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GLEICHSCHALTUNG JANUARY 1933 – AUGUST 1934. HITLER AND THE NAZIS PULL DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS INTO LINE. Levelling!. TERROR.
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GLEICHSCHALTUNGJANUARY 1933 – AUGUST 1934 HITLER AND THE NAZIS PULL DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS INTO LINE. Levelling!
TERROR • There were imprisonments, intimidation, violence, torture and executions. The press hid this. Victims were abducted and taken to isolated spots where beatings and murders took place. • “ Dead men were found in the surrounding forests and no one dared to know anything about them. People disappeared without a sound, and their best friends did not have the courage to ask where they had gone” (kirk)
LEGALITY • Not initially revolutionary: The regime didn’t seek to alter social and economic relationships fundamentally. It did not wish to dispose of the ruling class or interfere in its vital economic interests. It did not sweep away or re-found social and political institutions (army, bureaucracy, churches etc). • The propaganda had a theme of restoration and authority. Order, leadership, greatness all implied a return to a time uncontaminated by party politics of the ‘system’.
TERROR (Marchonwards) • Open Terror: • Terror was used in all the states the Nazis did not dominate. The SA and SS were no longer simply police auxiliaries. • Anti – Semitism: • Jewish Civil Servants, judges and prosecutors were summarily dismissed. Jewish businesses were boycotted in April. • Police: • Frick appointed Nazi police commissioners in many important states. They were sent across the country to complete a centralisation of power (Gleichschaltung).
TERROR IN THE STATES • (Unconstitutional actions) • The Reichstag Fire decree was supposed ot be limited to be against “Communist acts of violence harmful to the state”. • Non- Nazi state governments were warned that if they did not resign, there would be no possibility of guaranteeing that law and order would be preserved. • State governments gave in one by one. The last government (Bavaria) gave in on 16th March.
The SA’s Violence • (SA’s Extreme Behaviour) • Some respectable groups complained about their behaviour. Papen complained to Hitler who told him to mind his own business. Hitler gave a speech about the “feeble bourgeois world who preferred the kid glove to the mailed fist”. • However, Hitler wanted to placate the Nationalists and distract people from the newly built concentration camps, the illegality of Gleichschaltung and the violence. He introduced the Day of Potsdam in March:
CAMPS • Overcrowding in Prisons due to arbitrary arrest. • Adolf Wagner (State Commissioner) suggested using empty ruins. • Himmler on March 20th announced plans to use the site of a derelict factory outside Munich. 5,000 people were imprisoned at Dachau. • As well as ‘legal’ camps there were ‘wild’ camps which were more brutal. • Rudolf Diels (head of Gestapo) . • SA also had interrogation posts in Berlin. These were characterised by visciousattacks.
THE DAY OF POTSDAM • Another pretence at legality • To celebrate the new Reichstag opening, the Potsdam ceremony. • Hitler paid homage to Hindenburg. • The SA marched in step with the Reichswehr (the proper army). • Young Nazi idealists showed respect for traditions of the past. • Goebbels called it cynically “A sentimental comedy”.
THE ENABLING ACT • The Bill would end parliamentary government. • It was debated on 23rd March at the Kroll opera House in Berlin. Ominously surrounded by SS and SA units. • Hitler had difficulty getting the 2/3 majority for a constitutional amendment. • It would mean the government could pass any laws without consulting the Reichstag or the Reichsrat or asking for Presidential decrees.
THE ENABLING ACT • The middle class respectable parties felt it was a necessity as they believed the violent excesses of the last few weeks were due to a real threat of a Communist uprising. • Incessant propaganda campaign and muzzling of the liberal press meant people turned a blind eye to the illegality of the law. • The SDP did oppose it. However, they convinced themselves it was aimed purely against the Communists. • The Centre party (Catholic) believed Hitler’s promise to allow the christian churches continued importance.
PARTIES • After the Enabling Act, Hitler tolerated the political parties for a little while as he needed them to decorate the Reichstag when he gave a speech on Foreign policy on May 17th. • Trade Unions were banned May 2nd. All workers were forced to join the DAF. • The SDP were banned June 22nd. Many members had already left for Prague. Their assets were seized and they were treated as enemies of the State. • The Centre Party was dissolved July 5th. The Catholic hierarchy had already abandoned the centre party and supported the Nazi regime. .
PARTIES BANNED • All Political parties were banned on July 14th. • Germany was now a SINGLE PARTY STATE. • Adolf Hitler was unchallenged Dictator. • Elections on November 12thfor the Reichstag. • Voters could choose from the ‘Fuhrer’s list”. • People turned out to vote (95%) through fear. • 92.2% voted for the list. • The New Reichstag was a mockery. A servile audience for Hitler to make bombastic speeches to . Also to pass legislation not under the umbrella of the Enabling Act (eg. Nuremburg laws).
THE CHURCH • CONCORDAT JULY 14TH • The Pope Pius XI sent Cardinal Secretary Pacelli (future Pius XII) who agreed with the Nazis: • Catholic church were guaranteed: • - Full rights to administer Sacraments. • - Property protected. • - Pastoral letters published. • - Catholic schools tolerated. • Catholic church sacrifices: • - All political and social organisations disbanded. • - The Church would support the regime.
THE CHURCH • Catholic Church: had decided to make peace with the regime and in these early years gave little concern. • The Protestants had divided attitudes: • 1) The German Christians fully supported Nazis and called themselves Evangelical National Socialists. Their leader was Ludwig Muller. • 2) The Pastors’ Emergency League led by Pastor Martin Niemoller . They found Nazis incompatible with the gospel message. They formed the Confessing Church.
THE CHURCH • Ludwig Muller was made Reich Bishop. • The Confessing Church was a centre of opposition to the regime. • Its members were mostly solid conservative middle class. So this was new and troubling to the regime. • The Nazis reacted by persecuting the spokesmen. • - Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged. • - Niemoller was arrested in 1937. He did however, survive the war.
ALL INSTITUTIONS • MARCH – JULY 1933 • Business associations, Farmers’ clubs & professional organisations were purged of opponents and Jewish people. • This was done by Commissioners, Party Functionaries and the ‘Combat League of Middle Class Businessmen’ • All leading positions were held by Nazis. • All organisations were amalgamated into single National organisations.
ALL INSTITUTIONS • Trade Unions: Abolished and all workers forced to join the DAF (German Workers’ Front) • Farmers associations combined into the Reich Food Corporation. • Lawyers forced into the Legal Front. • Museums, Cultural organisations, & Academies of fine arts faced Nazification by the Combat League for German Culture. • Reich Chamber of Culture formed September 1933 to bring all cultural activity under Nazi control.
CIVIL SERVICE • The Prussian Bureaucracy and the German Civil Service had been unchanged since the 1800s. • Some changes made during the Weimar Republic were actually reversed by the Nazis. • Many Civil Servants joined the Nazis.
