Transcript Weimar Germany 1919-1932: The Failure of Liberalism 1918- The Chaotic End of WWI • Oct.

Weimar Germany
1919-1932:
The Failure of Liberalism
1918- The Chaotic End of WWI
• Oct. 28th Mutinies by sailors and soldiers begin in the
home garrisons in Germany, followed by the
formation of workers' and soldiers' councils.
• Nov. 9th Revolution breaks out in Germany. The
Empire collapses, the Kaiser abdicates, and a republic
is proclaimed.
• Nov. 10th - Feb. 6th A provisional government of
socialists is established, responsible to the workers’
and soldiers' councils; until Dec. 29 it includes the
radical communists as well as the moderate social
democrats.
• Nov. 11th Armistice: The war ends.
1919- Republic and Revolution
• Feb. 6th The National Assembly (elected on Jan. 19)
meets in Weimar because Berlin has become too violent.
A government of the "Weimar Coalition" (SPD, DDP,
Center) is formed with Philipp Scheidemann as
Chancellor.
• Feb. 11th The National Assembly elects Friedrich Ebert
(SPD) as the first President of the Republic.
• April 4th - May 1st Communists establish a Soviet
Republic in Bavaria which is put down by a coalition
of government troops and right wing militia
(freiskorps). The leaders of the revolution, Rosa
Luxemburg and Karl Leibkind, are shot.
1919- Republic and Revolution
• June 23rd Versailles Treaty: The Treaty, drafted by
Britain, France, and the United States, is imposed on the
protesting German government.
– Germany is forced to yield up Alsace-Lorraine, the Polish
Corridor, Silesia, Denmark, and Belgium,
– Germany is forced to limit the size of its army to 100,000 men,
– Germany is forbidden to keep troops in its Western provinces
(the "demilitarized" Rhineland),
– Germany is required to pay heavy reparations for damage
caused in the war,
– Germany is barred from the League of Nations.
• July 31st Weimar Constitution: The National
Assembly, sitting in Weimar, adopts a constitution for
the Republic.
• In September Adolf Hitler joins the tiny German
Workers Party (later renamed the National Socialist
German Workers Party, NSDAP, or Nazi Party) in
Munich.
1920-22: Right Wing Coup Attempt
• March 13th – 17th The Kapp Putsch is attempted: an
unsuccessful military coup against the Republican government.
It is followed over the next two weeks by armed radical revolts in
the Ruhr and elsewhere. It’s leaders are sentenced to brief prison
terms.
• 1921 May 11th The German government (under duress) accepts
the Allies claims for reparations.
• Oct. 12th After a plebiscite, the League of Nations partitions
Upper Silesia and awards a large part to Poland.
• 1922 April 16th The Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and
Soviet Russia opens a diplomatic back door for Germany.
• June 24th German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau is
assassinated by right-wing anti-Semites. In reaction to this
outrage, Republican institutions are consolidated for a time.
1923: Hyper-Inflation and Hitler’s First
Attempt to Seize Power
• 1923 Jan. 11th Germany’s main heavy industrial area is
occupied by French and Belgian troops in an attempt to force
payment of reparations. The local population practices passive
resistance, subsidized by the German government; these
expenditures lead to rapid escalation of the already steep
inflation in Germany.
• Aug. 12th - Nov. 23rd A "Great Coalition" government (SPD,
DDP, Center, DVP) led by Gustav Stresemann (DVP) ends the
passive resistance and the inflation. Stresemann remains as
foreign minister in every succeeding government until 1929.
• Nov. 8th - 11th "Beer Hall Putsch”: Hitler’s first attempt to
seize power takes place in Munich. It is a fiasco. Afterwards,
Hitler is caught, arrested and sentenced to a year in minimum
security prison during 1924-25. While in prison he writes Mein
Kampf.
1924-28: American Financial Aid and Stability
• 1924 April 9th The Dawes Plan eases Germany's
reparations payments and leads to an influx of American
capital.
• 1925 April 26th Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg is
elected President of the Republic.
• Oct. 16th Germany signs the Locarno Treaties, voluntarily
guaranteeing her Western borders. This move restores
normal relations with the Western powers.
• 1926 Sept. 8th Germany is admitted to the League of
Nations.
• 1928 June 13th A "Great Coalition" government (the first
since 1923) is formed under Hermann Müller (SPD), after
national elections that seems to confirm the stabilization of
the Republic.
1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great
Depression
• 1929 June 7th The German government accepts the
Young Plan, which further eases German reparation
obligations. In the ensuing nationalist campaign
opposing the Young Plan, Hitler gains his first national
prominence.
• 1929 Oct. 24th The Wall Street Crash, symbolic start of
the Great Depression, finds the German economy already
in decline, and leads to the withdrawal of American shortterm loans.
1930-31: Liberal Rule by Emergency Decree
• 1930 March 27th After the collapse of the coalition
government, a minority government of center and right-wing
parties is formed under Heinrich Brüning (Center). When the
Reichstag fails to cooperate with his program, Brüning
resolves to rely on President von Hindenburg's powers of
emergency decree.
• Sept. 14th National elections, called by Brüning to strengthen
his position in the Reichstag, result in a surge in the Nazi and
Communist vote. The "Great Coalition" loses its ability to
form a majority coalition, and Brüning has no way to legislate
except by Presidential decree.
• 1931 May 11th The collapse of Austrian Credit-Anstalt starts
a banking crisis in Germany that accelerates the slow decline
of the German economy and makes it clear that the depth and
duration of the depression will be extraordinary.
1932: Hitler Maneuvers for Position
• 1932 April 10th Hindenburg is reelected President by a small
margin over Hitler.
• May 31st Franz von Papen becomes Chancellor after Brüning
loses Hindenburg's confidence and resigns.
• June 16th The Papen government lifts a ban on the SA, the left
wing thugs of the Nazi party.
• July 31st National Elections, called by Papen to strengthen his
position in the Reichstag, result in the doubling of Nazi
representation. Now, no coalition government of any kind is
possible without either the Nazis or the Communists.
• Aug. 13th Hitler declares that he will not serve in the
government in any office other than as Chancellor.
• Nov. 6th National elections fail to resolve the deadlock; the
Nazis lose some seats, but the Communists gain.
• Dec. 2nd General Kurt von Schleicher becomes Chancellor.
1933: The Nazis Win Election and then
Establish Dictatorial Power
• 1933 Jan. 30th Hitler is named Chancellor with a cabinet
numerically dominated by conservatives who believe they
can control him.
• Feb. 27th Fire partly destroys the Reichstag building.
The government takes the occasion to step up persecution of
the opposition parties.
• March 5th In national elections the NSDAP wins 44%, the
Nationalists win 8%, for a majority between them;
immediately after the election, Communist representatives
are arrested or forced underground, and the Nazis alone
possess the majority of Reichstag members.
• March 23rd Enabling Act: This bill, which receives the
necessary two-thirds majority with the aid of the Center
Party, grants full legislative powers to the cabinet without
requiring the assent of the Reichstag. It is the formal basis of
Hitler’s power for the remainder of the Third Reich.
1933 Nazis Consolidate Power and Begin
to Persecute Jews
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April 1st An official national boycott of Jewish businesses is
organized by the Nazi government, but it lasts only a few days
because of public resistance.
April 7th The Law for the Restoration of the Professional
Civil Service enables the dismissal of all Jews and opponents
of the regime from the civil service.
May - July All political parties other than the Nazis are
disbanded and all trade unions are absorbed into the Labor
Front.
June Inauguration of the Reinhardt Plan of expanded public
works expenditure, including construction of superhighways
(Autobahns).
Oct. 14th Germany begins to rearm. In a referendum 93% of
the voters approve of these actions.
The Contestants for Power
• Liberals
• Marxists
• Nazis
How did the Nazis seize power even
though they never polled more than 37%
of the vote?
Treaty of Versailles
• Germany is blamed for the war.
• Germany loses its colonies.
• Germany loses territory in the east to the new nations of
Poland and Czechoslovakia, and in the west they lose to
France and Belgium the valuable coal producing regions
Alsasce and Lorraine.
• Paying 6,600,000,000 gold marks in reparations to the
Allies.
• The German Army must contain no more than seven
divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry (# of
men not exceeding 100,000).
• Signing the Treaty plunged Germany into bankruptcy.
Reactions Against the Versailles
Treaty
• German Generals let representatives of the Weimar Republic sign
the treaty, so Germans would blame the liberal leaders of the
Republic.
• General Ludendorff calls it “The Versailles Blackmail” (Pace)
– Rightist factions would call out for revenge for the injustices done unto
them as a result of losing World War I (even though it was the army
that was responsible for the defeat).
• Hitler claimed it was a deliberate plan by the liberal government
(and the Jews) to stab Army in the back.
• Overall, the liberals were hamstrung from the start because they
signed a treaty that was terribly unpopular with the German people.
Weimar Weaknesses
• The liberal leaders received the blame for signing the
Versailles Treaty and ending the war.
• The extreme right expressed their opposition of the
liberal government by attempting many putsches
(coups).
• As the German Army originally supported a more
authoritarian government, the fact that it’s ranks were
not purged after the signing of the Versailles Treaty
means that when the Weimar Republic failed, they
were ready to step in and take over.
Weimar Weaknesses:
• Constitution was highly unstable:
– weak executive
– multiple political parties particularly on the left
– “The whole business of forming coalitions, and therefore of
governing at all, was made infinitely more difficult and
complicated. Party leaders in government were compelled
to divert a good deal of their time and energy to mollifying
their own party organizations.”
• Runaway Inflation
– Versailles Treaty made Germany pay more than it could
afford
– 1919: mark had 20% less value
– October 1923: trillions of marks to buy bread
Rosa Luxemburg: Leftist Anti- War Activist
• “The War and the Workers”
– The Social Democratic Party had betrayed the workers and
the country by supporting the war.
– Liberal government would betray the people.
– Only a revolution, like the one that had just taken place in
Russia, could bring social justice to Germany.
– “The madness will cease and the bloody demons of hell
will vanish only when workers in Germany and France,
England and Russia finally awake from their stupor, extend
to each other a brotherly hand, and drown out the bestial
chorus of imperialist war-mongers and the shrill cry of
capitalist hyenas with labor's old and mighty battle cry:
Proletarians of all lands, unite!” (Junius Pamphlet)
The Spartacist Revolt
• 1919 – Germany is in chaos; the Spartacists take control of
Berlin
• Social Democrats turn to the Army for help:
– This decision decreased support for the Spartacists from the
people who then saw that the Weimar Republic had
abandoned them.
– Right Wing freikorps succeed in retaking Berlin.
– Luxemburg and Liebknecht tortured and executed.
• In short, the Left further weakens Weimar Republic by
attempting a revolution.
• No radical leftist will ever support Weimar again.
The Right’s Reaction:
Freikorps and Putsch
• In response to the Spartacist Revolt, Freikorps were
formed, right wing militias which traveled around country
eradicating Leftist revolutionaries.
• Kapp Putsch attempted.
– March 1920’s, almost succeeded
– Strike by workers and civil servants ended it
• “There was no real purge of the army and bureaucracy
after the departure of the Kaiser, and many of the most
important institutions in Germany remained loyal to the
authoritarian principles of the Empire and rejected the idea
of democracy” (Pace)
• Even after the failed putsch, the right was just waiting for
the chance to seize power for themselves.
Materialism vs. Idealism
The intellectual world of the
countryside diverges from that of
Berlin since German idealism still
dominated the thinking of
conservatives:
“What of the people, whose brains are
schooled in Kant, whose sensibilities
have stormed the depths with Faust,
whose longings for God in the rites of
the old church have gained eternal
blessing and, in Lutheran faith, an iron
resolve? A people of such heritage
will not be impressed by Berlin
intellectuality in pan-European
style.” (Pace)
The Liberal Message:
Metropolis: The Future is Now
From Metropolis, Fritz Lang (1928)
From Metropolis,
Fritz Lang (1928)
Liberal Berlin vs. Conservative Countryside:
A Cultural Chasm
• The Second Industrial Revolution created
a large cultural gap between the mores of
the city of Berlin and the traditional
countryside which surrounded it.
• Similarly, the arrogant and bourgeois
citizen of Berlin incited the rebellious
feelings from the inhabitants of the
countryside who strove to preserve their
humble, conservative origins. Berlin was
un-German:
“The enemy was: the lip; the saucy airs, more
precisely, self-aggrandizement; the insolent selfrighteousness and the endless cackle of irony; the
snobbish imitation; the shrill prattle; and the
extravagances of the freshly civilized immigrants, the
balkanized Paris-ianisms.” (Pace)
American Influence: the Bringer of Uniformity and the
Destroyer of Biological Identity
• German conservatives criticized the
influence of American culture and its
emphasis on uniformity..
“Germans, Jews, Americans, Chinese,
Hungarians, Italians, Blacks, all races, all
languages . . . and yet they are all so much
like one another, as two brothers can be like
one another. They all wear the same cheap
clothing, the same shirts, the same sale
shoes. ” (Pace)
• German conservatives also renounced the
American emphasis on material things not
the moral, spiritual and ideal:
“For only these are produced by industry -no spiritual values. The impact of the
system, which up to now . . . has been
entirely successful, has brought a complete
displacement of values in its wake” (Pace)
George Grosz, Metropolis, 1916-1917
The New Woman
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After WWI, women began to take on new roles
in Germany. Since women had taken the jobs
of the men who had gone off to war.
– “If during the war women were forced to
take over many male jobs, they did not
allow themselves afterward to be pushed
quite all the way back into the home.”
(Pace)
The old woman’s only purpose in life was to
be pretty and to bear children.
However, a new image of woman had emerged
since the war: she worked just like the men;
she was no longer afraid to express her
independence, and she had taken possession of
her own sexuality.
The New Woman would clear the path for
equal rights among men and women
– “The new woman has set herself the goal
of proving in her work and deeds that the
representatives of the female sex are not
second-class persons existing only in
dependence and obedience but are fully
capable of satisfying the demands of their
positions in life. . .” (Pace)
Marlene Dietrich as Lola in Dem
Blauen Engel (1930)
Materialism and The Pursuit of Pleasure
• The new emphasis on materialism challenged
German Idealism, and Liberal Berliners
embraced the fast life of Epicureanism:
“All of these fictions, these religious
elaborations, these new doctrines of faith help
people live, help them not only to endure this
difficult, questionable life but to value it
highly and hold it sacred. And if they were
nothing but a lovely stimulus or a sweet
anesthesia, then even that perhaps would not
be so little.” (Hesse) (Pace)
• An emphasis on sensuality and sexual desires
mirrored the arrival of materialism in the
philosophical realm:
“Grandmama, in a practically knee-length skirt
and a bobbed hairdo, danced with young men
in the clubs, hotels, and cafés—wherever the
opportunity presented itself.” (Pace)
Ein Stück Europäischer, (A "Slice"
of European Culture) Otto
Griebel, (1922)
The Liberal Message:
The New Realism
• In this painting, one can feel the cold
reality of the operating room.
• The people view the scene as purely
scientific – blood, muscles, scalpels.
• One also feels the tremendous pain of
the patient – it is real, live.
• Schad says that the Germans need to
balance their Romantic principles with
rational thought. An overwhelming
Romantic spirit had led in the past to
war and destruction.
Schad, Operation, 1929
Otto Dix, Portrait of My Parents, I, 1921
The German volk. Idealized as
being noble and heroic, is
represented as actually weak and
repressed.
These people search for immediate
solutions before anything else.
How can the socialist appeal not
win their support?
THEY DO NOT WANT TO
VOTE, THEY WANT TO EAT.
The Leftist Message:
The Dada Rebellion
• On the far left, Dadaists rejected all
previous forms of representation.
• They used photographs and clips
from literature to attack political
figures like Chancellor Stresseman (to
the right). See Hannah Höch and
Raoul Hausman and Hans Richter.
• “The Dada photo monteur set out to
give to something entirely unreal all
the appearances of something real that
had actually been photographed.”
(Pace)
Raoul Hausmann, Tatlin at home,
1920
George Grosz: Leftist Attacks on
Weimar Liberalism
Hunger
Pillars of Society
The Bauhaus: The Socialist Message
Bauhaus: Form= Function
• Architecture and Craft
movement with socialist
values founded by
Walter Gropius
• Form=Function
– Merge beauty and
function
– Strip away
unnecessary
– Beauty is the essential
– Household items are
of higher status
Bauhaus Design:
Victorian Furniture
Marcel Breuer, Chair
The Leftist Message: Dreams of a
Communist Utopia
• In early 1920’s when
Germany’s economy
plunged to an all time low,
the people were devastated
• The Communist Party
promised people an entirely
new German society. This
was very appealing to the
leftists
• The rise of the Communist
party began a movement in
which the communists
attempted to sell their party
through artwork.
Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera
• The classic communist
musical: the story of a rich
capitalist who gets away
with rape and murder.
• Main Character of the show
represents Jack the Ripper
dressed like a gentleman.
• Brecht believed theater
should provoke political
debate about the social
environment.
• Opened in 1928 and was an
instant success.
The Nazi Message:
Dreams of an Idealized Past
• Blood and Soil: The Nazis drew
popular support by claiming that
they would bring rural, preindustrial culture back to Germany.
Yet behind a wall of propaganda, the
Nazis really wanted to establish a
militarized, highly industrialized
state.
• The Nazis appealed to the hatred of
German conservatives for Western
Liberal culture
• Liberalism did not suit Germany
because to the Germans the volk is
more important than any individual
• The needs of the volk should come
before the needs of the individual
Nazi Ideology
The Four Main Strands:
– Nationalism
– Anti-Liberal
– Socialism
– Expansionism
– Anti-Semitism
Nazi Ideology: The 25 Points (1920)
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Unification of Greater Germany
(Austria + Germany)
Abrogation of the Versailles Treaty.
Expand German Land and territory:
lebensraum.
Only a "member of the race" can be
a citizen.
No Jew can be a citizen.
Only Germans can live in Germany.
No immigration of Jews fleeing
pogroms.
Everyone must work.
No unearned income - "no rentslavery".
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Nationalization of industry
Division of profits
Extension of old age welfare.
Land reform
Death to all criminals
German law, not Roman law
Universal Education to teach
"the German Way“
Outlaw of child labour
Encouraging physical fitness
Formation of a national army.
Duty of the state to its volk.
Duty of individuals to the state
Unlimited power of the central
government’s leadership
The Nazi Idealized Past
• The Germans try to sell a pure
life, a throwback to a preindustrial, rural, pastoral
country. All that will come
after Hitler finishes his
conquests in the East.
• But this vision is twisted as
well: the women are only used
for bearing lots of children.
It’s also a throwback to Norse
mythology. There is a ruling
class and a slave class. Their
“ideal world” is a sexist, racist,
system based on slavery.
Hubert Lanzinger, The Flag Bearer
Nazi Contempt for Modernist Culture
“We, the people of
Beethoven, Bach, Mozart,
Haydn, and Handel, cannot
and will not any longer
allow one of the noblest
blooms of cultural life to fall
increasingly victim to
degeneration and to ultimate
degradation to satisfy the
demands of big-city night
club and international
bordellos.” (Hitler)
Nazis on Gender
• “There is no place for the political
woman in the ideological world of
National Socialism . . . “ (Pace)
• The Nazi propaganda posters show
peaceful, rural scenes
• A woman’s role in this society is to stay
at home and have children.
• “The so-called granting of equal rights
to women, which Marxism demands, in
reality does not grant equal rights but
constitutes a deprivation of rights, since
it draws woman into an area in which
she will necessarily be inferior. It
places the woman in situations that
cannot strengthen her position – vis-à-vis
both man and society – but only weaken
it . . .” (Hitler)
• “The German resurrection is a male
event.” From Engelbert Huber, Das ist
Nationalsozialismus, 1933
Adolph Wissel , Farm Family from
Kahlenberg (1939)
Bearing Children
“‘And it is one of the greatest achievements of
National Socialism,’ continued the Führer’s
deputy [Rudolph Hess], “that it made possible
for more women in Germany today to become
mothers than ever before. They become
mothers not merely because the state wants it so
or because their husbands want it so. Rather
they become mothers because they themselves
are proud to bring healthy children into the
world, to bring them up for the nation, and in
this way to do their part in the preservation of
the life of their Volk.” From an account of a
mass meeting of the Berlin National Socialist
women’s organization, May 27, 1936.
Role of Women and Daughters
“It might seem amazing that
women and girls should return
to work at spinning wheels
and weaving looms. But this
is wholly natural. it was
something that could have
been foreseen. This work
must be taken up again by the
women and girls of the Third
Reich.” Article from the
Völkischer Beobachter,
Feb. 2, 1936
Nazis Appeal to Conservatives
Nazis appealed to
conservatives by asserting
their desire to overthrow the
Versailles Treaty, to
eliminate the social
democrats and the
communists, and to destroy
the Jews.
Nazi Appeal to Workers
A poster for the July 1932 Reichstag
election. The caption says: “The workers
have awakened!” Various other parties
are trying to persuade the worker to side
with them, without success. The small
chap in the center with the red hat
represents the Marxists (note the Jew
whispering in his ear). His piece of paper
says: “Nazi barons! Emergency decrees.
Lies and slanders. The big-wigs are living
high on the hog, the people are
wretched.”
In reality, the Social Democrats and
Communist parties dominated the votes
of workers.
Nazis Play the Anti-Semitic Card
• The middle class feared that the Communist
Party would create revolution, they also
feared for their jobs and their social prestige
• The Nazis provided the middle class with
propaganda blaming the economic collapse on
the Versailles Treaty, Jews, Communists, and
the Weimar System
• “…they blamed the Jews, who allegedly stood
behind Marxism, the Weimar system, much of
big business, and economic profiteering. The
Nazi accusations were unsophisticated but
effective. Lower middle-class unemployed
and employed embraced a Nazi party that
promised to eliminate this corrupt Weimar
system.”
1929: The Stock Market Crash
• People rejected the Weimar
Republic and they refused to
accept it as their central
form of government
• There was never one sole
party that seized power, the
country was in a state of
political unrest
• Many groups, especially
those on the right side, were
preparing for a revolution to
restore the authoritarian
government
How the Great Depression Affected
Germany
Unemployed Workers in Berlin, 1931
• The US was forced to retract all
their investments that kept
Germany on its feet
• Unemployment was out of
control. There were 6 million
people out of work by the winter
of 1932, one in three men in the
working population were
unemployed
• The unemployment numbers led
many workers to turn away from
the Social Democrats
Munich Nazi Party Rally
• Hitler delivered a very powerful
speech
• The Nazis began the full-scale
removal of all art, literature, and
ideology that pertained to western
culture, communism, and the Jews.
• “This cleaning out of all works that
bear this same Western Asiatic
stamp has been set in motion in the
field of literature as well, having
begun with the symbolic burning of
the most evil products of Jewish
scribblers shortly after the seizing of
power.”
Parliamentary Crisis
Gustav Stressemann
• “The Great Coalition” that led the
Weimar Republic collapsed in
March of 1930 after the death of
Gustav Stressemann, leader of the
Conservative People’s party.
• The constant debate over
unemployment worker benefits
also led to the breakup of the
republic.
• In such an emergency the
constitution called for a president
to seize power
• The presidency prepared people
for the dictatorial rule that would
come with the Nazis .
Heinrich Bruening
• Bruening was the first
chancellor installed by the
Reichstag during the political
emergency.
• He did all he could to stabilize
the economy but in reality his
changes did little for Germany.
• The Reichstag refused to pass
many of his laws so he had the
entire body erased and he held
elections for a new one in
September of 1930.
• This was the perfect
opportunity for Hitler and the
Nazis
Elections of September 1930
• The Nazi Party’s intense campaigning
of the late 20’s proved extremely
influential in the results of the voting.
• The Nazi party received 6.5 million
votes (18% 0f the vote) , and that gave
them 107 seats in the Reichstag, second
only to the Social Democrats.
• After the election the Nazis
immediately began to prepare for
future elections by preparing
propaganda targeting the masses.
Nazi Propaganda
• “Its function was to call the
attention of the masses to certain
facts, not to educate them. Since
the masses were influenced more
by emotions than by reason,
propaganda must be aimed
primarily at the emotions. Given
the limited intelligence of the
masses, propaganda had to focus
on constant repetition of a few
basic ideas, eventually
establishing these ideas as truths
in the minds of the masses.”
(Grempel)
Failure of the Weimar Government
• The failure of the Weimar
Government to effectively
deal with unemployment
cost them much of their
support.
• However, the two major
leftist parties could not
agree on anything except
their desire to overthrow the
Weimar Republic.
Unemployed Workers in Berlin, 1931
Hitler Is Named Chancellor January, 1933
• Hindenburg finally agreed
to make Hitler the
Chancellor.
• He quickly moved to
solidify his position.
• In the process the Nazis
succeeded in eliminating
their enemies and
destroying most institutions
of the Weimar Republic.
• Hitler Named Chancellor of
Germany - January 30, 1933
Reichstag Fire: February, 1933
• In a fire that many
believe was set by the
Nazis themselves, Hitler
created the opportunity
to declare himself in
possession of
emergency powers.
• The Reichstag Burns February 27, 1933
General Election: March, 1933
• Hitler held a general
election, appealing to the
German people to give him
a clear mandate. Only
37% of the people voted
Nazi, which did not give
him a majority in the
Reichstag, so Hitler
arrested the 81 Communist
deputies (which did give
him a majority).
Enabling Act - 23 March 1933
• The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German)
was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag)
on March 23, 1933 and signed by President Paul von
Hindenburg the same day. It was the second major
step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which
the democratically-elected Nazis obtained dictatorial
powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled
Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws
without the participation of the Reichstag.