Building the Nazi Dictatorship

Eighteen months

On 30 January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of a coalition in which the Nazis held three of eleven cabinet posts, appointed by a President who despised him, in a Reichstag where his party had a third of the seats. On 19 August 1934 he was Fuehrer, head of state and government in one man, with every other party abolished, the trade unions gone, the SA leadership dead, and the army sworn to obey him personally. Eighteen months, and almost every step of it taken under a law. That is what makes this topic hard: the dictatorship was built by decree, by vote, by statute and by murder, and the exam expects you to know which was which and in what order. This module sets out the steps with their dates and numbers, then the question the interpretations turn on: was it a legal revolution, or a seizure of power dressed as one?

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the date it happened, because on this paper the sequence is the argument.

The steps to dictatorship, in order

Put these six steps in the order they happened.

• The Reichstag burns and the emergency decree suspends civil liberties
• The Enabling Act passes by 444 votes to 94
• Trade union offices are raided and the unions replaced by the German Labour Front
• The Law against the Formation of New Parties makes Germany a one-party state
• Roehm and the SA leadership are shot on the Night of the Long Knives
• Hindenburg dies, Hitler becomes Fuehrer and the army swears its oath

Where did the two thirds come from?

In the election of 5 March 1933 the Nazis won 288 seats, 43.9 per cent, short of a majority and far short of the two thirds the Enabling Act needed. Eighteen days later it passed by 444 to 94. Which explanation best accounts for the gap?

• The 81 communist deputies were barred or in custody under the fire decree, the Centre Party was persuaded to vote yes by promises to protect the Catholic Church, and the SA lined the chamber, so that only the 94 Social Democrats present voted against.
• The Nazis won a two-thirds majority in the March election.
• Hindenburg ordered the Reichstag to pass it.
• The Social Democrats agreed to support it in return for cabinet posts.

By law and by force

The same eighteen months can be told as a list of laws or as a list of arrests and killings. The examiners want both columns, and they want you to notice that the laws needed the force.

Question 1: inference from a source

Source A: from the Enabling Act, the Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich, 24 March 1933, translated for this module. A student infers that the Act made the Reichstag and the constitution irrelevant. Tap the TWO articles that support that inference most directly.

• Article 1. Laws of the Reich may be enacted by the Reich Government in addition to the procedure provided by the constitution.
• Article 2. Laws enacted by the Reich Government may deviate from the constitution, provided they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat as such.
• Article 3. Laws enacted by the Reich Government shall be drawn up by the Chancellor and published in the official gazette.
• Article 4. Treaties of the Reich with foreign states shall not require the consent of the bodies that take part in legislation.
• Article 5. This law comes into force on the day of its publication. It ceases to have effect on 1 April 1937.

The Night of the Long Knives

Select the THREE statements that are true of the killings of 30 June to 2 July 1934.

• Roehm wanted the SA, some three million strong, to absorb the regular army of 100,000 in a second revolution, which the generals would not accept.
• Hindenburg and the army let it be known that if the SA was not dealt with, martial law would follow.
• The dead included men who had nothing to do with the SA: the former Chancellor Schleicher and the Nazi Gregor Strasser among them.
• The SA was abolished.
• The killings were carried out by the regular army.
• Roehm was tried and executed for treason.

Legal revolution or seizure of power? The debate behind the interpretation questions

Question 3 gives you two interpretations and asks how they differ, why, and how far you agree. The two below were written for this module to show the shape of the argument; the exam will print real historians. Interpretation 1. Hitler took power by the book. The decree of February was signed by the President under the constitution, the Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag with the required majority, the parties were banned by statute and the merger of August 1934 was confirmed by nine Germans in ten. The republic voted itself out of existence. Interpretation 2. The book was held open at gunpoint. The two-thirds majority was manufactured by arresting the communist deputies and filling the chamber with the SA, the unions and parties were closed by raids before the laws were written, and the last obstacle, the SA itself, was removed by murder. The law followed the force; it did not replace it. They differ because they weigh different evidence: the first the statutes and the votes, the second the arrests and the killings that came before each statute. The strongest answers notice that the dates put the force first every time.

The calendar of 1933 and 1934

You are Hitler at four points in the eighteen months. Choose as he chose, and notice what each choice made possible.

• 27 February 1933. The Reichstag is burning and a young Dutch communist has been arrested inside it. An election is six days away. What do you do?
• 23 March 1933. You have 288 seats and need two thirds for the Enabling Act. The communists are in custody. What do you do about the rest?
• June 1934. Roehm is demanding that his three million SA men become the new army. The generals and the dying President want him gone, and the army is the one force that could remove you. What do you do?
• 2 August 1934. Hindenburg has died at nine in the morning. What happens by nightfall?

From cause to consequence

Because the fire of 27 February gave the excuse, the decree of the next day let the police hold some _____ communists before the election. Because the communist deputies could not sit, the Enabling Act needed only the votes of the _____ Party to reach two thirds. Because the Act let the government make laws alone, the unions could be closed on 2 May and the last parties by _____ without a vote. Because the generals would not accept an SA of three million, the Night of the Long Knives bought their loyalty, and on 2 August the army swore its oath to Hitler as _____, confirmed by a plebiscite of about _____ per cent.

The Enabling Act vote

The Enabling Act passed on 23 March 1933 by 444 votes to 94. It needed a two-thirds majority. What percentage of those voting supported it, to the nearest whole number?

Question 3(b): the main difference

Question 3(b) asks: What is the main difference between the two interpretations on the callout card? Explain your answer using both. Which answer would score all four marks?

• Interpretation 1 argues that Hitler gained his dictatorship through legal and constitutional means, whereas Interpretation 2 argues that the legal measures were only made possible by arrests, intimidation and murder that came first.
• Interpretation 1 talks about the decree, the Act and the plebiscite. Interpretation 2 talks about the SA and the killings.
• I agree with Interpretation 2 because the communists were arrested before the vote.
• Both agree that Hitler became dictator by August 1934.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question 2: Explain why Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship in the years 1933 to 1934. One reason Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship was the Enabling Act of 23 March 1933. The Act allowed the government to make laws without the Reichstag and to depart from the constitution for four years, and it was passed by 444 votes to 94 because the 81 communist deputies were under arrest, the Centre Party had been promised that the Church would be protected, and the SA stood in the chamber. This meant that from March 1933 Hitler no longer needed a majority for anything: the trade unions were dissolved on 2 May and the remaining parties by 14 July by laws that no parliament debated. The Act did not make Hitler dictator by itself, but it removed the one institution that could have said no, which is why every later step was possible. What earned the marks: a cause named in the first sentence; specific support (the date, the vote, the three reasons for the majority, the dates of the unions and the parties); the link phrase this meant that; and a final sentence that returns to the question and weighs the cause. Two more paragraphs, on the Reichstag Fire and on the Night of the Long Knives, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Explain why Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship in the years 1933 to 1934. You may use the following in your answer: the Reichstag Fire; the Night of the Long Knives. You must also use information of your own.

• Support that counts: a date, a vote, a figure or a name
• Causes of your own: the Enabling Act, the banning of the unions and parties, the death of Hindenburg, or the army oath

Question 3(d): how far do you agree?

Question 3(d) asks how far you agree with Interpretation 1, that Hitler took power by legal means. Which piece of evidence is the strongest AGAINST it?

• The two-thirds majority of 23 March 1933 existed only because the 81 communist deputies had been arrested under the fire decree and the SA filled the chamber: the legal act rested on an illegal one.
• About 90 per cent voted for the merger of the offices in August 1934.
• Hindenburg signed the emergency decree himself.
• The Centre Party voted for the Enabling Act.