(a) The Burning of the Reichstag, 1933
(i) The background
Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933 but he was not in total control of the country. Although he was now Chancellor, Hitler's power was limited. Only three of eleven government ministers were Nazis. And just as Hindenburg had made Hitler Chancellor, so he could sack him if he failed to govern effectively. Hitler therefore looked for ways of increasing his power. He quickly called for new elections in the hope that his party would win a majority in the Reichstag and he would then be able to do as he wished. The Nazis set out to make sure of a big win in the elections. There were rallies, radio broadcasts, intimidation. Goring called a meeting of important industrialists and asked them for money. They gave a great deal. Behind the scenes, Goring, who was Minister of the Interior, was busily sacking senior police officers and replacing them with Nazi supporters. These men were later to be known as the Gestapo. Goring also recruited 50,000 members of the S.A. to work as police auxiliaries. Goring then raided the Communist H.Q. in Berlin and claimed that he had uncovered a plot to overthrow the government. Leaders of the party were arrested but no evidence was ever produced to support Goring's accusations. The Nazis also announced that they had uncovered a Communist plot to poison German milk supplies.
(ii) The sequence of events
On the night of 27 February 1933, something happened which helped the Nazis. The Reichstag went up in flames. A young Dutch communist, Marianus van der Lubbe, had been caught inside with matches and firelighters in his pockets. Nobody knows for sure what actually happened. Van der Lubbe later told police that he had started the fire and that he did so alone. But some believe that Goring was responsible and that Van der Lubbe was set up as a scapegoat. When Goring was put on trial at the end of the war, a senior German official testified that Goring had boasted in 1942 of how he had been responsible, but Goring strenuously denied the allegation.
Hitler claimed that the burning of the Reichstag was to have been the signal for a bloody communist uprising and civil war. It was the excuse that Hitler needed to smash the communists. Hitler gave orders that all communist leaders should be "hanged that very night". Hindenburg vetoed this decision but did agree to sign an emergency law, the Law for the Protection of the People and State, which gave Hitler dictatorial powers. This was the start of a "brown terror" carried out by the S.A. They arrested 4000 Communist and flung them into prison. Communist newspapers were shut down and their meetings were broken up. Under Hitler's new powers, the police could search houses, tap telephones, ban meetings and close down newspapers in the interests of national security. And all the while, Goebbels was organising mass rallies telling people to vote Nazi to save Germany.
Although it was extremely difficult for the opposition parties to campaign properly, Hitler and the Nazis still failed to win an overall majority. The Nazis received 43.9% of the vote and only 288 seats out of 647. Hitler was saved by one of the smaller parties. The Nationalist Party decided to join forces with the Nazis. Their 53 seats, added to the Nazis 288, gave Hitler just over half the total number of seats in the Reichstag. Hitler could now be sure that the Reichstag would vote for what he wanted.
(b) The Enabling Bill, 1933, and the results
(i) The sequence of events
Hitler wanted total power. Before the end of March 1933 Hitler put a new Bill to the Reichstag called the Enabling Bill. This planned to give Hitler the power to make laws for four years without having to get the approval of the Reichstag for these laws. In other words it would make Hitler virtual dictator of Germany. However, to get the Bill passed Hitler needed the support of two-thirds of the members present in the Reichstag. Since he needed the support of only two-thirds of those present, the simplest thing to do was to stop opponents from entering the Reichstag. The Communists had already been outlawed -- 81 Communist deputies were therefore excluded already -- and Hitler had 12 Socialists arrested. Hitler then surrounded the Reichstag with S.S. soldiers, whilst S.A. troops were placed inside the building.
The next step was to try to win the support of those present. Hitler set out to win over the Catholic Centre Party by offering the party a deal : vote for the Bill and the new Nazi government would guarantee the rights of the Catholic Church. The Bill was easily passed with only 94 Socialists voting against it, and 441 deputies voting in favour. Hitler now had four years of absolute power. He now set out to ensure that he kept it for good. The Third Reich had begun.
(ii) The results of the Enabling Bill
Hitler's first move was to take-over the trade unions. Its leaders were sent to concentration camps and the organisation was put under the control of the Nazi party. The trade union movement now became known as the German Labour Front. In March 1933 the Communist Party had been outlawed, in May so too were the Socialists and in July the Centre Party -- which had helped Hitler -- was declared illegal. By 14 July the Nazi Party was the only legal party.
By the end of 1933 over 150,000 political prisoners were in concentration camps. However, many people had fled. 60,000 people left Germany during the first few weeks after Hitler came to power. It is vital that a totalitarian regime can rely on the law courts to deal with political opponents. Hitler ensured, therefore, that the system of justice took its orders from the government and that these "People's Courts" convicted those that Hitler wanted convicted. The Secret State Police or Gestapo, under the control of Heydrich, was given the task of identifying and bringing to "justice" opponents of the Nazis. It was not only left-wing politicians and trade union leaders who were sent to the camps. The Gestapo also began arresting beggars, prostitutes, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews, alcoholics and anyone who was incapable of working. Although some inmates were tortured, the only people killed during this period were prisoners who tried to escape and those classed as "incurably insane".
In April 1933 the Nazis had passed a law dismissing "non-Aryans" from the civil service and anyone else whose loyalty to National Socialism was suspect. Local government was put in the hands of Nazi party officials. All important offices, such as judges and chiefs of police were held by Nazis and local elections were no longer held.
Joseph Goebbels was appointed Minister for Propaganda and set up sections which controlled and censored art, literature, music, the theatre, films, radio and the press. There followed a programme of "national awakening" and "co-ordination". State Parliaments were reformed, without elections, to have the same proportion of parties as in the Reichstag. Thus Nazism predominated everywhere. In February 1934, the Reichsrat (the upper federal house of Parliament) was abolished, bringing everything under the control of Hitler's Berlin Government. All other political parties had already been banned. Within a year of the Enabling Act, only two organisations could possibly challenge Hitler : the Armed Forces, or his own supreme Nazi Party.
(c) The Night of the Long Knives, 1934
(i) The rivalries within the Nazi Party
By 1934 Hitler appeared to have complete control over Germany, but like most dictators, he constantly feared that he might be ousted by others who wanted his power. To protect himself from a possible coup, Hitler used the tactic of "divide and rule" and encouraged potential leaders such as Goring, Goebbels, Himmler and Rohm to compete with each other for senior positions. These rivalries made sure that none was able to ever challenge Hitler's position of supremacy. One of the consequences of this policy was that these men developed a dislike for each other. Rohm was particularly hated because as leader of the S.A. he had tremendous power and had the potential to remove any one of his competitors. Goring and Himmler asked Heydrich, chief of the Gestapo, to assemble a dossier on Rohm. Heydrich, who also feared Rohm, manufactured evidence that suggested that Rohm had been paid 12 million marks by the French to overthrow Hitler. Hitler liked Rohm and initially refused to believe the dossier provided by Heydrich. Rohm had been one of his first supporters and, without his ability to obtain army funds in the early days of the movement, it is unlikely that the Nazis would have ever become established. The S.A., under Rohm's leadership had also played a vital role in destroying the opposition during the elections of 1932 and 1933.
(ii) Hitler's calculations about the S.A.
As far as Hitler was concerned, the S.A. had done its job by helping him to gain power. Now it was no longer useful. In fact, Hitler had good reasons for wanting to get rid of it :
(i) Rohm and many other S.A. men wanted a second, socialist, revolution. The official title of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Hitler had used the word Socialist only to appeal to working-class people. To Hitler it was just for show as he hated socialism. However, many Nazis were attracted by these socialist ideas and their leader was Ernst Rohm. He was also commander of the S.A. whose Brownshirts numbered some 2 - 3 million in 1933. Rohm wanted to see these left-wing policies put into effect, including the nationalisation of the major firms.
(ii) The S.A was unpopular with businessmen. Taking the major firms under state ownership would not please Hitler's big business supporters as they owned the firms.
(iii) It was unpopular with the army, who saw the S.A. as a rival, and Hitler needed the army's support if he was to take over as president when Hindenburg died. Generals were afraid that the S.A., which was over ten times the size of the army, would absorb the army into its ranks and Rohm would become its overall leader. Rohm had been unwise enough to say : "I'm the nucleus of the new army". Hitler was aware that the army regarded him as an upstart and were suspicious of what he planned to do. Hitler clearly had to make a choice between the army and the S.A. The aristocratic army officers made it clear to Hitler that the regular army would give Hitler its full support once the S.A. was brought under control. Hitler knew what had to be done.
(iv) Many people in the party also disapproved of the fact that Rohm and many other leaders of the S.A. were homosexuals.
(v) The S.A was now an embarrassment to Hitler. Now he was safely in power he did not need these violent bullies. He was moving in the highest circles of German society and did not want to be reminded of his street fighting gangs.
(vi) Hitler was also aware that Rohm and the S.A. had the power to remove him. He knew that the S.A. were frustrated not to have been given more power and freedom. Goring and Himmler played on this fear by constantly feeding him with new information on Rohm's proposed coup.
(iii) Hitler moves against Rohm and the S.A.
On the night of 29 June 1934, Hitler ordered his S.S. killers to act. He ordered all the S.A. leaders to attend a meeting in the Hanselbauer Hotel in Wiesse. Meanwhile, Goring and Himmler were drawing up a list of people outside the S.A. that they wanted dead. Hitler, accompanied by the S.S., arrived at Wiesse on 29 June 1934 where he burst into Rohm's bedroom, woke him up and arrested him. During the next 24 hours 200 other senior S.A. officers were arrested. Many were shot immediately but Hitler decided to pardon Rohm because of his past services to the movement. However, after intense pressure from Goring and Himmler, Hitler agreed that Rohm should be allowed to commit suicide rather than face a firing squad but, when he refused, Rohm was shot by two S.S. men.
In Berlin, Goring and Himmler had rounded up 150 S.A. leaders and put them in a coal cellar in the Cadet School outside the city. They were taken out in fours at 15 minute intervals, lined up against a wall and shot by relays of S.S. firing squads. This purge of the S.A. was called The Night of the Long Knives. The S.A. was finished. Rohm was replaced by Viktor Lutze as head of the S.A. Lutze was a weak man and the S.A. gradually lost its power in Hitler's Germany.
The S.S. under the leadership of Himmler grew rapidly during the next few years, replacing the S.A. as the dominant force in Germany. The S.S. had been founded in 1926 as Hitler's personal bodyguard. They wore black uniforms. Although Heinrich Himmler was their leader, all S.S. men swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. They could never be a threat to him as the S.A. had been. The purge of the S.A. was kept secret until it was announced by Hitler on 13 July. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name : Night of the Long Knives. Hitler claimed that 77 were killed during the purge but others have argued it was as high as 400.
(iv) The effects of the purge of the S.A.
The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point in the history of Hitler's Germany. Hitler had made it clear that he was the supreme ruler of Germany who had the right to be judge and jury, and had the power to decide whether people lived or died. It was not only S.A. leaders who perished. Other old scores were settled as well. Gustav von Kahr, whom Hitler believed had betrayed him during the Munich Putsch in 1923, met a horrible death. He was dragged from Dachau concentration camp and taken to a nearby swamp. There an S.S. squad murdered him with a pickaxe. Another murder squad went to the house of General Kurt von Schleicher, a former chancellor, who had spoken against Hitler. The S.S. shot dead Schleicher and his wife. Papen, narrowly escaped death. Goebbels and Goring also took the opportunity to eliminate personal rivals.
(d) The death of Hindenburg, the Army Oath and the creation of the position of Fuhrer.
Two weeks after Hitler's speech, on 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died and within three hours Hitler announced that the post of president and Chancellor would be merged, and that he would become the new head of state as well as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Hitler took the simple title of Der Fuhrer -- The Leader. The army, pleased with the purge of the S.A., agreed to Hitler becoming Supreme Commander. The army swore an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler : "I will give unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of the German nation and people ...". In taking the oath, the only people who still had the power to oppose Hitler -- soldiers with guns -- had sworn total obedience to him. Thus, eighteen months after becoming Chancellor, Hitler had supreme, unchallenged power in Germany. It was no wonder that Hitler felt confident enough to say that : "there will be no other revolution in Germany for the next one thousand years".
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