12/10 & 12/11 ESTABLISHMENT AND CONSOLIDATION OF NAZI RULE

~
Hitler ensured that the Nazi Party gained control over gov’t at both central and local level
~ Banned trade unions and other political parties
~ Made extensive use of propaganda to promote his dictatorship but also relied on repression of his enemies
~ Tried to bring all areas under state control / ARMY to powerful for him to challenge immediately and did not assume complete control until 1938
~ Political, ideological, and religious hostility remained

1933 Mar: Enabling Act – Law for terminating the suffering of the people – giving Hitler dictatorial powers for 4 years
Apr: Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service is passed
May: all trade unions dissolved
Jul: Concordat is concluded with Pope whereby the Catholic Church is banned from political activity in return religious freedom will be upheld
Nov: Elections are held in which the Nazi candidates win 92% of vote
1934 Jan: law is passed for the reconstruction of the state, placing federal states under Reich governors
Jun: Night of the Long Knives: the SS kill SA leaders and other opponents of Hitler
Aug: Hindenburg dies & Hitler becomes head of state – Fuhrer and Reich chancellor
Army swears a oath of loyalty to Hitler
1938 Feb: Army reorganized to increase
Hitler’s control

~ KPD (German Communist Party) been banned under the presidential decree of Feb. 1933 after the Reichstag Fire
~ SPD banned June 22 1933
~ DNVP (right wing nationalist party) lost its role once it became part of the Nazi coalition
~ Catholic Centre Party followed the Concordat with the Pope – dissolution of the party & agreed to recognize the Nazi regime – In return state promised not to interfere in the Catholic Church
~ July 14 1933 – Law Against the Establishment of Parties – made it criminal offense to organize any party outside the NSDAP

Took over through
◦ Forced resignation
◦ Seized buildings, docs, and supplies
Loyal Nazi commissioners were appointed
Law for the Restoration and Professional Civil Service (April 1933)
Trade Unions banned  replaced w/German Labor Front

One party made legal by establishment of ‘Law to Ensure the Unity of Party and State’
However Hitler allowed parallel institutions to develop rather than create undiluted party rule = competition within state between different agencies, & sometimes different branches of the Nazi party itself
Structuralists Historian Martin Broszat and Hans Mommsen believe that this situation was unintentional and resulted from Hitler’s disinterest and neglect

SA – Sturmabteilung – Brown Shirts – Original
Parliamentary wing of the Nazi Party –
Hitler used the SA to destroy the communist movement when seeking power - Used to maintain control @ speeches, parties & intimidating Jewish citizens
Led to problems w/ the military.
Rumors of a military coup; SA became disposable

Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering spread rumors of a planned coup by the SA = Hitler takes action
Ernst Rohm (leader of SA) and other SA members murdered (85 – 200 individuals)
◦ Included Nazi Gregor Strasser who attempted to split the party in 1932
◦ Kurt von Schleicher former chancellor killed
◦ Von Papen was put on house arrest
◦ Event helped confirm Hitler’s authority
◦ Purge left Hitler’s SS to assume dominance in Germany while Hitler gained support of the army’s commanders
◦ When Hindenburg died in August 1934 all members of the armed forces swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler = Hitler combined chancellorship and presidency

Propaganda was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler 's leadership of Germany (1933–
1945). National Socialist propaganda provided a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of their policies, including the pursuit of total war and the extermination of millions of people in the Holocaust .

◦ Hitler believed masses (whom he had little respect for) could be won over easily through regular exposure at schools, towns, workplace, leisure
◦ Censorship (Party controlled 2/3 of private newspapers)
◦ Radio – Reich Broadcasting
Corporation
◦ Slogan (“Heil Hitler”)
◦ Movies
◦ Decorations on buildings
◦ Stamps / Posters
Anti – Bolshevik Poster

Even before Hitler became the official leader, his chancellorship had led to the death of 30,000 communist
(arrest of 300,000)
SS: The Security Service
◦ Highly trained and elitist Aryan organization with extensive powers as a military force and as political force
◦ Ran concentration camps
Gestapo: State Secret Police force
◦ Root out and intimidate potential opposition

Absolute Control:
◦ Ideology
◦ Education
◦ Economy
◦ Army
Lack of Opposition from 1934:
◦ No union
◦ Control over media
◦ One-party state
◦ Control over courts
◦ Control over Civil Service
◦ Bargains with army, church, & big business
Control of a powerful system:
◦ Police
◦ Gestapo
◦ SS
A far reaching propaganda machine:
◦ Press
◦ Radio
◦ All forms of art and culture

Hitler’s personality
◦ Lazy
◦ Erratic
◦ Easily bored and uninterested in detail
◦ (especially economics)
Opted out of government
◦ Set ministers against one another with overlapping duties
◦ Allowed ministers and mayors to give different decisions and compete for influence
◦ Permanent confusion over planning, especially in war years
Nazi programs were left unfinished
◦ Plans for economic recovery not carried through fully
◦ Suggested Germany might be ready for war in 1942 – 43 in the 1937
Hossbach memorandum
◦ Rearmament narrowly based and no war economy until 1942

Continue Researching!!!!!
50 Facts is NOT ENOUGH
Try to start narrowing your “two best” sources for SECTION C – OPVL
You want to be organizing your notes in Sub-Headings in Easybib
Use my Wiki Page and Resource List to use a VARIETY OF resources!!!!!!!