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Core Study: Power and Authority in the Modern World 1919-1946
Quick questions on Nazi consolidation of power 1933-1934: HSC Modern History Core Study
10short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the Reichstag Fire and the Reichstag Fire Decree (February 1933)?Show answer
On the night of 27 February 1933 the Reichstag building burned. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was arrested at the scene. The following day, President Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree (Decree for the Protection of People and State) under Article 48. It suspended freedom of speech, assembly, and the press, and permitted indefinite detention.
What is the Enabling Act (24 March 1933)?Show answer
The Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich gave the Cabinet, in practice Hitler, the power to enact laws (including laws contradicting the constitution) without Reichstag approval for four years. The Act passed 444 to 94. The KPD deputies had been arrested or driven into exile; the SPD voted against; the Catholic Centre Party voted in favour after Hitler promised a Concordat with the Vatican (signed by Cardinal Pacelli, later Pope Pius XII, in July 1933).
What is gleichschaltung (coordination), 1933-1935?Show answer
A wave of legislation brought every parallel institution under Nazi control.
What is the Night of the Long Knives (30 June to 2 July 1934)?Show answer
By 1934 the SA under Ernst Rohm had grown to roughly 3 million members and was demanding a "second revolution," including the absorption of the Reichswehr. Hitler, pressured by the army leadership and by Himmler and Goering, ordered the SS to murder the SA leadership. At least 85 people were killed, including Rohm, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, and the Catholic activist Erich Klausener. The killings were retrospectively legalised by the Law Concerning Measures of State Self-Defence (3 July 1934).
What is the death of Hindenburg (2 August 1934)?Show answer
President Hindenburg died at 9am on 2 August 1934. Within hours, the offices of President and Chancellor were merged. Hitler became Fuhrer und Reichskanzler. Every member of the Wehrmacht swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler.
What is historiography?Show answer
Ian Kershaw (Hubris, 1998) frames the process as "working towards the Fuhrer," in which institutions anticipated Nazi demands and coordinated themselves.
What is confusing the Reichstag Fire Decree with the Enabling Act?Show answer
The Fire Decree (28 Feb 1933) suspended civil liberties; the Enabling Act (24 March 1933) transferred legislative power to the Cabinet.
What is forgetting the role of the Catholic Centre Party?Show answer
The Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority. The Centre Party's vote was decisive.
What is dating the Fuhrer title to 1933?Show answer
Hitler became Fuhrer und Reichskanzler only on 2 August 1934, on Hindenburg's death.
What is missing the army oath?Show answer
The personal oath taken on 2 August 1934 is examinable. It bound the army to Hitler, not to the state.