Chapter 13

Question 1

What did Hitler do when the SA had outlived its usefulness

Answer 1

• On 30th June 1934 at the Stadelheim prison in Munich, the leader of the Nazi SA, Ernst Rohm, was executed by two SS officers
• earlier in day SS arrested Rohm and other SA leaders at a lakeside hotel
• this was part of wide-ranging purge of the SA that Hitler had ordered
• organisation had outlived its usefulness and was becoming an embarrassment
  = Night of the long knives = one of final acts of Hitler’s consolidation of power 1933-34

Question 2

when was the enabling act passed

Question 3

What political and constitutional limitations were there to Hitler’s power/ remaining obstacles to Nazis dictatorial power

Answer 3

• Hindenburg as president had final say in constitutional matters
• army was loyal to Hindenburg not to Hitler
• there were a number of political parties that were independent of the regime - some like SPD were prepared to openly voice opposition
• Although Nazis effectively controlled the state government in Prussia (largest of Germany’s federal states), elected governments in most other German states were under control of other parties

Question 4

What did the Nazi party coming to power mean to Hitler
How did this compare to the views of the SA
(government and administrative changes)

Answer 4

• for Hitler and his Nazi party, the coming to power Jan 1933 was beginning go a national socialist revolution
• for Hitler this meant the conquest of political power
• however, many Nazis especially the SA had a very different view of the Nazi revolution = would cause continuing tensions between Hitler and SA in early months of Nazi regime

Question 5

How would the Nazi revolution begin for Hitler
(government and administrative changes)

Answer 5

• for Hitler, the Nazi revolution began with acquiring dictatorial power,
• and then continued with the elimination of non-Nazi political parties and other independent organisations,
• together with Nazi control over the institutions of the state at both central and local government level

Question 6

In the Nazi Volkgemainshaft there could be no parties other than the Nazi party
How was this achieved
(the creation of a one-party state)

Answer 6

• the KPD was effectively banned after the Reichstag fire in Feb. Most of the communists who had not been arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps had fled into exile
• having stood up to Hitler in the Reichstag debate on the Enabling Act in March, the SPD continued to voice its opposition to the regime until it was outlawed as a party ‘hostile to the nation and the state’ on 22nd June 1933
• realising that their days a political parties were numbered, the DNVP and the Centre Party dissolved themselves - DNVP = 27th June and Centre Part = 5th July
• on 14th July 1933 = the law against the formation of new parties outlawed all non-Nazi political parties