Adolf Hitler: Proclamation to the German People

Impact

As chancellor, Hitler no longer had to rely on putsches, or extralegal coups, to gain power; he could gain it through legislative decree. On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was the scene of a fire. To this day, the circumstances surrounding the fire remain a mystery, and it is possible that the fire was set under Hitler's direction or that of his supporters. Hitler and the Nazis seized on the event to foment a fear of Communism. In official statements, the government blamed Communists for the fire and suggested that it was the opening salvo in a civil war. The following day, Hindenburg issued the Order of the Reich's President for the Protection of People and State, informally called the Reichstag Fire Decree. The decree suspended civil liberties in Germany; the first article of the decree reads that various articles

of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. The following are therefore permitted: limits on personal freedom, freedom of opinion, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations of property as well as restrictions on property beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed. (Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State)

The decree was used as the legal basis for arresting Nazi opponents, primarily Communists, and suppressing publications critical of the Nazis.

The next step in Hitler's consolidation of power was the Enabling Act, more formally, Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation. The key provision of the act, passed in March 1933, was that it allowed the cabinet to pass legislation without the participation of the Reichstag. After considerable political maneuvering, Hitler was able to gain the two-thirds majority vote needed in the Reichstag to pass the law, a process made easier because many of the Communists who would have opposed it had been arrested as a result of the Reichstag Fire Decree. With the passage of the Enabling Act, the Reichstag was effectively stripped of all powers and played little to no role in German politics until after the end of World War II. Hitler went on to secure a July 14, 1933, law banning the formation of political parties, though by then most parties had either already been banned or had dissolved themselves. This law, the Law against the Establishment of Parties, stated simply: “The National Socialist German Workers Party constitutes the only political party in Germany” (Noakes and Pridham, eds., p. 200). Germany now was officially a one-party state; although the country was nominally ruled by the cabinet, power was effectively in the hands of Adolf Hitler.

At this point, Hitler's only real opponents were members of the Nazi Party and Nazi sympathizers who represented a threat to his hold on absolute power. To solve this problem, the Nazis carried out a purge that began on the night of June 30, 1934, which is generally referred to as the Night of the Long Knives. The purge targeted members of the Sturmabteilung, a paramilitary group usually called the Brownshirts under the leadership of Ernst Röhm. Röhm's ultimate goal was to merge with the German military under his command. The military, though, hated the Sturmabteilung, regarding its members as street thugs. Hitler was thus able to win the loyalty of the military by purging the group. It has been estimated that at least eighty-five people were killed in the purge, though it is likely that the number was much higher. At least a thousand were arrested. The forces that carried out the purge were the Schutzstaffel (more commonly known as the SS, Hitler's paramilitary guard unit) and the Geheime Staatspolizei (or Gestapo), the regime's feared secret police.

The final step in Hitler's consolidation of power was the effective elimination of the role of president. From Hitler's point of view, it was a convenience that Paul von Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934. Hindenburg had been ailing for some time and had largely withdrawn from governmental affairs. On his death, Hitler declared the office of president vacant and transferred the powers of the presidency to the office of chancellor. Hitler's assumption of absolute power in Germany, which began with his appointment as chancellor in 1933, was now complete.