Developments in Nazi control of Germany after 1933 - BOOK ONE

What do Intentionalist historians say about Hitler?

Hitler had an identifiable, consistent programme from the early 1920s to the 40s

What do functionalist historians say about Hitler?

Hitler was without principle, an opportunist out for personal power and not guided by ideas or aims except in the vaguest way

What were some of Hitler's obsessions/aims? [4]

• Power, violence, struggle

• Nationalism

• A Germany transformed/ Reborn

• Racialism

What is the German word for Hitler's consolidation of power (beginning with G)?

Gleichschaltung

What is interesting about Hitler's timeline of introducing policy?

He did not wait until his consolidation of power was over before initiating other policies. There were many initiated quite early in 1933

When was the Nazi 25 point plan and why was it ineffective?

February 1920 - Nazis didn't seem to have a concrete plan of what to do once Hindenburg legally gave them power.

By 1934, what was Hitler?

independent and autonomous in political matters

By when did Hitler finally exert his influence over the Army and become truly unchallenged within Germany?

1938

What were Hitler's aims in Gleichschaltung? [2]

• Take over the powers of the state e.g. police, bureacracy, Reichstag

• eliminate his enemies (both inside and outside the Nazi movement)

When did Hitler dissolve the Reichstag and why?

February 1st 1933 - intended to increase his share of the vote

What did Hitler do in Mid-February 1933?

Used the Article 48 to make Von Papen Commissioner for Prussia and Goring Police Supremo

What did Goring do once he was appointed Police Supremo? [2]

• Purged the Prussian police

• Recruited 40,000 S.A men as special policemen

When was the Reichstag Fire?

27th February 1933

Who was blamed for the Reichstag Fire?

Dutch Communist Marrius Van Der Lubbe

Who were first on the scene to the Reichstag Fire? [2]

Karl Ernst - Chief of the Berlin SA

Goering

As a result of the Arson, what was Hitler able to do?

Secure Pres. Von Hindenburg's approval for an emergency decree - the Reichstag Fire Decree

What did the Reichstag Fire Decree suspend? [3]

• The right to assembly

• Freedom of speech

• Freedom of the press

What did the reichstag fire decree permit the regime to do? [2]

• To arrest and incarcerate political opponents

• Suppress publications

What percentage of the vote did the Nazis get in the March 5th 1933 General Election?

44%

When was the Propaganda Ministry created?

March 1933

Who was appointed to run the Propaganda Ministry?

Gobbles

When was the Day of National Awakening and where was it?

March 21st 1933 - Potsdam

What did Hitler wear to the Day at Potsdam and why?

Civilian suit - to project a non-threatening image of himself to the established order

What did the Day at Potsdam symbolise?

the coming together of the new dynamic political power of National Socialism with the old power of Prussian militarism

When was the enabling act?

March 1933

What did the enabling act do/

put the power to rule by Decree in the hands of the cabinet and therefore the chancellor (Hitler)

Who had requested the enabling act and was denied it?

Von Papen

To get the enabling act, what would Hitler have to do?

Change the constitution which would require 2/3 of the Reichstag to vote in favour

How did Hitler get the enabling act passed?

• Brought the centre party on board by promising to favour the Catholic Church and preserve religious freedoms

• People voted in fear

Who voted against the enabling act?

Only the SPD (441-94)

Much of the repression of this period was what?

'Legal' or 'pseudo-legal'

When was the Dachau concentration camp opened?

March 1933

Where did much of the violence of the 3rd Riech in 1933 come from?

below (SS, SA etc)

When was Kopenick blood-week?

June 1933

What was Kopenick blood-week'?

91 SPD supporters were tortured to death at the ahnds of the Berlin SA

Why did Kopenick blood-week happen?

it was an act of revenge following the killing of 3 stormtroopers by a Socialist

The SA marched, paraded, and bullied people at will. What was commonplace?

boycotts of Jewish shops

What was Goring forced to do?

Rescind the auxiliary police order that had placed 40,000 stormtroopers into the Prussian police

When was the April shop boycott?

1st April 1933

What was the April shop boycott?

Hitler sanctioned a week long boycott of all Jewish businesses across Germany

Why was the April shop boycott unsuccessful?

the general population was apathetic towards it, forcing its abandonment after a single day.

When was the purge of the Civil Service?

April 1933

What did the purge of the civil service entail?

dismissing the SPD, KPD activities, and Jews

What did Hindenberg do to regulate Nazism during the purge of the Civil Service?

protect Great War veterans and their sons from dismissal

Who did the purge of the civil service also spread to?

lecturers and professors in the state Universities (5% of the workforce)

When was the abolition of Trade Unions?

May 1933

What were all unions replaced by?

all unions were abolished and replaced by the D.A.F

By 1935 how many people were in the D.A.F?

20 million

When were the book burnings?

May 1933

What were the book burnings designed to do?

bring German arts and culture into line

How many books were burned?

25,000

When did Germany become a one-party state and Hitler had officially created a dictatorship?

July 4th - sixth months after Hitler became chancellor

What was the name of Hitler's Pope?

Eugenio Pacelli

Why did opposition to the Nazis fail? [7]

• rallies and propaganda failed

• left was not united

• the combined efforts of the Nazis was too much for the left

• fear of Bolshevism

• legality of Nazi rise to power

• support of the enabling act

• atmosphere of violence

After the failings of the Weimar Republic, what public policies did the Nazis introduce that were popular [with examples]? [2]

• economic policies directed at the curbing of unemployment [unemployment dropped from 6m to 5m in 6 months]

• foreign policy [Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations and Disarmament Conference in October 1933]

Which 2 main schemes were run through the D.A.F?

• Strength through joy

• Beauty of work

What did the Beauty of Work scheme run by the D.A.F do?

improved working conditions

Which strand within the Nazi movement did Hitler feel threatened by which caused the night of long knives?

National Socialists who tended to be found mostly in North Germany

Who had been the main spokesman for this brand of Nazism?

Gregor Strasser

When did Gregor Strasser resign and why?

Dec 1932 in an attempt to diminish Hitler's control

Who was the leader of the S.A and what did this group represent about Nazism?

Ernst Rohm - left-wing Nazism

What was Rohm's plans for the S.A

make it his own power base and to extend it by taking over the army itself and making it a people's militia.

By the end of 1933 how much had the S.A grown by and who had made this happen?

Grown to 3 million members, by the instigation of Rohm

Why did the S.A organise that Hitler was very unhappy about and why was he unhappy?

• Organised the boycott of Jewish shops in April 1933.

• Hitler resented the S.A's assumption that it could do as it wished even to the extent of forcing him to take over the very unpopular boycott.

Why was Rohm's plans for taking over the army a problem for Hitler?

Hitler needed the army's loyalty if he was to continue rebuilding Germany

When was the Night of the Long Knives?

30th June 1934

What were the two separate dimensions of the purge of the night of the long knives?

• SOUTH: Hitler along with Himmler and S.S headed for Bad Wisse - Rohm was sent there by Hitler on a weekend break

• NORTH: Goring took the opportunity to settle old scores among the traditional elites

who was killed during the night of long knives [3]

• Former Nazi Gregor Strasser

• Ernst Rohm

• Up to 1,000 of the S.A leadership were executed

Why did the Reich Justice Ministry quickly do after the Night of the Long Knives?

create a law that legalised the actions retroactively

When was the merging of the offices of President and Fuhrer?

August 1934

What did Hitler do after Hidenburg died and was the result of this?

• persuaded the generals to take an unconditional oath of loyalty to himself followed by public oaths from the armed forces and civil servants

• The army now tied itself to the regime

When was the creation of the new role of 'Fuhrer' given public approval?

19th August 1934

Between 1933 and 1934 what percentage of Germans would actively engage in opposing the regime?

1%

What was Himmler's title? [policing]

Reichsfuhrer SS

How did the regime early on establish its control over the polic?

Goring's control as prime minster of Prussian Police 1933

What control did Heinrich Himmler have by the end of 1933? [policing]

Police Chief of all states except Prussia

When was Himmler made chief of all German police?

1936

What did Himmler form in 1939?

The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) which controlled all policing organs of the Third Reich

What was the main police agency in Prussia?

Gestapo

Who controlled the Kripo? [criminal police]

Reinhard Heydrich

Who directly controlled uniformed policing?

Himmler

Whose command was the SS put under?

Himmler

What did the SS combine?

Ideological obsessiveness with bureaucratic efficiency

What were the rules for SS membership? [3]

• racial origin

• Nordic appearance

• Character

Who carried out the Night of Long Knives in 1934?

the SS

What was the key to the SS's power?

its control of the police, particularly the Gestapo

when was the SS's control of the Gestapo complete?

1936

When was the secret branch of the SS created and what was its name?

1931 - SD

What did the SD do? [2]

• controlled the Gestapo

• run the concentration camps in Bavaria in 1933

When did Goring and Frick let the Gestapo go and what was its result?

1936 - the SD moved into controlling positions

Why was there friction between the SS ideologically?

motivated leaders and the police trained gestapo agents who were policemen first, Nazis second

What did the SS do to the Police and Gestapo?

detached them from the state's control and subordinated it to the SS's own dominance

By 1939 how many prisoners were in the camps?

25,000

What were 'Greens' in concentration camps?

brutal ordinary criminals used to terrorise other types of prisoner

Name some types of concentration camp prisoners

• reds - socialists/communists

• blacks - anarchists/antisocials

• pinks - homosexual

What did the Kripo and Gestapo use to incareate KPD, SPD opppnents in hastily built concentration camps?

'Order of Protective custody' D11

Why was 'Police Justice' not restricted by a legal code and above review by the courts?

the passing of the Gestapo Law 1936

What was the backbone of terror in the 3rd Reich?

the concentration camps

In 1934 how many prisoners were there in concentration camps?

3000

by 1937 how many concentration camps were there?

4