← Section II (National Study): Germany 1918-1939
How did the Nazis consolidate power and shape the state between 1933 and 1939?
The Nazi consolidation of power and the nature of the Nazi state 1933 to 1939, including the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act, the Night of the Long Knives, the role of the SS, Gestapo, and SD, and the role of propaganda under Goebbels
A focused answer to the HSC Modern History National Study dot point on Nazi consolidation and the nature of the state. The Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, the Night of the Long Knives, the SS under Himmler, the Gestapo, and propaganda under Goebbels, with the verdicts of Kershaw, Evans, and Gellately.
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What this dot point is asking
NESA expects you to explain how the Nazis turned a Chancellorship in coalition with conservatives on 30 January 1933 into a single-party dictatorship by August 1934, and how that dictatorship functioned to 1939. Strong answers cover the legal consolidation (Reichstag Fire Decree, Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung), the violent consolidation (Night of the Long Knives, army oath), the institutions of terror (SS, Gestapo, courts, camps), and the manufacture of consent through propaganda. The Kershaw "Hitler Myth," Mommsen's "polycratic" thesis, and Gellately's denunciation research set the historiographical frame.
The answer
The Reichstag Fire and the Decree
The Reichstag building burned on the night of 27 February 1933. Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found on the premises and arrested. Whether he acted alone (the modern scholarly consensus) or whether the Nazis were involved (the older "self-arson" view) is debated. The political effect is not in dispute.
On 28 February 1933, Hindenburg signed the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State. Article 48 suspended civil liberties: freedom of speech, assembly, the press, and the secrecy of communications. The decree authorised "protective custody" (Schutzhaft) without trial. Around 10,000 Communist activists were arrested by the 5 March Reichstag election. The decree remained in force until 1945.
The Enabling Act
The 5 March 1933 Reichstag election was held under terror. The Nazis took 43.9 per cent and 288 seats; with the DNVP they had a majority. The KPD won 81 seats but its deputies were already imprisoned or in hiding.
On 23 March 1933, the new Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House. The Law to Remove the Distress of People and Reich (Enabling Act) was passed 441 to 84. The Centre Party voted in favour after Hitler promised to respect the Concordat negotiations and the rights of churches. The SPD alone voted against; Otto Wels' speech is one of the great parliamentary moments of the era. The Act transferred legislative power to the cabinet for four years. It was renewed in 1937 and 1939.
Gleichschaltung
"Coordination" extended Nazi control across society between March 1933 and the end of the year.
- The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (7 April 1933) removed Jews and political opponents from state employment.
- The Lander were brought under Nazi Reichsstatthalter (Reich governors) on 31 March 1933. The Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich (30 January 1934) abolished Lander sovereignty.
- Trade unions were dissolved on 2 May 1933; the German Labour Front (DAF) under Robert Ley replaced them.
- The SPD was banned on 22 June 1933. All other parties dissolved themselves; the Law against the Formation of New Parties (14 July 1933) made the NSDAP the only legal party.
- The Reich Concordat with the Vatican was signed on 20 July 1933 by Vice-Chancellor Papen, neutralising political Catholicism.
- The Reich Chamber of Culture (22 September 1933) under Goebbels brought film, theatre, music, press, radio, and literature under control.
The Night of the Long Knives
The SA, with around 2 million members by 1934, under Ernst Rohm, demanded a "second revolution" and a merger with the Reichswehr. The army leadership (Blomberg, Fritsch) demanded SA destruction as the price of supporting Hitler's succession to Hindenburg.
On 30 June to 2 July 1934, the SS murdered the SA leadership at Bad Wiessee and across Germany. Rohm was shot in his cell. Gregor Strasser, Kurt von Schleicher, his wife Elisabeth, Edgar Jung (Papen's speechwriter), and others were killed. Estimates of total dead range from 85 to over 200.
The Law concerning Measures for the Defence of the State (3 July 1934) declared the killings lawful retrospectively. Hitler told the Reichstag on 13 July that he had been "the supreme judge of the German people." The army welcomed the elimination of the SA threat.
The army oath and the Fuhrer state
Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Hitler immediately combined the offices of President and Chancellor and took the title Fuhrer und Reichskanzler. The army swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler ("I swear by God this sacred oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler"). A plebiscite on 19 August endorsed the change at 89.9 per cent. The transition was complete.
The SS, Gestapo, and SD
Heinrich Himmler became Reichsfuhrer-SS on 6 January 1929. Between 1933 and 1936 he absorbed every police function in Germany. Reinhard Heydrich (head of SD from 1931) ran the combined Security Police (SiPo, Gestapo and Kripo) from 1936 and was appointed head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in September 1939.
The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) was founded in Prussia by Goering in April 1933 and unified under Himmler in 1934. Around 7,000 officers covered the Reich. Robert Gellately's research (Backing Hitler, 2001) shows the Gestapo relied heavily on denunciations from ordinary Germans. Coercion and consent reinforced each other.
The first concentration camp at Dachau opened on 22 March 1933 under Theodor Eicke. By 1939 the SS-Totenkopfverbande administered Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, and Mauthausen. Around 27,000 prisoners were held in 1939. The People's Court (Volksgerichtshof, established 1934) handled political offences.
The polycratic state
Hans Mommsen and Ian Kershaw describe the Nazi state as polycratic: competing agencies (Party Chancellery under Bormann, Reich Chancellery under Lammers, SS under Himmler, Four-Year Plan under Goering, Foreign Ministry under Ribbentrop) jostled for influence by anticipating Hitler's wishes. Kershaw's phrase "working towards the Fuhrer" captures the process. Hitler avoided routine administration; the cabinet last met as a full body in February 1938.
Propaganda
Joseph Goebbels became Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda on 13 March 1933. The Reich Chamber of Culture (22 September 1933) controlled press, radio, film, theatre, music, and literature.
The Volksempfanger ("People's Receiver") cheap radio reached 70 per cent of households by 1939. Public loudspeakers carried speeches into squares and workplaces. Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) immortalised the Nuremberg Rallies; her Olympia (1938) glamorised the Berlin Games.
The book burnings (10 May 1933) targeted Jewish, Marxist, and "un-German" authors. The Degenerate Art exhibition (1937) attacked modernism. The annual Nuremberg Rallies (the Reichsparteitag) projected a unified Volksgemeinschaft.
Ian Kershaw's "Hitler Myth" thesis describes the cult of personality that detached Hitler from unpopular Nazi policies. Robert Gellately argues propaganda generated active consent, not just compliance.
Opposition
The Confessing Church (Niemoller, Bonhoeffer) opposed Nazi interference. Pope Pius XI's encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (March 1937) attacked Nazi racial policy. The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth represented youth non-conformity. Detlev Peukert (Inside Nazi Germany, 1987) distinguishes "opposition" (organised political resistance, crushed by 1934) from "non-conformity" (cultural dissent, which persisted).
Timeline of consolidation
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Jan 1933 | Hitler appointed Chancellor | Power transferred |
| 27 Feb 1933 | Reichstag fire | Crisis manufactured |
| 28 Feb 1933 | Reichstag Fire Decree | Civil liberties suspended |
| 5 Mar 1933 | Election; Nazis 43.9 per cent | Largest party |
| 23 Mar 1933 | Enabling Act 441 to 84 | Legislative power transferred |
| 22 Mar 1933 | Dachau opens | First camp |
| 7 Apr 1933 | Civil Service Law | Purge begins |
| 2 May 1933 | Trade unions dissolved | DAF replaces |
| 10 May 1933 | Book burnings | Cultural cleansing |
| 22 Jun 1933 | SPD banned | One-party state |
| 14 Jul 1933 | Single-party law | NSDAP only legal party |
| 20 Jul 1933 | Concordat with Vatican | Catholic neutrality |
| 30 Jun 1934 | Night of the Long Knives | SA destroyed |
| 2 Aug 1934 | Hindenburg dies; Hitler combines offices | Fuhrer state |
| 1935 | Triumph of the Will released | Propaganda peak |
| Oct 1936 | Four-Year Plan | War economy |
Historiography
Ian Kershaw (Hitler: Hubris, 1998; The Hitler Myth, 1987) supplies the structuralist framework: "working towards the Fuhrer" describes how subordinates radicalised policy on their own initiative.
Hans Mommsen developed the polycratic thesis in the 1970s and 1980s; Nazi government was not a single chain of command but a competition of agencies.
Richard Evans (The Third Reich in Power, 2005) integrates structural and intentional explanations: ideology set direction, polycratic competition set pace.
Robert Gellately (Backing Hitler, 2001) shows that terror and consent worked together; the regime depended on popular denunciation.
Detlev Peukert (Inside Nazi Germany, 1987) provides the opposition/non-conformity distinction that has reshaped the resistance debate.
How to read a source on this topic
Sources on the consolidation typically include the Reichstag Fire Decree text, the Enabling Act, photographs of book burnings, Triumph of the Will stills, the Day of Potsdam (21 March 1933) photograph of Hindenburg and Hitler, and Gestapo case files. Three reading habits.
First, separate the legal claim from the underlying violence. The Enabling Act is constitutionally clean; the 10,000 KPD arrests under the Reichstag Fire Decree are what made it pass. Both are evidence, of different things.
Second, watch the polycratic signature. Documents from the SS, the Four-Year Plan office, and the Foreign Ministry may make competing claims to authority. The contradictions are themselves evidence of the polycratic state, not noise to ignore.
Third, read consent against coercion. Gellately's research is now standard. A 1936 Olympics photograph shows projected unity; the Gestapo files from the same year show denunciation as the basis of policing. Coercion and consent reinforced each other.
Common exam traps
Treating the Enabling Act as a free vote. It was passed under armed SA presence in the Kroll Opera House and after 10,000 KPD deputies had been arrested. The SPD alone voted against.
Treating the polycratic state as paralysed. It produced radicalisation, not paralysis. Use Kershaw's "working towards the Fuhrer" precisely.
Describing terror without consent. Gellately's denunciation research is now standard. Acknowledge both.
Misdating the Night of the Long Knives. 30 June to 2 July 1934, before Hindenburg's death (2 August), not after.
In one sentence
The Nazis consolidated power between 30 January 1933 and 2 August 1934 through the Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, the Night of the Long Knives, and the personal army oath; the resulting Fuhrer state was polycratic in structure (Kershaw, Mommsen), sustained by SS and Gestapo terror and by Goebbels' propaganda, and dependent on the dialectic of coercion and active consent that Gellately's research has placed at the centre of modern understanding.
Past exam questions, worked
Real questions from past NESA papers on this dot point, with our answer explainer.
Practice (NESA)20 marksTo what extent had the Nazis consolidated their power in Germany by the end of 1934?Show worked answer →
Needs thesis, criteria, dated evidence, historiography.
Thesis. By the end of 1934 consolidation was largely complete. Institutional opposition was crushed by mid-1933; internal Nazi opposition eliminated on 30 June 1934; the army bound to Hitler personally on 2 August 1934. Cultural and religious dissent persisted but never threatened the regime.
Institutional opposition. The Reichstag Fire Decree (28 February 1933) suspended civil liberties and authorised mass arrests (around 10,000 KPD by the March election). The Enabling Act (23 March 1933) passed 441 to 84, the SPD alone voting against. Trade unions dissolved (2 May 1933); SPD banned (22 June 1933); the Law against the Formation of New Parties (14 July) made the NSDAP the only legal party.
Gleichschaltung. The Civil Service Law (7 April 1933) removed Jews and opponents. Reichsstatthalter took over the Lander (31 March 1933). The Reich Concordat (20 July 1933) neutralised political Catholicism.
Night of the Long Knives. On 30 June to 2 July 1934 the SS murdered the SA leadership: Rohm, Strasser, Schleicher, and around 85 to 200 others. Hitler told the Reichstag (13 July) he had been "supreme judge of the German people." The army welcomed the SA's destruction.
Army oath. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Hitler combined the offices of President and Chancellor as Fuhrer und Reichskanzler. The army swore a personal oath of loyalty. The 19 August plebiscite endorsed at 89.9 per cent.
Remaining dissent. The Confessing Church (Niemoller, Bonhoeffer) opposed Nazi interference. The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth were non-conformist. None threatened the regime. Peukert (Inside Nazi Germany, 1987) distinguishes "opposition" (crushed) from "non-conformity" (persistent).
Conclusion. Consolidation largely complete by August 1934. The Hitler Myth (Kershaw) and terror-consent dialectic (Gellately) sustained the state.
Practice (NESA)6 marksHow did the Nazi regime use terror to maintain control of Germany between 1933 and 1939?Show worked answer →
A 6-mark "how" needs three instruments of terror with evidence.
The SS and the camps. Heinrich Himmler became Reichsfuhrer-SS in 1929. The first concentration camp opened at Dachau on 22 March 1933 under Theodor Eicke. By 1939 the SS-Totenkopfverbande administered Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Ravensbruck, and Mauthausen. Around 27,000 prisoners were held in 1939. Between 1933 and 1939 the SS absorbed every police function in Germany.
The Gestapo. Created in Prussia by Goering in April 1933 and brought under Himmler in 1934. Heydrich (head of SD from 1931) ran the combined Security Police from 1936. Robert Gellately (Backing Hitler, 2001) shows the Gestapo was small (around 7,000 officers) and relied heavily on denunciations from ordinary Germans. The People's Court (Volksgerichtshof, established 1934) issued thousands of death sentences during the war.
The Reichstag Fire Decree. Signed by Hindenburg on 28 February 1933 after the Reichstag fire of 27 February. Suspended civil liberties under Article 48: freedom of speech, assembly, the press, and the secrecy of post and telephone. Around 10,000 KPD activists were arrested by the March election. The decree remained in force until 1945, providing the legal basis for protective custody.
Markers reward Dachau, the Gestapo size, the denunciation thesis, and the date 28 February 1933.
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