Revision Diary

Hitler's Consolidation of Power

         

Hitler's consolidation of power - Reichstag Fire; Election of March 1933; Enabling Act; Elimination of political opposition – political parties, Trade Unions. Night of the Long Knives; death of Hindenburg; Hitler becomes Fόhrer.

One party law and order – the SS and Gestapo.

Control of education, youth movements and the media; censorship and propaganda.

  

Make sure you have detailed factual knowledge about AND HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT the following issues and topics:

  

ESTABLISHMENT OF A NAZI DICTATORSHIP

1.  The STORY of Hitler's consolidation of power.

2.  The reasons why Hitler had all-power in Germany

  

and that you are able to explain:

 

    

  

  

ESTABLISHMENT OF A NAZI DICTATORSHIP

     

Revision Focus

This is a Paper 2 topic, so you need to have factual KNOWLEDGE IN DEPTH but also a degree of understanding which will allow you in the exam to write MULTI-CAUSAL EXPLANATIONS of the key issues.

  

Links

e-books on Hitler's Consolidation of power and his  Apparatus of Power.

  

Game to remember the sequence of events

Hitler's Consolidation of Power    

(There were EIGHT steps to total power, which you just need to learn - sorry:)

  

(Rigged General Election Leads To Psychopath Nazi Fuhrer)

1.   Reichstag Fire (Feb 1933)

•    A Dutch Communist, van der Lubbe, burned down the Reichstag.

•    Hitler to imprison many Communist leaders, which stopped them campaigning.

•    Hitler set up the Nazi People's Courts (where the judges did as Hitler wanted).

  

2.   General Election (Mar 1933)

•    44 per cent of the population voted for the Nazis - NOT a majority.

•    Hitler immediately arrested the 80 Communist deputies

•    gave Hitler the majority he needed to pass the Enabling Act

 

3.   Enabling Act (Mar 1933)

•    The SA bullied all the non-Nazi deputies.

•    The Reichstag voted Hitler the right to make the laws.

•    made Hitler an absolute dictator

 

4.   Local govt (Apr 1933)

•    Hitler reorganised the local government of Germany under Nazi 'Gauleiters'.

•    Each block of flats was run by a 'Blockleiter'.

•    Hitler set up the Gestapo.

  

5.   Trade unions (May 1933)

•    Trade Unions were abolished

•    Their leaders were arrested.

•    Instead Hitler set up the German Labour Front

 

6.   Political parties (July 1933)

•    Hitler banned all other political parties.

•    made Germany a one-party state - only the Nazi party is allowed.

•    destroyed democracy - Germans could no longer get rid of Hitler in an election.

  

7.   Night of the Long Knives (June 1934)

•    The SA leader Rφhm was a rival to Hitler.   He wanted to take over the army - this would have lost Hitler the support of the Army generals.

•    Rφhm and the SA wanted the Nazis to be more Socialist - this would have lost Hitler the support of his big business backers.

•    Hitler ordered the SS to kill more than 400 SA men, including Rφhm

  

8.   Fόhrer (Aug 1934)

•    Hindenburg died,

•    Hitler declared himself Fuhrer (leader)

•    combined the roles of president, chancellor and head of the army.

  

  

  

 

How did Hitler Control Germany?

(There were SEVEN methods of control, which you need to learn - sorry again:)

  

(Overdo The Power - You Worthless Ranting Rogue)

1.   One-Party State

•    After 1933 all other parties were banned

•    It was an offence to belong to another Party

•    Their leaders were put in prison.

  

2.   Terror

•    The Nazis set up the Gestapo and the SS to arrest opponents and 'grumblers'.  

•    Jews, Communists, gypsies, homosexuals, alcoholics and prostitutes were sent to concentration camps for 'crimes' as small as saying that business was bad.

•    On the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler killed all his opponents in the Nazi Party

  

3.   Propaganda

•    Run by Josef Goebbels - he used book-burning, censorship, cinema, Mein Kampf, newspapers, posters, Olympic Games, rallies, and Hitler's speeches.

•    Cult of personality - to make Germans worship Adolf Hitler.

•    Every family got a cheap radio.

  

4.   Youth

•    School lessons included hidden indoctrination - eg getting children to laugh at Jews.

•    German boys had to attend the Hitler Youth (exciting activities and Nazi indoctrination).  

•    German girls went to the BDM to learn how to be good mothers, and to love Hitler.

  

5.   Workforce

•    The German Labour Front took away the right to strike.  

•    The National Labour Service sent men on public works programmes.

•    To keep the workers happy, the Nazis set up the 'Strength Through Joy' (which offered good workers picnics, free trips to the cinema and a few free holidays).

  

6.   Religion

•    Hitler promised the Pope he would leave the Roman Catholic Church alone if it stayed out of politics.   

•    Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses who opposed the Nazis were sent to concentration camps.  

•    Hitler started his own 'German Church'.

  

7.   Racism

•    Hitler said Jews and gypsies were untermensch.  

•    The Racial Purity Law (1935) forbade marriage between Germans and Jews.  

•    Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938)