Adolf Hitler

May 30, 2001

On January 30th 1933, Adolf Hitler emerged from the German chancellery crying tears of joy. The former vagabond was now chancellor of Germany. But this was only a first step for him, he did not have the absolute power that he desired and he was bound by the democratic constitution. He now set about to systematically remove all of his opposition and turn himself from chancellor to dictator.

President Paul von Hindenburg was now eighty-five years of age and suffering bouts of senility. Hitler saw opportunities for himself in Hindenburg's senility and he began to put it to use in his drive for power. He pushed Hindenburg into signing a series of emergency decrees that would give Hitler more power. In order to suppress the Communists and other leftist groups, he pushed the Decree for Protection of the German People through the cabinet. This decree gave authority to the Interior Minister to ban meetings, newspapers, books, and magazines, which had content that would be considered dangerous to public security. Hindenburg did not question the decree; he immediately approved and signed it. Hitler secretly wished for an act of violence by the Communists. If they staged any riotous or bloody acts, Hitler would have the perfect excuse to legally crush them. To his disappointment, however, the Communists were staying quiet. An opportunity presented itself on February 25th 1933, which Hitler used for his diabolical schemes. A 24 year-old Communist Dutchman set the Reichstag on fire. He was promptly arrested, put on trial, found guilty, and beheaded. Although he acted alone, Hitler used this event to his advantage and claimed that this act was part of a violent Communist revolution that threatened to destroy Germany. He called for the passing of another emergency decree, one that would allow police to intercept mail, and monitor private telephone conversations. Accused individuals would be denied the right to legal counsel and could be imprisoned without a hearing or trial. Any crimes that were supposedly planned by Communists were punishable by death. Hindenburg signed this decree immediately and now the government was legally free to use terror and intimidation. Guilt did not have to be proven, as long as it was suspected. Anyone could be stopped, arrested, and imprisoned without rhyme or reason and without trial. Hermann Goering took control of the Prussian police force and built it into a tool of terror. This 90,000-man force was instructed to be merciless to anyone who opposed or threatened the Nazis. The Prussian police force was rivaled only by the Bavarian State Police, which was controlled by Heinrich Himmler and his lieutenant Reinhard Heydrich. Between the Prussian police force, the Bavarian State Police, and the Stormtroopers [SA], thousands of people were murdered, beaten, arrested, and bullied. So many people were being arrested throughout Germany that the prisons overflowed and the first concentration camps were set up to house them. But Hitler was not quite finished with his plans.

The federal states of Germany were governed by their own parliaments, but Hitler's intention was to unite them all under his Nazi government. Hitler appointed special Nazi commissioners any state self-government was unacceptable, instead, and storm troopers forcibly removed non-Nazi officials and replaced them with Nazis. By March 1933, all of the 17 states of Germany were Nazi controlled.

Hitler's next step was to push a decree that would allow him to put domestic laws and foreign treaties into effect without the approval of the Reichstag or even the president. This was the Enabling Act, and in order to pass it, he needed to have a two-thirds parliamentary majority. He needed the support of the Catholic Center party to win the necessary votes. He quickly gained their support through fear and intimidation. The Enabling Act was passed and now Hitler almost had absolute power in Germany. 

For now, Hitler had another problem to deal with which would put him into direct conflict with one of his closest friends. Ernst Roehm, who had been with Hitler since the early days of the Nazi party, led the Stormtroopers [SA]. Roehm had stuck by Hitler and supported him throughout his quest for power and even helped him and fought for him in the Beer Hall putsch back in 1923. Once Hitler had become chancellor, Roehm was urging him to do away with the German army and institute the SA as the new army. To Hitler, this was absurd, he was planning to conquer the world from top to bottom and to achieve this aim, he needed the experienced, well-trained German army, not the rowdy, street-fighting SA. Actually, unbeknownst to Roehm, Hitler was being pressured from two parties to crush the SA.

The rapidly growing black-shirted SS - Schutzstaffel saw the SA as rivals. Under Chief Heinrich Himmler, the SS constituted Germany's elite - before entry, men had to undergo training and certain qualifications were required. Unlike the bawdy SA, the SS were to be the "elegant" killers with their tall shiny boots and crisp black uniforms. Himmler wanted the SA out of the way so that the SS would have all of the power. He convinced Hitler that their low-class, ribald reputation was ruining Hitler's image among the people. He also began whispering to Hitler that Roehm was lusting for power and was planning to overthrow Hitler. He assured Hitler that if he wanted to take the SA out of the way, the SS would be more than happy to do the dirty work. Hitler was also facing pressure from the army itself. They neither liked nor trusted the SA, especially their leader Ernst Roehm. They saw him as a loudmouth dangerous revolutionary who was constantly trying to stir up trouble. The army made it clear to Hitler that they wanted Roehm and the SA to be destroyed and they threatened Hitler that if he did not take care of it, the army will overthrow him and a military dictatorship will be set up.

For several reasons, Hitler saw no alternative but to destroy the SA. Firstly, The German army was too powerful for him to oppose. Secondly, He would need them for his war very soon. Thirdly, The army was made up of generals of the Prussian aristocracy and they had much influence with President Hindenburg, who was a Prussian aristocrat and war hero himself. Since Hitler desperately wanted Hindenburg to declare him his successor, he decided to use the German army to get to Hindenburg. He knew that if he made nice with the army and gave them what they wanted, they in turn would back him as successor to Hindenburg. Thus, Hitler struck a deal with the army: he promised that he would destroy the SA if they would convince Hindenburg to name Hitler as the next president. Naturally, Hitler realized that if this deal was going to work, he would have to kill his old friend, but his lust for absolute power was strong enough to make him sacrifice Ernst Roehm.

On June 30th 1934, Hitler set forth a weekend-long bloody massacre against the SA known as the Night of the Long Knives. Also known as the Nazi Blood Purge, hordes of SS men were unleashed and sent to execute leaders and important members of the SA. The Night of Long the Knives was going to put a violent end to a 14-year friendship. Ernst Roehm was taken to Stadelheim prison in Munich and Hitler ordered that Roehm must not suffer the humiliation of being shot by an SS executioner, he would be allowed to die honorably by taking his own life. A pistol was brought to Roehm's cell but he refused to shoot himself. Roehm told his jailers that if his old friend wanted him dead, he should come into the cell and do it himself. When Hitler was told of Roehm's comments, he ordered an SS executioner to the cell and Roehm was promptly shot. It was not only the SA that was being attacked; Hitler was removing all obstacles from his way. General von Schleicher and his wife were shot, as were leading members of the Catholic Center Party. Three of Franz von Papen's aides were shot and Papen himself managed to escape. Hitler also paid back his old enemy, Gustav von Kahr. Kahr played a primary role in crushing Hitler's 1923 putsch and Hitler made sure that Kahr receive his due on this bloody weekend. He was murdered and his body was hacked to pieces with an ax. In the end, over 1,000 people died in that weekend of carnage.

When the massacre was over, the satisfied German army praised Hitler; he had given them what they wanted and they thought that they had control over him. They were soon to discover, however, that it was Hitler who was jerking their chain. Hitler was planning a few very bold moves that he intended to put into effect, but he could not yet make his move, it was not the proper time. For now, he waited on pins and needles for President von Hindenburg to die.

His wish came soon enough; almost a month after the Night of the Long Knives, on August 2, 1934, eighty-six year-old Paul von Hindenburg passed away. Adolf Hitler had finally become his successor. In order to make his power absolute; Hitler proceeded to perform acts that were unprecedented and completely illegal. He abolished the Presidency and he combined the offices of president and chancellor and instituted a new title for himself: Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. Hitler was now supreme dictator of Germany. This was blatantly illegal, for according to the constitution, only the president of the High Court of Justice had the authority to act as President until new elections take place. Hitler as Chancellor had no authority to interfere with the office of President. Hitler was aware of the fact that powerful German politicians would never let him get away with these acts, but they were not around to protest because he conveniently had them killed during the Night of the Long Knives purge. If any of his opponents had escaped death during the purge, Hitler was supremely confident that they would not oppose him. After the weekend-long bloodbath, everyone knew that certain death awaited him or her if they dared to confront Hitler. He was also aware of the fact that the German public would not vigorously protest these moves because the German democracy was instituted by the Allies after they defeated Germany in the First World War. Hitler, therefore, claimed that the democracy was a result of the Allies flaunting their supposed victory over Germany, and as long as the constitution existed, the German's humiliation will exist with it.

Hitler's new title of Fuehrer of the Reich also made him supreme commander of the armed forces. The German army was now forced to swear to a loyalty oath, but not to Germany; they had to swear loyalty to Hitler himself. They came to sorely regret the deal that they made with him, because now they had to obey his every word. The solid Prussian aristocrats of the army received a great jolt when they realized that a man whose family were peasants from the Austrian Waldviertel was ordering them around. This man who once slept on park benches and filthy flophouses held complete control over the actions of the army and no decision was made that went contrary to his wishes.

Adolf Hitler managed to methodically knock down all of his opponents by all means at his disposal and year of 1934 marked the completion of Adolf Hitler's dictatorial rise in Germany.