Hitler and the Nazis - how the Nazis gained power and how they used it.

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HITLER AND THE NAZIS TIGHTER THEIR GRIP ON POWER

The Reichstag FIRE, February 1933

The Nazis celebrated Hitler´s appointment as Chancellor. Hitler had a position of power but not the total control he wanted. There was still opposition to the Nazis from the Left-wing of German politics. The SA and SS set about eliminating it; they could be sure that the wave violence they unleashed at their traditional opponents would proceed without police intervention. Hitler had chosen his Government posts well; the new Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, was a Nazi and he was responsible for the police. With elections planned for March 1933, the Nazis made sure that it would be a fair fight. While the SS and SA harassed the left-wing parties through attacks on individuals and at meetings, Josef Goebbels, Hitler´s propaganda chief, hammered home the Nazis message. Hitler tried to frighten the people into voting for him with descriptions of what would happen in a Communist take over. He, Hitler, should be given the power to stamp out the Communist menace. On 27 February 1933, happened what Hitler called “a God given signal”- The German Parliament building, the Reichstag, was burned down. A young man Dutchman, Marinus van der Lubbe, a former Communist, was caught and executed for setting fire to it. The burning of the Reichstag offered a great opportunity to Nazis. Hitler saw that he could use the fire to gain advantages in the forthcoming elections. Hitler and the Nazis persuaded the Government that Germany was under threat from the Communists. Believing this, President Hindenburg gave Hitler special powers and the day after the fire, Hindenburg signed an emergency law, the “Decree for the Protection of the People and the state”

The Nazis use their new powers

The Decree was approved by the Government, as it was free to do in a national emergency. Hitler and the Nazis lost no time in putting their new powers to good effect. Storm troopers went looking for their opponents throughout Germany. They broke into homes, seizing Communists and Socialists. Back at the SA, the local prisoners were beaten up and tortured. Some were killed and their bodies hidden in woods. The offices of the Communists and SPD were wrecked, their meetings banned or disrupted.

Goebbles used his new powers to ban Communist newspapers and then extended the ban to Socialist ones. In Prussia, the Nazi Minister of the Interior, Goering, enrolled 50000 SA men as police “auxiliaries” and over 50 left-wing supporters were killed and hundreds injured. Hitler enjoyed another big advantage before the election: Money was pouring into the Nazi Party from nig business. Hitler was promised 3 million Reichsmarks for Party election funds.

The Reichstag surrenders its powers

The election of 1933 took place in an atmosphere of intimidation and intense propaganda. Papen´s DNVP could contribute 52 seats to add to the 288 that Hitler now commanded. The first thing the Nazis did in the new Reichstag was to outlaw the Communist Party (KPD) although he was not yet satisfied, he wanted total control. On 23 March 1933 the Nazis presented to the Reichstag, the Enabling Act. The Law changed the German constitution. The Enabling Act did away with the Reichstag. If passed the law would allow Hitler and his Government to pass laws without reference to the Reichstag. This was approved with the support of the Nazi and Centre Party, and the opposition from the Social Democrats (Communists were banned from attending and most of the SPD men had been arrested by the police). Now Germany would become a dictatorship.

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THE ELIMINATION OF THE OPPOSITION

Gleichschaultung – “Nazify” government jobs

The Nazis began to destroy or take over any last source of opposition. They called this process Gleichschaultung and it was a deliberate attempt to “Nazify” Germany. Only people whom the Nazis could rely on, would remain in important jobs. The SA rebelled and used the first informal concentration camps, set up after the Reichstag fire, for prisoners of the Gleichschaultung whom they did not trust to the ordinary police.

A one-party state: The political parties were also “Nazify”. The Communists had been outlawed after the Reichstag ...

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