germany - chapter 6

Question 1

what happened in February 1933

Answer 1

• hitler arranged a new election for march 1933
• he hoped he’d win a huge victory and get the majority he wanted in the Reichstag
• as chancellor, hitler now had greater influence over many newspapers and radio stations
• he also controlled the police, who he could use to intimidate voters and beat up opponents

Question 2

what happened on 27th february 1933

Answer 2

• a week before voting day, the Reichstag burned down
• although the evidence was unclear, a young communist, Marinus Van de Lubbe, was arrested and blamed for the fire
• hitler said the fire was part of a communist plot to take over the country
• he said he knew how to deal with the plot

Question 3

what happened on 28th february 1933

Answer 3

• hitler asked Hindenburg to pass a special emergency ‘Protection Law’, giving hitler the power to deal with germany’s problems
• because of the Reichstag fire and the appearance of a communist plot, Hindenburg agreed

Question 4

what happened in march 1933

Answer 4

• the new decree (a type of law), for the ‘Protection of the People and State’, banned leading communists from taking part int eh election campaign
• 4000 communists were thrown into the prison and all their newspapers were shut down
• in the election on 5th march, due to the way hitler dealt with the communists, the nazis got more votes than ever before
  -> but hitler still didn’t get the majority he wanted

Question 5

what happened on 23rd March 1933

Answer 5

• hitler had stirred up enough fear of communism to persuade politicians in another political party, the Centre Party, to join the nazis
  -> he now had the majority he wanted
• hitler forced the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Law
  -> this gave him power to make laws without asking the rest of the politicians in the reichstag
• now hitler didn’t have to worry about what Hindenburg or the Reichstag thought of him

Question 6

what was the enabling law

Answer 6

this gave hitler power to make laws without asking the rest of the politicians in the reichstag

Question 7

what happened on 7th april 1933

Answer 7

• hitler immediately began to use his new powers (from the enabling law)
• nazis were put in charge of all local government, councils and the police
• the Gestapo (secret police) was formed
• the first concentration camp for political prisoners opened in Dachau, Southern Germany

Question 8

what happened on 2nd may 1933

Answer 8

• hitler banned all trade unions
• he took away all their money and threw their leaders in jail
• by removing trade unions, hitler had taken away a worker’s way of complaining about pay and conditions

Question 9

what happened on 2nd august 1934

Answer 9

• by this time, hitler had murdered his opponents in the SA and brought them under control with the Night of the Long Knives
• when president hindenburg died, hitler immediately took over the presidents job as well as remaining chancellor
• also, he made the army swear and oath of loyalty to him, and not to the country
• hitler decided to give himself the simple title of Der Führer - the leader

Question 10

what happened on 14th july 1933

Answer 10

• hitler banned all political parties in germany, except the nazis
• the ‘Law Against Formation of New Parties’ stated that anyone trying to set up or run another party would go to prison for three years
• germany was now a one-party state

Question 11

as chancellor, which two groups did hitler still feel threatened by

Answer 11

the army and the SA

Question 12

what did the SA do in the beginning

Answer 12

they had been a real asset to hitler
they had guarded hitler from harm and had beaten up political opponents

Question 13

why had the SA become a problem

Answer 13

many of them were unemployed, violent thugs who wanted well-paid jobs as a reward for their loyalty, now that hitler was in power

Question 14

what did Rohm want to do
who did this alarm and why

Answer 14

• rohm wanted to join the SA with the army, with both under his control
• this alarmed hitler and the army leaders
  -> a merger of the two would make rohm incredibly powerful

Question 15

why did hitler need to keep the army leaders happy

Answer 15

he would need their skills if he was to get back the land germany had lost through the treaty of versailles

Question 16

what were there rumours

Answer 16

that rohm was about to seize power and take over from hitler

Question 17

when was the night of the long knives

Answer 17

30th june 1934

Question 18

what were the major impacts of the night of the long knives

Answer 18

• many of the people close to hitler who were regarded as a threat to him were now dead - and not just rohm, but all the leading nazis who didn’t agree with hitler
• the SS, led by heinrich himmler, emerged as the group now responsible for hitler security, not the SA
  -> the SS would grow in importance after this
  -> they, along with the gestapo, now formed the basis of the ‘police state’ that germany had become
  -> the SA itself was not abolished, but it was never again a major force in germany
• the fact hitler was very open about what he had done meant he had quite literally got away with murder
  -> hitler had now established murder as a part of what the nazi government did

Question 19

what did hitler do involving the army when he became fuhrer

Answer 19

• made the army swear a personal oath of loyalty to him
• the army agreed to stay out of politics and serve hitler
• in return, hitler promised to spend large sums of money to make germany a great military power once more