The methods by which the Nazi regime consolidated power between January 1933 and August 1934, including the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, the Night of the Long Knives, and the death of Hindenburg

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to know exactly how the Nazi regime moved from a coalition government on 30 January 1933 to an unchallenged one-party dictatorship by 2 August 1934. Section I frequently asks for the consolidation of power as a sequence: name the legal and extra-legal steps and explain how each removed a check on Hitler's authority.

The answer

Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 in a coalition cabinet of three Nazis (Hitler, Frick, Goering) and eight conservatives. Within 18 months, every institutional rival had been neutralised.

The Reichstag Fire and the Reichstag Fire Decree (February 1933)

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. Thousands of communists, social democrats, and trade unionists were arrested. The KPD was effectively destroyed before the 5 March election.

The Enabling Act (24 March 1933)

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).

Gleichschaltung (coordination), 1933-1935

A wave of legislation brought every parallel institution under Nazi control.

The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (7 April 1933) removed Jews and political opponents from the civil service, universities, and the judiciary. Trade unions were dissolved on 2 May 1933 and replaced by the German Labour Front (DAF). The SPD was banned (22 June 1933). The Law against the Formation of New Parties (14 July 1933) made the NSDAP the only legal party. The Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich (30 January 1934) abolished the Landtage and centralised regional government under Nazi Reichsstatthalter.

The Night of the Long Knives (30 June to 2 July 1934)

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).

The death of Hindenburg (2 August 1934)

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. A plebiscite on 19 August 1934 endorsed the change with 89.9 per cent approval.

Historiography

Ian Kershaw (Hubris, 1998) frames the process as "working towards the Fuhrer," in which institutions anticipated Nazi demands and coordinated themselves.

Karl Dietrich Bracher (The German Dictatorship, 1969) calls it a "legal revolution" because the regime used the Weimar constitution's own emergency powers to dismantle constitutional government.

Hans Mommsen emphasises the chaotic, cumulative character of the takeover rather than a master plan.

Consolidation timeline

How to read a source on this topic

Section I sources on consolidation are usually photographs (Reichstag Fire, Potsdam Day ceremony of 21 March 1933, Hindenburg with Hitler), legal documents (the Enabling Act, the Reichstag Fire Decree), and contemporary newspaper coverage. Three reading habits.

First, note whether the source is from before or after the Enabling Act (24 March 1933). The Enabling Act is the constitutional break. Sources from before are negotiating a coalition; sources from after are operating under dictatorship.

Second, identify the staged elements. Potsdam Day (21 March 1933), where Hitler bowed to Hindenburg at the Garrison Church, was a propaganda set piece designed to reassure conservatives. The photograph captures performance, not policy.

Third, watch for surviving opposition. Otto Wels' SPD speech against the Enabling Act (23 March 1933) and the Niemoller declaration are evidence that opposition was visible and silenced, not absent. Use such sources to complicate the "legal revolution" thesis.

Common exam traps

Confusing the Reichstag Fire Decree with the Enabling Act. The Fire Decree (28 Feb 1933) suspended civil liberties; the Enabling Act (24 March 1933) transferred legislative power to the Cabinet.

Forgetting the role of the Catholic Centre Party. The Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority. The Centre Party's vote was decisive.

Dating the Fuhrer title to 1933. Hitler became Fuhrer und Reichskanzler only on 2 August 1934, on Hindenburg's death.

Missing the army oath. The personal oath taken on 2 August 1934 is examinable. It bound the army to Hitler, not to the state.

In one sentence

Between 30 January 1933 and 2 August 1934 the Nazi regime moved from coalition government to unchallenged dictatorship through the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, the Night of the Long Knives, and the merger of the Presidency and Chancellorship on Hindenburg's death, a sequence that Bracher called a "legal revolution" and Kershaw described as institutions "working towards the Fuhrer."