FREE ESSAY ON WAS HITLER A LEGAL DICTATOR DURING AFTER HIS RISE IN 1933

WAS HITLER A LEGAL DICTATOR DURING AFTER HIS RISE IN 1933

JAMES APPS H13 OCTOBER 2000
"THE YEAR 1933 SAW HITLER RISE IRRESSISTABLY FROM
LEGAL CHANCELLOR TO LEGAL DICTATOR". HOW VALID IS THIS ASSESSMENT OF THE NATURE AND THE
EXTENT OF THE NAZI CONSOLIDATION OF POWER DURING 1933?
In recent years many historians have come to the conclusion that during the year of 1933
Hitler was able to move from a chancellor of Germany to its dictator. A dictator is
defined as a ruler who is not bound by constitution or laws. A dictator can also be a
person who behaves in a tyrannical manner. So was this the position that Hitler found
himself in at the end of 1933. Was he bound by a constitution or laws and did he behave
in a 'tyrannical' manner. Through looking and analyzing the key events of this year we
will be able to answer this question.
At the beginning of 1933 Hitler found himself in a very promising position. When Hitler's
conservative supporters including Franz Von Papen allowed Hitler to become chancellor on
the 30th January 1933 they did it because they felt they could control him. Papen himself
was minister president of Prussia ultimately having control over the police as well as
the civil service. He felt that by obtaining this position he would be able to stop
Hitler from gaining any extra power. Papen explained "within two months we will have
pushed Hitler so far into a corner that he'll squeak". However Hitler himself already
began to get the upper hand by convincing the conservatives to allow him to hold an
election. Now in charge of government agencies this would naturally help the Nazis come
to power. At this time talks about creating an authoritarian government were being held
with the army. Hitler wanted Germany eradicated of Marxism and the cancer of democracy.
Confidence within the nazi party at this time was high and Goebbels himself had promised
"once we have power we will never surrender it unless we are carried out of are offices
as corpses". Control of Hitler at this time did not seem to be going to well.
At the election of March 1933 Hitler felt that a new appeal to the German people would be
successful for the Nazis. A coalition government was restricting him and therefore in his
speeches he argued to be able to make his own policies. Also prior to the march election
Hitler launches a mass clearance of the police force in Prussia. Again Von Papen even
though being the president of Prussia weakly let Hitler have his own way. Goerring had
also allowed the SA and SS to use their weapons, which led to mass terrorism on the
streets. The SA could now break up opposition party meetings as they pleased; Goerring
himself said; "every bullet that now leaves the mouth of a police pistol is my bullet. If
you call that murder, then I am the murderer, for I gave the order, and I stand by it. At
this time extremely harsh measures were introduced on communist, SPD and center party
forms of press and opinion. Goerring had also gained complete control of radio. All
speeches made by Hitler were now to be broadcast on all stations with added commentary.
One of the main events that occurred during 1933 that enabled Hitler to consolidate his
power was the Reichstag fire on the 27th February. On this date a fire broke out in the
reichstag building in Berlin. On inspecting the building afterwards a communist Van Der
Lubbe was found inside and consequently arrested and blamed for causing it. After hearing
about the events at the Reichstag building Hitler felt that this was evidence of a mass
communist purge against him and his government. On that night he ordered the arrest of
all communists that could have been involved with the plot. By the end of the night over
4000 communists as well as others had been arrested for attacking the German parliament.
The day after the fire on the 28th February Hitler persuaded president Hindenberg to sign
an emergency decree which would stop the communist revolution taking place. Once this was
signed it effectively took away the civil rights of Germans. A person could now be
arrested and imprisoned without trial. Consequences of the emergency decree included the
silencing and eventual break up of the SPD and center party. Many historians however have
come to the conclusion that the Reichstag fire was not a communist purge but an event
planned out by the nazi party. They feel that Hitler set up the fire in order to achieve
the emergency decree and use it to consolidate his hold on power. However this mass
effort before the March election actually failed to get the majority of voted that Hitler
was hoping for. The nazi ended up obtaining 43.9% of the vote and therefore still being
in a coalition with the nationalists. The majority that the nazi party had in government
was now only 17 seats.
In the Landers (federal states) there was being much trouble caused by the SS and the SA.
Describing the democratically elected governments in these states as incapable of keeping
order, Hitler ordered that Nazi Reich commissioners should replace them on the grounds of
protecting the Weimar constitution. We must remember that it was the emergency decree
after the reichstag fire that enabled Hitler to do this. By the beginning of the
following year total control over these governments was achieved by dissolving the
parliaments of the separate states, and by declaring their governments was to be
supervised by the Reich minister of the interior. A federal system founded in 1867 was
now completely dead!
One of the other major events of 1933 was the Enabling Act passed on the 23rd March. What
this act did was effectively allow Hitler to pass laws without consulting the reichstag.
This may seem outrageous to many people however by now much of the opposition to Hitler
had been silenced for fear of imprisonment or death. Even bishops of the Catholic Church
were beginning to see the necessity of an accommodation with the Nazi movement. On the
day the act was passed known opposition was even prevented from entering the hall such as
the KPD deputies and the SPD. Many felt that even if Hitler did not obtain the two thirds
majority that he needed to get the act passed that he would use much more unpleasant
methods to get it. Many felt that it was therefore best to simply go along with him and
possibly get a few favors if they could.
Gleichschaltung is a term that describes the process by which German institutions such as
the civil service and trade unions were made to follow the ideas of the nazi party. This
is infact what Hitler had achieved by around May during 1933. Firstly the civil service
was independent and Hitler realized that this could therefore ruin his plans for
government. A law passed in April meant that the civil service could be reorganized so
that it met the needs of the nazi party. All members were to be approved of for their
political reliability. Expulsion met those who could not prove this because total
obedience to the government was now expected. The Aryan Clause in the act also meant that
Jews could not enter the civil service as well as the courts, teaching, and government
service. 
Further developments were also made in the justice system. 10,000 lawyers were made to
publicly swear that they would "strive as German jurists to follow the course of our
Fuhrer to the end of all our days". In April Hitler gave himself power to remove any
judge whose sentences he saw as being to soft or not loyal enough to the nazi party.
Effectively this therefore meant that judges could no longer make decisions based on the
law if they knew it was going against the Nazis. They were forced to convict people for
crimes they had not committed. 
Trade unions were a big problem for Hitler. He needed control over workers because they
could cause trouble and refuse to work. To deal with the problem the SA took over making
raids on suspect workers housing estates along with torturing and arresting workers,
banning newspapers and seizing labour union buildings.