However, the Enabling Act wasn’t essential to Hitler because the Nazis already had enough influence over the Reichstag to pass whatever laws they wanted. The Reichstag Fire on 27th February 1933 had heightened fears and tensions among the German public, meaning that more people voted for Hitler in the general election on 5th March 1933 as he promised to act quickly and decisively to control the situation. Nevertheless, Hitler only received 44% of the vote, leaving him over 2 million votes short of an overall majority which he desperately wanted. This would have allowed the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act without the support of smaller parties, which would give Hitler a shorter road to absolute power. Fortunately for Hitler, the heated political atmosphere after the Reichstag Fire meant that politicians were prepared to accept the sweeping powers that Hitler demanded, either because they felt they were necessary in restoring order and peace to Germany or because they were frightened into submission. These powers included the right to arrest without trial, use capital punishment and control the media. The Nazi threats and intimidation meant that Hitler could bully the Reichstag into passing the Enabling Act, but had a lesser effect on the German people, suggesting that the Reichstag Fire and the following Emergency Decrees were more important to Hitler than the Enabling Act in terms of gaining power over the country.
Although the Enabling Act had given Hitler greater power over the government and although the Reichstag Fire and the following Emergency Decrees had given him greater power over the German people, neither did anything to increase his power over his own party, especially over the SA. The SA were Nazis but not completely loyal to Hitler. Many were law unto themselves and Hitler could not always control them. They demanded that the Nazi Party carry out its socialist agenda and that the SA take over the army. The leader of the SA, Ernst Rohm, resented and resisted Hitler’s power even though they had once been friends, but more importantly, he had 3 million armed men under his control, leaving Hitler extremely vulnerable to his own team. On the night of the 29th June 1934, in what became known as ‘The Night of the Long Knives’, the SS (Hitler’s elite bodyguards) attacked and murdered approximately 200 leading SA members, including Rohm, along with a number of Hitler’s other opponents such as the former Chancellor, Von Schleicher. The removal of Rohm and not only satisfied the President, the army and the public by ensuring stability, but also sent a clear message to everyone within the Nazi Party not to doubt or betray Hitler, which was important to him because he gained greater power over the Nazi Party as he had fewer rivals.
In conclusion, the Enabling Act was not essential to Hitler but it provided him with an easier and faster route to absolute power than relying on the support or submission of smaller parties. An even faster route to power for Hitler would have been to gain an overall majority in the 1933 general election, after which he would have been able to pass any law without the need for an Enabling Act. It was more important to Hitler that the Enabling Act gave him symbolic power rather than actual power because he was still second to Hindenburg in the eyes of the public. He could pass whatever laws he wanted anyway, but he could also be sacked by the President, something which he keenly sought to change. The Enabling Act and The Night of the Long Knives eclipse the significant but modest consolidation of power by Hitler arousing out of the Reichstag Fire, which remains controversial. Finally, when President Hindenburg died of natural causes on 19th August 1934, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer: jointly President, Chancellor and Head of the Armed Forces.