Transcript The consolidation of power

The consolidation of power
January to June 1933
Aims of the lesson
By the end of this lesson you should
• Understand how and why Hitler was able
to increase his grip on power in the wake
of taking the Chancellorship
• Evaluate Hitler’s success in gaining total
power in Germany by the summer of 1933
• Analyse the importance of each of the
reasons for this
The March 1933 election
• 30th January 1933 – Hitler became Chancellor
and called an immediate election in order to gain
total power
• Opposition meeting were interrupted and
smashed up by the SA
• Many opponents were put in prison
• The aims was for the Nazis to get a majority in
the Reichstag so that they could abolish it and
establish a Nazi dictatorship
The Reichstag fire
The Reichstag Fire
• 27th February 1933 – the
Reichstag building was set
alight
• Inside a young Communist
called Marius Van Der
Lubbe was caught red
handed
• He was a good scapegoat
• Communist
• Foreigner
Van Der Lubbe – Guilty or a patsy?
• He was arrested
immediately after the crime
and signed a confession
• Under torture!!!!!!!!!!
• He was mentally ill and
showed signs of confusion
• Was he the guilty man or
was he set up either by the
Nazis or the Communists
Van Der Lubbe was part of a
Communist plot
• Van Der Lubbe was part of a Communist
plot to take over the country
• This is what the Nazis claimed
• No real evidence for this except for his
confession gained under torture
• Why would the Communists pick such an
unstable and unreliable arsonist to start
the fire
• Too easy an idea – little evidence
Van Der Lubbe acted alone
• Van Der Lubbe was mad and acted alone
without help from anyone else
• Possible as there is no evidence of a
Communist conspiracy
• This fits with most of the evidence but
does not explain the fact that there was
more than one fire and they were all
started at the same time
Van Der Lubbe was “helped” by the
Nazis
• Van Der Lubbe was set up by the Nazis –
he started off plotting alone but when this
was discovered by the Nazis they made
his task easier
• There was a tunnel from Nazi HQ to the
Reichstag
• If the SA knew of the plot why did they not
try to stop it earlier
• The most likely scenario
The fallout of the Reichstag fire
• Hitler claimed that the fire
was proof of a Communist
plot
• Demanded powers – Law for
the Protection of the State
and the People
• Ended freedom of speech
and of the press
• Opposition meeting were
banned and leaders were put
in prison without a trial
The Propaganda machine
• Goebbels embarked on a
mass propaganda
campaign designed to win
the election decisively
• Mass rallies
• Radio broadcasts
• Posters
• Speeches
• Violence
The election result
• Nazis got their biggest share of
the vote – 44%
• Still did not have a majority –
only 288 seats. Other parties
had 359
• Saved by the Nationalists who
had 52 seats which gave the
Nazis a majority
• Next step was to gain total
control by abolishing the
Reichstag
The Enabling Law
• The Nazis needed a 2/3 majority to
change the constitution
• March 23rd 1933 – Nazis proposed the
Enabling Law
• This would abolish parliament and put all
real power in the hands of Hitler
• In effect it would mean the end of the
Weimar Republic and Democracy
The passing of the Enabling Law
• To get this majority he threw the 81
Communist MPs into prison
• The Social Democrats were “encouraged”
not to attend the vote by the SA
• The other political parties gave in and
agreed to support the law – scared
• The law was passed by 444 votes to 94
• Hitler now had total power, except …….