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Unlock This CourseWhen Hitler became chancellor his power was limited. The Nazis had no majority in the Reichstag, most of his ministers were not Nazis, and President Hindenburg could dismiss him at any time. Eighteen months later he was the dictator of Germany. Four steps took him there.
Hitler at once persuaded Hindenburg to call an election for 5 March 1933, hoping to win a Nazi majority. Then, on the night of 27 February, the Reichstag building in Berlin was set on fire. A young Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was caught inside. He said he had acted alone, and historians still argue about whether he did. Hitler did not wait for proof. He claimed the fire was the signal for a communist uprising.
The next day Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to use Article 48 to sign an emergency decree. It allowed the police to arrest people and hold them without trial, to search homes, to ban meetings and to close newspapers. About 4,000 communists were arrested within days, including the KPD leader Ernst Thälmann. Hermann Göring, who controlled the police in Prussia, had already sworn in thousands of SA men as extra police.
The election was held in this climate of fear. Even so, the Nazis won only 288 of the 647 seats, about 44 per cent of the vote. They needed the 52 seats of their Nationalist allies to reach a bare majority.
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Hitler now wanted the power to make laws on his own. This meant changing the constitution, which needed two thirds of the Reichstag to agree. He got there by a mix of force and promises.
On 23 March 1933 the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. The 81 Communist deputies were not there. They had been arrested or were in hiding. Armed SA and SS men lined the hall and shouted threats. The Catholic Centre Party agreed to vote yes after Hitler promised to respect the rights of the Catholic Church. Only the SPD voted against. Its leader, Otto Wels, bravely spoke out against the law in front of the stormtroopers. The Enabling Act passed by 444 votes to 94.
The Act gave Hitler's government the power to make laws without the Reichstag for four years. Democracy had been voted away, and it had been done legally. Hitler used his new power quickly:
By 1934 the main threat to Hitler came from inside his own movement: the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm.
The SA had grown to about 3 million men. Many felt they had not been rewarded for helping Hitler to power. Röhm talked of a 'second revolution' that would take wealth from big business. He also wanted to merge the army with the SA, under his own command.
The army had only 100,000 men and its generals feared and despised the SA. Hitler needed the generals for his future plans, and he needed their backing to take over when the ageing Hindenburg died. Röhm's rivals, Himmler and Göring, told Hitler that Röhm was plotting to seize power.
Hitler chose the army. On 30 June 1934 he went with armed SS men to a hotel at Bad Wiessee in Bavaria, where Röhm and other SA leaders were arrested. Röhm was shot in prison the next day. Over three days SS squads killed at least 85 people. Not all were from the SA. Hitler also settled old scores. The dead included the former chancellor von Schleicher, Gregor Strasser, and Gustav von Kahr, who had helped to stop the Munich Putsch.
No one was put on trial. On 3 July a law declared the killings legal because the state had acted in self-defence. Hitler told the Reichstag that he had acted as the 'supreme judge' of the German people.
Why it mattered. The SA was never a threat again. The SS, under Himmler, became a separate organisation that answered only to Hitler. The generals were grateful and gave Hitler their support. And Germans had learned that Hitler could have people murdered without any court stopping him.
On 2 August 1934 President Hindenburg died, aged 86. A law prepared the day before joined the jobs of president and chancellor together. Hitler took the title Führer and Reich Chancellor. He was now head of state, head of the government and commander of the armed forces. The last person who could dismiss him was gone.
That same day every soldier swore an oath of loyalty. It was not sworn to Germany or to the constitution. It was sworn to Adolf Hitler by name, and it promised him 'unconditional obedience'. This was the army's side of the bargain made in June.
On 19 August a plebiscite asked Germans to approve the change. Nearly 90 per cent of those who voted said yes. It was not a free vote, as there was no opposition press or party left to argue for no. The dictatorship was complete.
Do not mix up the two laws of 1933. The Reichstag Fire Decree (February) was signed by Hindenburg and took away people's rights. The Enabling Act (March) was passed by the Reichstag and gave Hitler the power to make laws. Remember too that the Night of the Long Knives was aimed at Hitler's own SA, not at the communists, and that it was the SS who carried it out.
Extract A (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history textbook)
From a modern history textbook.
On 30 June 1934 Hitler turned on his oldest comrades without warning. Röhm, who had stood by him since the early days in Munich, was dragged from his bed and shot in a prison cell the next day. Nobody was charged and no court ever sat. SS murder squads then settled old scores, gunning down von Schleicher in his own home. Afterwards Hitler calmly had the butchery declared legal. This was the conduct of a gangster, not a statesman.
(a) What impression does the author give about Hitler's actions in the Night of the Long Knives?
You must use Extract A to explain your answer. [6 marks]
The author gives the impression that Hitler's actions were criminal and ruthless. This is shown by the language. Words such as 'murder squads', 'gunning down' and 'butchery' make the killings sound like crimes, not acts of government, and the author ends by calling Hitler a 'gangster'. The phrase 'turned on his oldest comrades without warning' suggests betrayal, and 'calmly' makes him seem cold and without guilt. The author has also chosen what to stress. The extract dwells on the lack of any charge or court and on a victim killed 'in his own home'. It leaves out Hitler's reasons, such as Röhm's plan to take control of the army and the pressure from the generals. This selection makes the purge look like nothing more than lawless murder.
What lifts this to the top level: it names one clear impression, proves it with short quotations, and explains how the author's choice of words and of what to include and leave out creates that impression.
You do not need to tell the story of the Night of the Long Knives here. The marks are for showing how the author creates the impression. Pick out two or three loaded words such as 'butchery' and say what each one suggests, then add one sentence on what the author has chosen to leave out.