Nazi Consolidation Of Power

1
Nazi Consolidation Of Power

• www.educationforum.co.uk

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Peaceful Factors

• Alongside the terror associated with the
  aftermath of the Reichstag Fire and the Night of
  the Long Knives, the Nazis used three important
  peaceful means to consolidate their power 1933-34
• Compromise with and concessions to powerful
  elites
• Use of policy and new laws to win support
• Use of propaganda

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Compromise with and concessions to powerful
elites

• Army Hitler won the support of the army with
  promises of rearmament, the suppression of the SA
  and a virtual immunity from GLEICHSLATUNG
• Business Hitler appealed to the anti communist
  sentiment of big business. Hitler compromised
  radical Nazism in return for support and
  donations
• Civil Service traditionally the employer of
  elite and socially conservative aristocrats
  welcomed Hitler and apart from being purged of
  Jews, communists and socialists were also left
  relatively immune from GLEICHSLATUNG

4
New Policies and Laws

• The legal basis of Hitlers dictatorship was
  founded on 2 decrees
• The Decree for the Protection of the People and
  the State 28 Feb 1933 in the immediate
  aftermath of the Reichstag Fire this decree
  suspended civil liberties and massively increased
  the power of the police and the courts. It also
  gave supremacy to central government over local
  government
• The Law for Removing the Distress of the People
  and the Reich (aka Enabling Act) 24 March 1933
  gave Hitler personal power to rule and legislate
  by decree by passing parliament altogether. Also
  the power to declare war, peace sign treaties etc
  without consulting Reichstag

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Laws introduced to consolidate Power

1. Law for the Protection of the Retail Trade May
   1933 banned any further growth in big
   department stores popular with small trades and
   shopkeepers
2. Law to Reduce Unemployment June 1933 order
   massive labour intensive public works such as the
   autobahns (motorways) also offered subsidies to
   private companies to increase production and
   encouraged women out of the workforce
3. Reich Entailed Farm Law September 1933 made it
   impossible for farms between 7.5-125 hectares to
   go bust and be sold designed to win support and
   protect the German peasant. Only Aryans
   allowed to own land.

6
Use of Propaganda

• 13 March 1933 Hitler set up anew government
  department The Ministry of Public Enlightenment
  and Propaganda headed by Gobbels
• Radio protection stepped up so every family
  could have one. April 1934 all radio stations
  brought under central control
• Papers steps introduced to dismantle the free
  press of the Weimar years. Socialist and
  Communist papers shut down, Nazi party buys up
  more and more titles and papers. October 1933
  Editors Law introduced newspaper editors
  personally responsible and accountable to
  Gobbels for a papers contents