IB Docs (2) Team
2. Nazi Germany: Part I (1933 - 1939)
When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany there was no indication that he would soon be in a position of unassailable power. However, after only two months, Hitler was well on the way to establishing a Nazi dictatorship; after 18 months this was complete.
This page covers Hitler's consolidation of power and Nazi policies against the youth, women, workers and the Church.
There is a second page on Hitler's policies here:
Guiding Questions
What factors allowed Hitler to consolidate his power after January 1933?
What was the significance of the Night of the Long Knives?
How successful were Nazi policies in indoctrinating the youth of Germany?
How far did the lives of women change?
How did the Nazis treat the workers?
To what extent did the Churches accept Nazi policies?
1. What factors allowed Hitler to consolidate his power after January 1933?
The ‘Legal Revolution’, January – March 1933
The use of terror
As you read on the previous page, the violence of the SA had already played in a role in increasing support for the Nazi Party. Now, with the resources of the state at their disposal, Hitler was able to expand the activities of the SA and ensure that these gained legal authority. Gangs of the SA were able to attack the offices of trade unions and the KPD, to break up the meetings of the SPD and the KPD and to attack the homes of left-wing politicians. When the newspapers of the SPD and the Centre party condemned these actions, they were banned. The first permanent concentration camp was established at Dachau in March 1933, and political prisoners were sent here and to around 70 other temporary camps. By the end of 1933, over 100,000 potential opponents had been arrested.
The Reichstag election, 5 March 1933
Within 24 hours of his appointment as chancellor, Hitler had called new Reichstag elections believing that a new election would increase the Nazi vote and strengthen his own position. The election campaign gave the opportunity for an increase in terror by the SA; altogether 69 people died during the five-week campaign.
In this atmosphere of terror and repression, the Nazis continued to promote the image of the party that was combatting the violence rather than creating it; the situation was blamed on the economic conditions and KPD terrorism.
A key moment of this campaign came with the burning down of the Reichstag building on 27th February. A Dutch communist called der Lubbe was arrested and charged with causing the fire. It has been widely assumed that the Nazis set der Lubbe up to carry out the crime in order to be able to blame the Communists; however no definitive evidence has actually emerged to prove this. Nevertheless, the incident certainly benefitted the Nazis; they were able to claim that this was the start of a communist plot to start a revolution in Germany. Large numbers of Communists were arrested and, via The Decree for the Protection of People and State (see below), most civil and political liberties were suspended. The Decree was supposed to be temporary until ‘things will return to normal’ but it in fact remained in force until 1945.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Watch the following clip from Hitler: Rise to Evil on the Riechstag Fire:
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
What is the message of these election statistics for March 1933 regrding support for the Nazis?
The election result saw the Nazis increase their vote from 33.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent, thereby gaining 288 seats in the Reichstag. However, this meant that they could claim a majority in the Reichstag only with the help of the 52 seats won by the DNVP. Indeed, historian Richard Evans writes that, the elections results ‘testified to the complete failure of the Nazis, even under conditions of semi-dictatorship, to win over a majority of the electorate’.
The Enabling Act, March 1933
Hitler decided to introduce an Enabling act that would allow him to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag, and without reference to the President, for a period of four years. However, as this was a change in the constitution, it needed a two-thirds majority to get it passed. The Communist delegates had already been excluded following the Reichstag Fire and Hitler had the support of the DNVP. He just needed the support the support of the Centre Party, and this he secured by giving them the reassurance that he would not use his powers without first consulting the President. Only the SDP voted against the Act. Thus Hitler how had full executive and legislative powers.
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
The Enabling Act
Read this response from a Social Democratic politician on why the SDP cannot vote on the Enabling Act.
- How would you describe the tone of this speech?
- List the arguments that Otto Wels gives to oppose the Enabling Act.
- Which arguments/sentences in this speech do you consider to be the most powerful and convincing?
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
Consider the key provisions of the decree that was passed following the Reichstag Fire (Source A below) and The Enabling Act (Source B).
In what ways did these measures challenge and destroy the key principles and provisions of the Weimar Constitution?
Source A
On the basis of Article 48, Section 2, of the German Constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence that endanger the state:
1
Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property are permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
2
If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.
Source B
The Enabling Act, March 1933
Article 1. National laws can be enacted by the Reich Cabinet as well as in accordance with the procedure established in the Constitution.
Article 2. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution as long as they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The powers of the President remain undisturbed.
Article 3. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet shall be prepared by the Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. They come into effect, unless otherwise specified, the day after their publication. Articles 68-77 of the Constitution do not apply to the laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1496
The consolidation of power, March 1933 to August 1934
The Enabling Act provided the basis for Hitler’s dictatorship which was established between March 1933 and August 1934. The process by which Hitler gained control was known as Gleichshaltung (co-ordination). It involved taking over or ‘co-ordinating’ as many aspects of German life as possible along Nazi lines so that the government had control of all key aspects of society. The priority in this process was to secure political supremacy which meant that the first moves were made against the federal states, the political parties, the independent trade unions and the civil service. He then went on to deal with activists within his own party.
There was a tradition of independence amongst the various states of Germany. Indeed, the Weimar constitution had agreed on a federal structure with 17 Länder in which a large number of powers were devolved to regional governments. For Hitler, who wanted a strong unified Germany, this situation had to change. Thus, several laws were passed to centralise power:
- 31 March 1933: a law dissolved the regional parliaments and replaced them with Nazi dominated assemblies
- 7 April 1933: Reich Governors were created to oversee the government of each state
- 30 January 1934: regional parliaments were abolished; all state governments were formally subordinated to the central government.
The Nazi Party now used Nazi leaders called Gauleiters to control local government.
Hitler’s aim was a one-party state; political parties clearly could not be allowed to continue. In the course of the spring and summer of 1933, these were either outlawed, or they dissolved themselves:
- the power of the Communists had effectively been destroyed since the Reichstag Fire
- The Social Democrats had been subjected to increasing repression and attacks by the SA since January 1933 and were now officially banned, 22 June following the attack on Trade Unionists. Brutal acts of repression were carried out against Social Democrats all over Germany.
- The other major parties then agreed to dissolve themselves in late June
- The Catholic Centre Party followed 5 July
The ‘Law Against the Formation of New Parties’, 14 July 1933 formally established a one-party state. The sole function of the Reichstag was now just to approve the decisions of the Nazi government.
Hitler’s policy of Gleichschaltung also menat that powerful rival organisations had to be eliminated. On 1st May, which is the traditional day for international socialist Labour, the Nazis declared a national holiday, thus giving the impression to workers that they were prepared to accept and co-operate with the trade-unions. However, the Nazis used the holiday to occupy Trade Union premises, confiscate funds and arrest leaders. As historian Richad Evans writes, ‘the once- powerful German trade union movement had disappeared almost without trace overnight’. In the place of independent Trade Unions, the German Labour Front (DAF) under Robert Ley was set up, claiming to represent the interests of all Germany workers. However, this was more of an instrument of control, and rights such as negotiating wages and conditions of work were removed.
As discussed on the Weimar Republic page, the civil service had remained a conservative force within the Weimar government and it had opposed the more liberal, democratic ideas of the Republic. Many thus welcomed the arrival of the Nazis seeing this as a return to the authoritarian rule of the Kaiser. However, the Nazis had no intention of being constrained by civil service officials. Many local officials were replaced by Nazi officials and Party officials were placed in government offices to ensure that the others followed Nazi orders. The success of Gleischchaltung within the legal system can be seen by the oath taken at a mass meeting held in front of the Supreme Court building in Leipzig in October 1933; ten thousand lawyers gave the Nazi salute and publicly swore to ‘strive as German jurists to follow the course of our Fuhrer to the end of our days’.
Nazi ideology posed fundamental challenges to the beliefs of Christianity. However, initially Hitler attempted to win over the support of the Protestant and Catholic Churches by indicating that they could be accommodated within the Nazi State. Key in this process was the Concordat that was signed between the Papacy and the regime and which was an attempt to safeguard the position of the Church under the Nazis. In this agreement the Nazis guaranteed the Catholic Church religious freedom and full control over its own education and its property and legal rights. The papacy in return said that they would not interfere in politics and would give diplomatic recognition to the Nazi government.
The Nazi government had no intention of keeping to this agreement; however, it served the purpose of reassuring the Church while the dictatorship was being established.
Task Four
ATL: Thinking and self-management skills
- January 1933 cabinet appointments: Hitler as Chancellor; Nazi control of Ministry of the Interior
- The Reichstag election, 5 March 1933
- The Reichstag Fire, 27 February 1933
- The Enabling Act, March 1933
- Nazi actions with regard to the Federal States
- Nazi treatment of political parties
- The abolition of Trade Unions
- Nazi actions regarding the civil service
- Negotiations with the Churches
2. Hitler used a range of tactics to secure his power. Find examples of each of the following in the events above.
- legal methods
- use of terror and intimidation
- propaganda
- support from the conservative elites
- lack of opposition
Which of these methods were the most important in securing Hitler's power?
2. What was the significance of the Night of the Long Knives?
The Night of the Long Knives is often seen as the turning point for Hitler's rule; it got rid of any opponents and secured the support of the army which was key for Hitler if he was to carry out his plans for expansion.
The SA had played a key role in eliminating opponents of the Nazi party and it had grown in numbers to around 3 million by early 1934. Hitler became concerned that he could no longer control its activities. In addition, the views of its leader, Ernst Röhm, regarding the future direction of the Nazi Party clashed with his own and would lose Hitler the support of the conservative elites.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
1. Consider these two sources. How do Hitler's and Röhm's views regarding the direction of the Nazi state differ?
2. What is the 'tone' of Hitler's speech? What do you think he means when he says, 'we will drown such an attempt in blood'.
Source A
A speech made by Hitler in July 1933
Revolution is not a permanent condition. The stream of revolution has been undammed, but it must be channelled into the secure bed of evolution. The slogan of the second revolution was justified as long as positions were still present in Germany that could serve as points of crystallization for a counter-revolution. that is not the case any longer. We do not leave any doubt about the fact that if necessary we will drown such an attempt in blood. For a second revolution can only direct itself against the first one.
Source B
Röhm's views as expressed to a local party boss, Rauschning
Adolf is a swine. He will give us all away. He only associates with the reactionaries now. Getting matey with the generals. They're his cronies now. Adolf knows exactly what I want. I've told him often enough. Not a second edition of the old imperial army. Are we revolutionaries, or aren't we? If we are, then something new must arise out of our fighting spirit. If we're not, they we'll go to the dogs. We've got to produce something new, don't you see that? Don't you understand that what's coming must be new, fresh and unused? The basis must be revolutionary. You only get the opportunity once to make something new and big that'll help to lift the world off its hinges. But Hitler puts me off with fair words.
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Refer to the Nazi 25 point plan which was drawn up in 1925.
Which of these points would Röhm be in favour of implementing? What reasons can you think of as to why such plans had been abandoned by Hitler?
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
Watch Episode 3 from 'Hitler's circle of evil' which can be found here on Daily Motion. Start watching from 40 minutes 15 seconds and make notes on the reasons for development of the plot against Röhm. Also note down the key events that lead to the Night of the Long Knives. What were the consequences of this event?
Task Four
ATL: Thinking skills
What is the message of this cartoon?
Note the nationalities represented in the audience
"Will the audience kindly keep their seats."
Sidney Strube, Daily Express (3rd July, 1934)
Task Five
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Research further the impact of the Night of the Long Knives. Then copy out and complete the mind map to show the impact of this event on key groups and individuals.
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3. How successful were Nazi policies in indoctrinating the youth of Germany?
Starter activity:
What is the message of this Propaganda poster?
The Nazis aimed to create a Volksgemeinschaft or 'people's community'. This would be a community which was of one of pure race and in which individuals dedicated themselves to the interests of the state. In order to achieve this, society needed to be re-organised and educated via propaganda and indoctrination. The youth were the starting point for this transformation of society as they could be indoctrinated in schools and also via the Hitler Youth movement.
Task One
ATL: Communication and self-management skills
This document sets out the aims of Nazi education for the teaching of history in schools.
Work in pairs; print out the document and using a highlighter pen, mark up the different aims outlined here by Hitler regarding the teaching of history.
What is the overall message that he gives regarding the teaching of history?
Task Two
ATL: Research and communication skills
1. Research the impact of the Nazi regime on the youth of Germany. Make sure that you cover the following questions:
- What were the aims of the Nazi Party with regard to German youth?
- How was the school curriculum altered to cover these aims?
- What were the aims and activities of the Hitler Jugend (HJ) and the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)?
- Research the groups who resisted the Nazi expectations for youth and rebelled against the Nazi youth organisation: For each of the above tasks, find contemporary accounts to support your findings.
- The Edelweiss Pirates
- The Swing movement
- The White Rose movement
For each group, research its membership, its aims and its activities, the reaction of the Nazi regime.
2. How successful do you consider the Nazis to have been in indoctrinating German youth?
4. How far did the lives of women change?
Starter Activity:
1. By 1933, over half of those voting for Hitler were women.
Why do you think so many women supported Hitler and voted for him?
Hint:
Consider the impact of the Depression on family life
The first, best, and most suitable place for the women is in the family, and her most glorious duty is to give children to her people and nation, children who can continue the line of generations and who guarantee the immortality of the nation. The woman is the teacher of the youth, and therefore the builder of the foundation of the future. If the family is the nation’s source of strength, the woman is its core and centre. The best place for the woman to serve her people is in her marriage, in the family, in motherhood.
Goebbels, speech in Munich 1938
2. What was the role of women to be in Nazi society, according to Goebbels?
The Nazis wished to reverse many of the changes that had taken place in Weimar Germany where women had been given the vote and had experienced increased employment opportunities. Now they were forced out of key professions and opportunities in education were reduced. They were also expected to conform to certain standards in their appearance which was again a significant change from the days of the Weimar Republic when fashion had reflected the liberating changes that were taking place in America and Britain.
Goebbel's statement above gives a clear idea as to what was expected of women; underlying this statement was a concern to increase the birthrate (which was decreasing in the 1920s) which was key if Germany was to expand and populate its territory in the future and to have a large army to win the military victories necessary to achieve 'lebensraum'.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
How effective was the Nazi regime in bringing about change in women's work and culture?
1. Consider each of the Nazi aims with regard to women by examining the actions that were taken to achieve them between 1933 and 1939. Write notes and include any useful contemporary accounts by women or Nazi statements and propaganda. Include a conclusion for each aim to assess whether it was achieved.
- Increase number of births
- Ensure that Germany women only married suitable Aryan men
- Ensure women were fit and healthy to ensure that they were suitable for child-bearing
- Restrict opportunities in education to ensure that they concentrated on preparing for their proper role
- Keep women out of the key professions and politics
- Ensure that women were enthusiastic about the Volksgemeinschaft
Note that there is an exemplar essay comparing the impact of policies in Nazi Germany on women to the impact of policies in Mao's China on women here: Graded student essays for Authoritarian States
5. How did the Nazis treat the workers?
This poster from the Deutches Arbeitsfront (DAF) shows workers hand in hand with the caption 'We stay as comrades'.
Starter activity:
What is the message of this poster?
Hint:
Note the soldiers standing behind the workers - what kind of comparison do the Nazis want German to draw between soldiers and workers?
http://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/posters2.htm
Trade unions were abolished within the first year of Hitler's rule as part of his Gleichschaltung or 'co-ordination' of German life. The German Labour Front (Deutches Arbeitsfront or DAF) that took over performed rather a different role from that of unions. Its aim was not to fight for workers' rights, conditions and pay, but rather to ensure that workers were kept in order, to increase production and to integrate them within the Volksgemeinschaft. The Nazi explanations for abolishing the trade unions and setting up the DAF are set out below.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Source A
The trade unions that were swayed by Marxist teaching did not want social peace. They calculated that their chances of acquiring political power would improve with the growing dissatisfaction of the workers. One of the first necessities with which the Hitler government found itself faced was that of dissolving the organisations that kept alive the antagonism between employers and employees. They were replaced by the German Labour Front.
Robert Ley, Social Policy in the New Germany, 1938
Source B
The German Labour Front is the organisation for all working people without reference to their economic and social position. Within it all workers will stand side by side with employers, no longer separated into groups and associations which serve to maintain special economic or social distinctions or interests.
In accordance with the will of our Führer, Adolf Hitler, the German Labour Front is not the place for deciding the material questions of daily working life...
The high aim of the Labour Front is to educate all Germans who are at work to support the National Socialist State and to indoctrinate them in the National Socialist mentality.
Government statement on the role of the DAF in November 1933
1. According to these two sources, why did Trade Unions have to be replaced and what are the aims of the DAF?
2. With reference to origin, purpose and content, assess the value of Source A for a historian studying the actions of the Nazis with regard to German workers.
It was important however to keep workers on side and to get them to accept the Volksgemeinschaft and so the DAF set up two organisations to help do this. The first, the 'Beauty of Labour' (Schönheit der Arbeit) focused on ensuring that facilities, meals and work areas were of a good standard. The second, 'Strength through Joy' (Kraft durch Freude), improved workers' leisure time by providing leisure activities such as holidays, theatre and cinema visits. Thus workers lost freedoms but gained in other ways. However, by ensuring that leisure time was also organised, the Nazis were also ensuring that workers had no time for anti-state activities. The Nazis also tried to encourage the idea of the community within the workplace with Councils of Trust to represent the workers in discussions with the 'plant leaders'.
Task Two
ATL: Research skills
Research the activities of the Beauty of Labour and the Strength through Joy organisations:
- What kind of benefits and opportunities did workers receive from these organisations?
- How many workers actually took advantage of the holidays and benefits offered by Strength through Joy?
- What was the significance of the Volkswagen car?
6. To what extent did the Churches accept Nazi policies?
Bishop Ludwig Muller with members of the Nazi Party
Starter Activity
What is the message of this photograph?
Potentially the existence of the Protestant and Catholic Churches with their large followings posed a problem for the Nazis as Nazi ideology directly opposed the beliefs of Christianity.
The Nazis had initially taken measures to reassure the Protestants, who represented the majority of the Germans, and they had guaranteed the independence of the Catholic Church by signing the Concordat in 1933. However, even by mid- 1933, it was clear that the Nazis were going to interfere in religion.
The Nazi regime gave support to a growing movement among Protestants that was known as the German Christians (Deutsch Christen). This movement believed that it was possible to reconcile Protestant and Nazi beliefs and it established a new Reich Church with the aim of combining all Protestant within one structure. Ludwig Muller was the first Reich Bishop; he abolished all elected bodies within the Church and reorganized it on the ‘leadership principle’. However, the actions of the German Christians created much opposition. In September 1933, over one hundred pastors created the Confessional Church which upheld orthodox Protestantism and rejected any attempt to link it to Nazi beliefs. This Church was led by Pastor Niemoller and it had the support of about 7000 pastors out of 17,000.
By 1935, it was clear that the Nazis had achieved only limited success in gaining control over the Church. It was still difficult for the Nazis to attack the Churches head on, for fear of alienating large numbers of Germans; thus a war of attrition developed. The Ministry of Church Affairs, established in 1935 and led by Hanns Kerrl, now attempted to undermine both the Protestant and Catholic churches through a serious of anti-religious measures. These included discrediting church leaders by accusing them of crimes such as sexual abuse and financial misbehaviour, and reducing the Churches’ influence over young people by closing Church schools and church youth groups. Less emphasis was put on religion in schools and in the mid 1930s, the Nazi Party launched a ‘Church Secession Campaign’ to encourage Germans to abandon their churches.
However, the Nazis were not successful in co-ordinating the Churches into the volksgemeinschaft. The German Faith movement was a failure, gaining only very limited support, the confessional church survived, and individual church leaders continued to speak out against Nazism; Niemoller was very outspoken (and as a result was put into a concentration camp in 1937) and Pope Pius XI attacked the Nazi system in his public letter of 1937 and also spoke out against the Euthanasia programme in 1940 .This made it very difficult for the Nazis to launch an outright attack on religion. However, the Churches also failed to provide effective opposition and they refrained from a sustained attack on the Nazi regime.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Make notes on the following efforts of the Nazi Regime to control the Churches; state what actions were taken by the Nazis in each case, how the Church responded and the overall success of the actions for the Nazi regime:
- The Concordat with the Catholic Church (1933)
- Creation of a unified Protestant Reich Church (1933)
- Attacking influence of the church in schools and discrediting church leaders (mid-1930s)
- Church Session Campaign (mid-1930s)
The overwhelming majority of Germans were Christians but nevertheless supported the Nazi regime. Although several church leaders spoke out against Nazi policies, overall the Churches were more concerned with protecting their own institutions than in taking on the whole Nazi regime. However there were some individuals who did make a stand against the Nazis.
Task Two
ATL: Research skills
Research the work of the following church leaders.
What actions did they take to challenge the Nazi regime's policies? How successful were they?
- Pope Pius XI, 1857-1939
- Bishop Clemens von Galen, 1878-1946
- Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984
- Dietrich Bonhoffer, 1906-45
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
Read this extract from Ian Kershaw.
What reasons does Kershaw give for explaining the reasons why the Church did not provide outright opposition to the Nazis?
Tenacious though the Church was in defending its institutions and practices and beliefs, there were nevertheless... significant strains of consensus... in central aspects of Nazi policy and ideology. The assault on 'godless' Marxism was above all an area in which the regime could count upon the approval of the Church...The building of an authoritarian state... an assertive foreign policy to uphold the rights of the German nation, and a willingness to detach the person of Hitler himself fom the evils of the system provided further components of a partial consensus with the regime.
Ian Kershaw, Hitler, Longman, 1991, pg 95
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