on Hitler at any time unless he acted quickly.
The SA embarrassed Hitler. The leaders of the SA demanded that it should be merged with the German army under Rohm's command. Army chiefs and Hitler were horrified by this idea. Hitler thought that the unruly street fighters of the SA would not make good soldiers. In addition, many of the SA leaders, including Rohm were left wing Nazis and took the anti-capitalist and socialist parts of the Nazi programme seriously. They wanted a 'second revolution' where big business would be tamed and wealth would be redistributed.
On 30 June 1934 Hitler arranged to meet the SA leaders at Wiessee. He arrived with squads of SS men. SA leaders and other enemies of Hitler (such as von Schleicher and Strasser) were killed in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler tried to justify his actions by making a radio address. He presented himself as a man of action. Although Hitler could have been mistaken about the SA's intentions, without the purges of its leaders the SA could have overthrown Hitler.

At the beginning of August 1934 Hindenburg died. There should have been another president but Hitler illegally merged the position of chancellor and president together and he became the Fuhrer of Germany. He managed to get away with this by saying that as Hindenburg was so great it would be an insult to his memory for anyone to follow in his footsteps. Hitler was now dictator of Germany. Without Hindenburg's death, Hitler could have been removed at any time. Hindenburg was very popular (as he was one of the successful First World War generals) and so Hitler could not simply kill him.

All of these factors were important in Hitler's achievement of complete power but there were other reasons why Hitler was unopposed. Hitler knew that the Trade Unions were dangerous (in 1920 a General Strike was declared and the Kapp Putsch was stopped). Hitler declared 1 May a free paid holiday for workers and the Nazis took over the Trade Union offices. Hitler also created jobs to win support of the working classes and calm the unions.
The Catholic Church was a large organisation and its followers could easily be persuaded not to support Hitler. Hitler convinced the Catholic Church that he and they shared the same interests and he signed a concordat with the pope, agreeing to respect the autonomy of the church. The army was another group which could stop Hitler, and it had recently signed an oath of allegiance to him after Hindenburg's death. All other political parties abolished themselves and so the Nazi party was the only party left. The Enabling Act was therefore automatically renewed after 4 years. On 14 July 1933 Hitler declared a one party state. In October 1933 Hitler walked out of the League of Nations disarmament conference, showing that he was 'sticking to his guns' on his policies of smashing Versailles.

Hitler's appointment as chancellor, in a way, was the most important reason in his achievement of complete power. Without becoming chancellor, he could not have become Fuhrer. However, his domination was far from inevitable. Hitler had to exploit every opportunity in order to become dictator of Germany.