Hitler Becomes Chancellor

Thirteen days of parliament

In 1932 the German Reichstag met for thirteen days. In the same year President Hindenburg signed 66 emergency decrees under Article 48 of the constitution, and the country was governed by three chancellors in a row who had no majority and no intention of finding one. The republic had not been overthrown. It had stopped being used. The voters had made that possible and had not chosen it. In September 1930 the Nazis jumped from 12 seats to 107; in July 1932 to 230 and 37.3 per cent, the largest party; in November 1932 they fell back to 196, while the Communists rose to 100. No majority could be built with the Nazis and none without them. On 13 August 1932 Hindenburg refused, in writing, to make the leader of the largest party chancellor. On 30 January 1933 he did it anyway, with Franz von Papen as vice-chancellor and only three Nazis in a cabinet of twelve, because the men around the president had run out of other chancellors and believed they could control this one. AQA asks three things about this: how the election results left the republic unworkable, what Papen and Hindenburg did, and which mattered more. It also frames the topic through two interpretations, one that blames a clique and one that blames the voters. This module gives you the figures for both and the shapes to argue them in.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

From Bruning to Hitler, in order

Put these six events of 1932 and 1933 in the order they happened.

• Hindenburg dismisses Bruning and appoints Papen, who lifts the ban on the SA
• The Nazis win 230 seats in the July election and Hindenburg refuses to make Hitler chancellor
• Papen loses a vote of no confidence and calls a second election, in which the Nazi vote falls
• Schleicher replaces Papen and tries to split the Nazis by offering office to Strasser
• Papen and Hitler meet secretly at the house of a banker in Cologne
• Schleicher resigns and Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor with Papen as vice-chancellor

Why did Hindenburg change his mind?

In August 1932 Hindenburg refused Hitler in writing. In January 1933 he appointed him. Which explanation best accounts for the reversal?

• The alternatives had run out: Papen had been destroyed by the no-confidence vote of 512 to 42 and Schleicher had failed in two months to build a government from the unions and the Strasser Nazis; the Nazi vote, even after falling in November, still made a Reichstag majority impossible without them, and the KPD at 100 seats frightened the elites more; Papen, wanting revenge on Schleicher, offered Hindenburg a formula in which Hitler would be chancellor but the conservatives would hold the real posts; and Oskar von Hindenburg and Meissner persuaded the old man that this was control, not surrender.
• The Nazis had won a majority in the Reichstag in November 1932.
• Hindenburg had come to admire Hitler.
• The army threatened a coup unless Hitler was appointed.

What the elections decided, and what the backstairs decided

The 12-mark question on this key element sets the election results against the role of Papen and Hindenburg. Have both columns ready and notice the dates: the vote peaked in July 1932, the intrigue peaked in January 1933.

Question 1: how does Interpretation B differ?

Interpretation A, written for this module: "Hitler was voted into power. By July 1932 the Nazis were the largest party with 230 seats, and a democracy cannot keep the largest party out of government for ever. Hindenburg did in January 1933 what the election results had made unavoidable." Interpretation B follows. Tap the TWO statements from Interpretation B that show a different view from A about why Hitler was appointed.

• The same president who signed the appointment in January had refused the same man in writing in August, when the Nazi vote was higher, so the results cannot be what changed.
• The Nazis won 230 seats in July 1932 and 196 in November.
• What changed was the advice of Papen, Oskar von Hindenburg and Meissner, who told an old man that a cabinet with three Nazis in twelve was a way of using Hitler rather than surrendering to him.
• Hindenburg signed 66 emergency decrees in 1932.
• Schleicher was chancellor for 57 days.

The four men

Select the THREE statements that correctly describe the part played by Bruning, Papen, Schleicher or Hindenburg.

• Bruning was dismissed on 30 May 1932 after Hindenburg turned against his plan to break up bankrupt estates in the east, which the landowners around the president called agrarian Bolshevism.
• Papen lifted the ban on the SA in June 1932 and removed the Prussian government in July to win Nazi goodwill, then lost the November election and his office, and spent January 1933 arranging the cabinet in which he would be vice-chancellor under Hitler.
• Schleicher became chancellor on 3 December 1932, tried to split the Nazis by offering Gregor Strasser the vice-chancellorship, failed when Strasser resigned from the party on 8 December rather than fight Hitler, and resigned himself on 28 January when Hindenburg refused him a dissolution.
• Hindenburg appointed Hitler because the Nazis had won a majority in November 1932.
• Hitler won the presidential election of 1932 and used the office to make himself chancellor.
• The army under Schleicher staged a coup to install Hitler.

Two interpretations, and why they differ

AQA Paper 1 Section A opens with two interpretations and three questions: how they differ, why they might differ, and which is more convincing. The pair below were written for this module to show the shape; the exam prints real historians. Interpretation 1. Hitler was handed power by a clique. The Nazi vote had peaked in July 1932 and was falling; by January 1933 the party was short of money and its own leaders were writing of despair. What put Hitler in office was the ambition of Papen, the fear of the men around Hindenburg, and the calculation that a mass party could be used to shore up a conservative regime. The voters had made Hitler a problem; the camarilla made him chancellor. Interpretation 2. The intrigue only completed what the voters had begun. A party with 196 seats and a private army of 400,000 could not be kept out of government for ever in a system that had ceased to work: every alternative had been tried and failed, and the choice by January 1933 was Hitler, a military dictatorship, or civil war. Papen supplied the timing and the illusion of control; the strength of the Nazi movement supplied the necessity. Why might they differ? Evidence chosen: Interpretation 1 reads the meetings and letters of January 1933; Interpretation 2 reads the election results and the failure of three chancellors. Question asked: 1 asks who signed the appointment; 2 asks what made an appointment unavoidable. Purpose: 1 is written to show that the republic could have been saved by different men; 2 to show that by 1932 it could not. This meant that one sees a preventable mistake and the other a structural outcome, and the convincing question turns on whether the evidence of 1932 supports the word unavoidable.

In the shoes of Papen, Schleicher and Hitler

Four decisions between June 1932 and January 1933. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• June 1932. You are Papen, newly appointed, with no party and no majority. Schleicher has promised that the Nazis will tolerate your government if you give them something. What do you give?
• 13 August 1932. You are Hitler. You have 230 seats and Hindenburg has just refused you the chancellorship, offering the vice-chancellorship under Papen instead. What do you do?
• December 1932. You are Schleicher, the new chancellor. The Nazi vote fell in November and the party is broke. What is your plan?
• January 1933. You are Papen, out of office and wanting Schleicher gone. Hitler is willing to talk. What do you propose to Hindenburg?

From cause to consequence

Because Bruning called an election in September 1930 to win a majority for his decrees, the Nazis rose from 12 seats to _____ and no cabinet had a majority again. Because Hindenburg withdrew his support, Bruning fell in May 1932 and _____ took office with a cabinet of barons. Because Papen had no party behind him, the Reichstag rejected his government by 512 votes to _____ in September. Because _____ tried to split the Nazis and failed when Strasser resigned, the president lost faith in him within two months. And because Papen promised that a cabinet with only _____ Nazi ministers would keep Hitler under control, Hindenburg appointed him on 30 January 1933.

The vote of no confidence

On 12 September 1932 the Reichstag rejected the Papen government by 512 votes to 42. By how many votes was the government defeated?

Question 4: describe two problems

AQA Question 4 might read: Describe two problems facing the Weimar Republic in 1932. It is marked as a problem plus supporting detail, twice, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four?

• One problem was that no government could command the Reichstag: after the July election the Nazis held 230 seats and the Communists 89, so no majority could be formed either with or without the extremes, and the Papen cabinet was rejected by 512 votes to 42 in September. Another was that the president was governing instead: Hindenburg signed 66 emergency decrees under Article 48 in 1932 while the Reichstag sat for only thirteen days.
• There were too many parties. Hindenburg was old.
• The Weimar Republic was in complete chaos in 1932 and nobody could govern it.
• The republic was failing because the Depression had driven voters to the extremes.

A 12-mark paragraph, marked

Question 6: Which of the following was the more important reason for Hitler becoming Chancellor in January 1933: the election results of 1932; the role of Papen and Hindenburg? Explain your answer with reference to both bullet points. The election results were the more important reason, because they set the problem that Papen and Hindenburg then solved in the worst possible way. In July 1932 the Nazis won 230 seats and 37.3 per cent, more than the next two parties together, and even after losing 2 million votes in November they held 196 while the Communists rose to 100. This meant that no Reichstag majority could be built either with the Nazis or against them, that every chancellor from Papen onwards governed by decree and fell within months, and that by January 1933 the president faced a choice between Hitler, another unelected cabinet, or rule by the army. Papen and Hindenburg chose the timing and the terms: the Cologne meeting of 4 January, the cabinet with three Nazis in twelve, the persuasion of the president by his son and Meissner. But they were choosing how to handle a party the voters had made too large to ignore, not whether to; the intrigue explains why it was 30 January, and the results explain why it was Hitler. What earned the marks: a judgement in the first sentence; both bullet points addressed with specific support (230 and 37.3, 196 and 100, the decrees, Cologne, three in twelve); the link phrase this meant that; and a closing comparison that says why one outweighs the other. A sustained judgement across both, rather than two separate paragraphs with a verdict bolted on, is what reaches the top level.

Write the 12-mark answer

Which of the following was the more important reason for Hitler becoming Chancellor in January 1933: the election results of 1932; the role of Papen and Hindenburg? Explain your answer with reference to both bullet points.

• One paragraph on each bullet point, with at least two pieces of specific support in each: a date, a figure, a name or a vote
• Use a link phrase such as "this meant that" or "as a result" to turn each piece of support into an explanation of the appointment

Question 3: which interpretation is more convincing?

AQA Question 3 asks which of the two interpretations on the callout card is more convincing about why Hitler became Chancellor, for 8 marks. A student has argued for Interpretation 1, the clique. Which is the strongest point to set AGAINST it?

• The clique chose the moment, but the moment was made by the voters: a party of 196 seats and 400,000 SA men, with the Communists at 100 seats behind it, left the president no majority to appoint and no chancellor who could govern, so that Papen and Schleicher argued only about the method of bringing Hitler in; the backstairs settled the date and the terms, the size of the movement settled that it would be Hitler at all, and Interpretation 2 is more convincing because it accounts for the refusal of August as well as the appointment of January.
• Hitler was destined to rule Germany.
• Hindenburg refused Hitler in August, which proves he was not a puppet of a clique.
• Hitler became a dictator in 1934, so how he got the job does not matter.