Socials studies

From Democracy to Dictatorship

While the Nazis were focusing on putting Germans back to work in the midst of the Great

Depression, they also unleashed attacks on their political opposition as soon as Hitler became

chancellor. On the evening of February 27, 1933, alarms suddenly rang out in the Reichstag as

fire destroyed the building’s main chamber. Within 20 minutes, Hitler was on the scene to

declare: “This is a God-given signal! If this fire, as I believe, turns out to be the handiwork of

Communists, then there is nothing that shall stop us now from crushing out this murderous

pest with an iron fist.”

Marinus van der Lubbe was the man the Nazis captured that night. He confessed to setting the

building ablaze but repeatedly insisted that he had acted alone. Adolf Hitler paid no attention

to the confession. He saw a chance to get rid of what he considered the Nazis’ most immediate

rival—the Communists—so he ordered the arrest of anyone with ties to the Communist Party.

Within days, the Nazis had thrown 4,000 Communists and their leaders into hastily created

prisons and concentration camps. By the end of March, 20,000 Communists had been

arrested, and by the end of that summer more than 100,000 Communists, Social Democrats,

union officials, and other “radicals” were imprisoned.

Were any of them responsible for the fire? The question was irrelevant to the Nazis. They had been given an opportunity to get rid of their enemies, and they took it.

After the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, Hitler ordered the arrest of anyone with ties to

the Communist Party. By the end of March, approximately 20,000 people had been arrested.

The day after the fire, February 28, 1933, President Hindenburg, at Hitler’s urging, issued two

emergency decrees designed to make such arrests legal, even those that had already taken

place. Their titles—“For the Defense of Nation and State” and “To Combat Treason against the

German Nation and Treasonable Activities”—reveal how Hitler used the fire to further his own

goals. The two decrees suspended, until further notice, every part of the constitution that

protected personal freedoms. The Nazis claimed that the decrees were necessary to protect the

nation from the “Communist menace.”

On March 5, 1933, the government held an election for control of the Reichstag. The Nazis won

288 seats (43.9% of the vote). The Communists won 81 seats (12.3%), even though their

representatives were unable to claim those seats—if they appeared in public, they faced

immediate arrest. Other opposition parties also won significant numbers of seats. The Social

Democrats captured 119 seats (18.3%), and the Catholic Center Party won 73 seats (11.2%).

Together, the Communist, Social Democratic, and Catholic Center Parties won nearly as many

seats as the Nazis. But their members distrusted one another almost as much as they feared the

Nazis. As a result, these parties were unable to mount a unified opposition to the Nazi Party.

Still under Nazi control, the Reichstag passed a new law on March 21, 1933, that made it a

crime to speak out against the new government or criticize its leaders. Known as the Malicious

Practices Act, the law made even the smallest expression of dissent a crime. Those who were

accused of “gossiping” or “making fun” of government officials could be arrested and sent to

prison or a concentration camp.

Then, on March 24, 1933, the Reichstag passed what became known as the Enabling Act by a

vote of 141 to 94. It “enabled” the chancellor of Germany to punish anyone he considered an

“enemy of the state.” The act allowed “laws passed by the government” to override the

constitution. Only the 94 Social Democrats voted against the law. Most of the other deputies

who opposed it were in hiding, in prison, or in exile.

That same day, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, then police commissioner for the city of

Munich, held a news conference to announce the opening of the first concentration camp near

Dachau, Germany. According to Himmler, the camp would have the capacity to hold 5,000

people, including Communist Party members and Social Democrats “who threaten the security

of the state.” Himmler continued, according to a newspaper report:

On Wednesday, 22 March, the concentration camp at the former gunpowder factory

received its first allocation of 200 inmates. . . . The occupancy of the camp will gradually

increase to 2,500 men and will possibly be expanded to 5,000 men later. A labor service

detachment recently prepared the barrack for the first 200 men and secured it for the time

being with a barrier of triple barbed-wire. The first job of the camp inmates will be to

restore the other stone buildings, which are very run-down. . . . The guard unit will initially

consist of a contingent of 100 state police, which are to be further reinforced by SA [storm

trooper] auxiliary police guards. . . . No visits are allowed at the Concentration Camp in

Dachau.

Throughout the spring and early summer of 1933, the Nazis used the new laws to frighten and

intimidate Germans. By May, they forced all trade labor unions to dissolve. Instead, workers

could only belong to a Nazi-approved union called the German Labor Front.

Then, in June, Hitler outlawed the Social Democratic Party. The German Nationalist Party,

which was part of Hitler’s coalition government, dissolved after its deputies were told to resign

or become the next target. By the end of the month, German concentration camps held 27,000

people. By mid-July, the Nazi Party was the only political party allowed in the country. Other

organizations were also brought into line. As historian William Sheridan Allen has put it,

“Whenever two or three were gathered, the Führer would also be present.”

Not everyone accepted the changes. Amid uncertainty about the future of the country under

Nazi rule, thousands of Germans, including 63,000 Jews, fled the country. Most who left ended

up in neighboring countries. The rest of the nation’s 60 million people stayed, by choice or

necessity, and adapted to life in the “new Germany.”

Answer on a separate sheet of paper.

1. Which 2 events were the most important in transforming Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship?

2. Which choices made by groups or individuals seemed to have the greatest consequences?