The Weimar Republic (
Weimarer Republik?, IPA: [ˈvaɪ̯marɐ repuˈbliːk]) is
the nickname given to the German state from 1919 to
1933. It was dubbed the "Weimar Republic" by historians in honor of the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to write and adopt a new
constitution (which became effective on August 11, 1919) for the German Reich, following the nation's defeat in World War I.
Despite its political form, the new republic was still officially known as the Deutsches Reich in German, while the
half-translated term "German Reich" was officially used in English. [2] The name Weimar Republic is an invention of historians, and was not used officially during its
existence. The Weimar Republic was established in February 1919 in defeated Germany and lasted
until March 1933, when the state's interior was replaced with Hitler's so-called "Third Reich" (see Nazi Germany).
This first attempt to establish a liberal democracy in Germany happened during a
time of civil conflict, and failed with the ascent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Although technically the 1919 constitution was not invalidated until after World War II, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in 1933 (commonly known as
Gleichschaltung) destroyed the mechanisms of a typical democratic system, so that
1933 is cited as the end of the Weimar Republic.
History
Controlled revolution: the establishment of the Republic (1918–1919)
-
From 1916 onwards, the 1871 German
Empire had effectively been governed by the military headed by the Oberste
Heeresleitung (OHL, Supreme Army Command) with the Chief of Staff Paul von
Hindenburg. When it became apparent that World War I was lost, the OHL demanded that
a civil government be installed in order to meet a key peace talk condition from United
States President Woodrow Wilson. Any attempt to continue the war after
Bulgaria had left the Central Powers would have only
caused German territories to be militarily occupied by the victors. The new Reichskanzler Prince Max von Baden thus offered a cease-fire to U.S. President Wilson on October 3, 1918. On October 28,
1918, the 1871 constitution was finally amended to make the Reich a parliamentary democracy, which the government had refused for half a century: the Chancellor was
henceforth responsible to Parliament, the Reichstag, and no longer to the
Kaiser.
The plan to transform Germany into a constitutional monarchy similar to
Britain quickly became obsolete as the country slid into a state of near-total chaos.
Germany was flooded with soldiers returning from the front, many of whom were wounded physically and psychologically. Violence
was rampant, as the forces of the political right and left fought not only each other, but among themselves.
Rebellion broke out when on October 29, the military command, without consultation with
the government, ordered the German High Seas Fleet to sortie. This was not only entirely hopeless from a military standpoint, but was also certain to bring the peace
negotiations to a halt. The crews of two ships in Wilhelmshaven mutinied. When the
military arrested about 1,000 seamen and had them transported to Kiel, the Wilhelmshaven mutiny turned into a general rebellion that quickly swept over most of Germany. Other
seamen, soldiers and workers, in solidarity with the arrested, began electing worker and soldier councils modelled after the
soviets of the Russian Revolution of
1917, and seized military and civil powers in many cities. On November 7, the
revolution had reached Munich, causing King Ludwig III of
Bavaria to flee.
In contrast to Russia one year earlier, the councils were not controlled by a communist party. Still, with the emergence of
the Soviet Union, the rebellion caused great fear in the establishment down to the middle classes. The country seemed to be on
the verge of a communist revolution.
At the time, the political representation of the working class was divided: a faction had separated from the Social Democratic
Party, the traditional working-class party, calling themselves "Independent Social Democrats" (USPD) and leaning towards a
socialist system. In order not to lose their influence, the remaining "Majority Social Democrats" (MSPD, who supported a
parliamentary system) decided to put themselves at the front of the movement, and on November
7, demanded that Emperor Wilhelm II abdicate. When he refused,
Prince Max of Baden simply announced that he had done so and frantically
attempted to establish a regency under another member of the House of Hohenzollern. On November 9, 1918, the Republic was proclaimed by Philipp Scheidemann at the
Reichstag building in Berlin, to the fury of
the Reichskanzler, who still hoped to preserve the monarchy. Two hours later a
Soviet republic was proclaimed, 2 kilometers away, at the Berliner Stadtschloss by
a left-wing radical named Karl Liebknecht.
On November 9, in a legally questionable act, Reichskanzler Prince Max of Baden transferred his powers to Friedrich
Ebert, the leader of the MSPD, who, shattered by the monarchy's fall, reluctantly accepted. It was apparent, however, that
this act would not be sufficient to satisfy Liebknecht and his followers, so a day later, a coalition government called "Council
of People's Commissioners" (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) was established, consisting of three MSPD and three USPD members,
led by Ebert for the MSPD and Hugo Haase for the USPD. Although the new government was
confirmed by the Berlin worker and soldier council, it was opposed by the Spartacist
League led by communists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht. Ebert called for a National Congress of Councils, which took place from December
16 to December 20, 1918, and in which the MSPD had the
majority. Ebert thus managed to enforce quick elections for a National Assembly to produce a constitution for a parliamentary
system, marginalizing the movement that called for a socialist republic (see below).
From November 1918 through January 1919, Germany was
governed dictatorially by the Council of People's Commissioners. In those three months, the government was extraordinarily
active, and issued a large number of decrees. At the same time, its main activities were confined to certain spheres: the
eight-hour workday, domestic labour reform, agricultural labour reform, right of civil-service associations, local municipality
social welfare relief (split between Reich and States) and important national health insurance, re-instatement of demobilised
workers, protection from arbitrary dismissal with appeal as a right, regulated wage agreement, and Universal suffrage from 20
years of age in all classes of elections — local and national. Occasionally the name "Die Deutsche Sozialdemokratische Republik"
(The German Social-Democratic Republic) appeared in leaflets and on posters from this era, although this was never the official
name of the country.
The Reichswehr and the Revolution
To ensure that his fledgling government was able to maintain control over the country, Ebert made an uneasy pact with the OHL,
now led by Ludendorff's successor General Wilhelm Groener. This Ebert-Groener pact stipulated that the government would not attempt to reform the Army so long as the
army swore to protect the state. On the one hand, this agreement symbolised the acceptance of the new government by the military,
assuaging concern among the middle classes; on the other hand, it was considered a betrayal of worker interests by the radical
left wing. The new model Reichswehr armed forces, limited by the Treaty of
Versailles to 100,000 army soldiers and 15,000 seamen, remained fully under the control of the German officer class despite its nominal re-organisation. As an independent and conservative group in Weimar,
it wielded a large amount of influence over the fate of the republic.
This also marked one of several steps that caused the permanent split in the working class' political representation into the
SPD and Communists. The eventual fate of the Weimar Republic derived significantly from the general political incapacity of the
German labour movement. The several strands within the central mass of the socialist movement adhered more to sentimental loyalty
to alliances arising from chance than to any recognition of political necessity. Combined action on the part of the socialists
was impossible without action from the millions of workers who stood midway between the parliamentarians and the ultra-leftists who supported the workers councils. Confusion made acute the danger
of extreme right and extreme left engaging in virulent conflict.
The split became final after Ebert called upon the OHL for troops to put down another Berlin army mutiny on November 23, 1918, in which soldiers had captured the city's garrison
commander and closed off the Reichskanzlei where the Council of People's Commissioners was situated. The ensuing street
fighting was brutal with several dead and injured on both sides. This caused the left wing to call for a split with the MSPD
which, in their view, had joined with the Anti-Communist military to suppress the Revolution. The USPD thus left the Council of
People's Commissioners after only seven weeks. In December, the split deepened when the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) was formed out of a number of radical left-wing
groups, including the radical left wing of the USPD and the Spartacist League
group.
In January, more armed attempts at establishing communism, known as the Spartacist uprising, by the Spartacist League and others
in the streets of Berlin were put down by paramilitary Freikorps units consisting of
volunteer soldiers. Bloody street fights culminated in the beating and shooting deaths of Rosa
Luxemburg and Liebknecht after their arrests on January 15. With the affirmation of Ebert, the murderers were not tried before a court martial, leading to very lenient sentences, which did not exactly lead to more acceptance for Ebert
from the radical left.
Official postcard of the National Assembly.
The National Assembly elections took place January 19, 1919. In this time, the radical
left-wing parties, including the USPD and KPD, were barely able to get themselves organized, leading to a solid majority of seats
for the MSPD moderate forces. To avoid the ongoing fights in Berlin, the National Assembly convened in the city of
Weimar, giving the future Republic its unofficial name. The Weimar Constitution created a republic under a semi-presidential system with the Reichstag elected by proportional representation. The Socialist and (Non-Socialist) Democratic parties obtained a
solid 80 per cent of the vote.
During the debates in Weimar, fighting continued. A Soviet republic was
declared in Munich, but was quickly put down by Freikorps and remnants of the regular
army. The fall of the Munich Soviet Republic to these units, many of which were
situated on the extreme right, resulted in the growth of far-right movements and organizations
in Bavaria, including the Nazis, Organisation Consul, and societies of exiled Russian Monarchists. Sporadic fighting continued to
flare up around the country. In eastern provinces, forces loyal to Germany's fallen Monarchy fought the republic, while militias
of Polish nationalists fought for independence: Great Poland Uprising in
Provinz Posen and three Silesian Uprisings
in Upper Silesia.
The socialist roots of Weimar
The carefully thought-out social and political legislation introduced during the revolution was generally unappreciated by the
German working-class. The two goals sought by the government, democratisation and social protection of the working class, were
never achieved. This has been attributed to a lack of pre-war political experience on the part of the Social Democrats. The
government had little success in confronting the twin economic crises following the war.
The permanent economic crisis was a result of lost pre-war industrial exports, the loss of supplies in raw materials and food
stuffs from Alsace-Lorraine, Polish districts and the colonies along with worsening debt
balances and reparations payments. Military-industrial activity had almost ceased, although controlled demobilisation kept
unemployment at around one million. The fact that the Allies continued to blockade Germany until after the Treaty of Versailles did not help matters, either.
The allies permitted only low import levels of goods that most Germans could not afford. After four years of war and famine,
many German workers were exhausted, physically impaired and discouraged. Millions were disenchanted with capitalism and hoping
for a new era. Meanwhile the currency devalued.
The German peace delegation in France signed the Treaty of Versailles accepting mass reductions of the German military, unrealistically heavy
war reparations payments, and the controversial "War Guilt
Clause". Adolf Hitler later blamed the republic and its democracy for the oppressive
terms of this treaty, though most current historians disregard the "stab-in-the-back"
myth Hitler advocated for his own personal political gain.
The Republic's first Reichspräsident ("Reich
President"), Friedrich Ebert of the SPD, signed the new German constitution into law on
August 11, 1919.
The early years: internal conflict (1919–1923)
1923-issue 50 million mark banknote. Worth approximately $1 US when printed, this sum would have been worth approximately $12
million, nine years earlier. The note was practically worthless a few weeks later due to continued inflation.
Inflation 1923–24: a woman feeds her tiled stove with money. At the time, burning money was less expensive than buying
firewood.
The Republic was under great pressure from both left and right-wing extremists. The radical left accused the ruling Social
Democrats of having betrayed the ideals of the workers' movement by preventing a communist revolution. Right-wing extremists were
opposed to any democratic system, preferring an authoritarian state like the 1871 Empire. To further undermine the Republic's
credibility the extremists of the right (especially certain members of the former officer corps) also blamed an alleged
conspiracy of Socialists and Jews for Germany's defeat in World War I (see Dolchstoßlegende).
For the next five years Germany's large cities suffered political violence between
left-wing and right-wing groups, both of which committed violence and murder against innocent civilians and against each other,
resulting in many deaths. The worst of the violence was between right-wing paramilitaries called the Freikorps and pro-Communist militias called the Red Guards, both
of which admitted ex-soldiers into their ranks.
The first challenge to the Weimar Republic came when a group of communists and anarchists took over the Bavarian government in
Munich and declared the creation of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The communist
rebel state was quickly put down one month later when Freikorps units were brought in to battle the leftist rebels.
The Kapp Putsch took place on March 13,
1920, involving a group of Freikorps troops who gained
control of Berlin and installed Wolfgang Kapp (a
right-wing journalist) as chancellor. The national government fled to Stuttgart and called for
a general strike. While Kapp's vacillating nature did not help matters, the strike
crippled Germany's ravaged economy and the Kapp government collapsed after only four days on March
17.
Inspired by the general strikes, a communist uprising began in the Ruhr region when 50,000
people formed a "Red Army" and took control of the province. The regular army and the Freikorps ended the uprising on their own authority. Other communist rebellions were put down in March
1921 in Saxony and Hamburg.
In 1922, Germany signed a treaty - the Treaty of Rapallo - with Russia, and disarmament was brought to a halt. Under the Treaty of
Versailles Germany could only have 100,000 soldiers and no conscription, Naval forces reduced to 15,000 men, 12
destroyers, 6 battleships, and 6 cruisers, no submaries or aircraft. The Treaty with Russia worked in secret, as the treaty
allowed Germany to train military personal, and Russia gained the benefits of Germany military technology. This was against the
Treaty of Versailles, but Russia had pulled out of World War I against the Germans due to
the 1917 Russian Revolution and was looked down on by the League of Nations. Germany
seized the chance to make an ally.
By 1923, the Republic claimed it could no longer afford the reparations payments required by the
Versailles treaty, and the government defaulted on some payments. In response, French and
Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region,
Germany's most productive industrial region at the time, taking control of most mining and manufacturing companies in January of
1923. Strikes were called, and passive resistance was encouraged. These strikes lasted eight
months, further damaging the economy and increasing the expense of imports. The strike meant no goods were being produced. This
infuriated the French, who began to kill and exile protestors in the region.
Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fueling a period of
hyperinflation. Hyperinflation started when
Germany had no goods to trade with. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this allowed Germany to pay war loans
and reparations with worthless marks and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay
raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon the Germans
discovered their money was worthless. The value of the Papiermark had declined from
4.2 per US dollar at the outbreak of World War I to 1 million per dollar by August 1923. On 15
November 1923, a new currency, the Rentenmark,
was introduced at the rate of 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) Papiermark
for 1 Rentenmark. At that time, 1 U.S. dollar was equal to 4.2 Rentenmark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned
to Germany under the Locarno Pact, which defined a border between Germany, France and Belgium.
Further pressure from the right came in 1923 with the Beer Hall Putsch, staged by
Adolf Hitler in Munich. In 1920, the German Workers' Party had become the National Socialist
German Workers' Party (NSDAP), nicknamed the Nazi Party, and would become a driving force in
the collapse of Weimar. Hitler was named chairman of the party in July 1921. On November 8, 1923, the Kampfbund, in a
pact with Erich Ludendorff, took over a meeting by Bavarian prime minister
Gustav von Kahr at a beer hall in Munich. Ludendorff and Hitler declared a new
government, planning to take control of Munich the following day. The 3,000 rebels were thwarted by 100 policemen. Hitler was
arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, a minimum sentence for the charge and he served less than eight months before his
release. Following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, his imprisonment and subsequent release, Hitler focused on legal methods
of gaining power.
Stresemann's Golden Era (1923–1929)
Gustav Stresemann was Reichskanzler for a brief period in 1923, and served as foreign
minister from 1923-1929, a period of relative stability for the
Weimar Republic when there were fewer uprisings and the beginnings of economic recovery.
Stresemann's first move was to issue a new currency, the Rentenmark, to halt
the extreme hyperinflation crippling German society and the economy. It was successful
because Stresemann refused to issue more currency, the cause of the inflationary spiral. To further stabilise the economy, he
reduced spending and bureaucracy while increasing taxes. He
signed the Locarno Treaties with the Allied countries in 1925 as a means of restoring
Germany's diplomatic status in Europe.
During this period, the Dawes Plan was created, tying reparations payments to Germany's
ability to pay. Germany was admitted into the League of Nations, made agreements over
its western border. However, this progress was funded by overseas loans, increasing the nation's debts, while overall trade
decreased and unemployment rose. Stresemann's reforms did not relieve the underlying weaknesses of Weimar but gave the appearance
of a stable democracy.
Despite the progress during these years, Stresemann was criticized by opponents for his policy of "fulfilment", or compliance
with the terms of the Versailles Treaty, and by the German people after the
invasion of the Ruhr, in which he agreed to pay the reparations set by the treaty in order for the French troops to evacuate.
In 1929, Stresemann's death marked the end of the "Golden Era" of the Weimar Republic. He died at the age of 51, four months
after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Republic crumbles and Hitler's support rises (1930–1932)
Loss of credibility
The last years of the Weimar Republic were stamped by even more political instability than in the previous years and the
administrations of Chancellors Brüning, Papen, Schleicher and Hitler (from 30 January to
23 March 1933) were all Presidentially appointed dictatorships.
On March 29, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor Müller by Paul von Hindenburg after months of political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on behalf of the military. The new government was expected to lead a political
shift towards conservatism, based on the emergency powers granted to the Reichspräsident by the constitution, since it had
no majority support in the Reichstag.
After an unpopular bill to reform the Reich's finances was left unsupported by the Reichstag, Hindenburg established
the bill as an emergency decree based on Article 48 of the
constitution. On July 18 1930, the bill was again invalidated by a
slim majority in the Reichstag with the support of the SPD, KPD, the
(then small) NSDAP and DNVP. Immediately afterwards, Brüning submitted to
the Reichstag the president's decree that it would be dissolved.
The Reichstag general elections on September 14, 1930 resulted in an enormous political shift: 18.3% of the vote went to the Nazis, five times the percentage
compared to 1928, although still less than 1/5 of the popular vote. Nevertheless, the increased legislative representation of the
NSDAP had devastating consequences for the Republic. There was no longer a moderate majority in the Reichstag even for a
Great Coalition of moderate parties, and this encouraged the supporters of the Nazis to force their claim to power with
increasing violence and terror. After 1930, the Republic slid more and more into a state of potential civil war.
From 1930 to 1932, Brüning attempted to reform the devastated state without a majority in Parliament, governing with the help
of the President's emergency decrees. During that time, the Great
Depression reached its lowpoint. In line with liberal economic theory that less public spending would spur economic
growth, Brüning drastically cut state expenditures, including in the social sector. He expected and accepted that the economic
crisis would, for a while, deteriorate before things would improve. Among others, the Reich completely halted all public
grants to the obligatory unemployment insurance (which had been introduced only in 1927), which resulted in higher contributions
by the workers and fewer benefits for the unemployed. This was understandably an unpopular move on his part.
The economic downturn lasted until the second half of 1932, when there were first indications of a rebound. By this time
though, the Weimar Republic had lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. While scholars greatly disagree about how
Brüning's policy should be evaluated, it can safely be said that it contributed to the decline of the Republic. Whether there
were alternatives at the time remains the subject of much debate.
The bulk of German capitalists and land-owners originally gave support to the conservative experiment: not from any personal
liking for Brüning, but believing the conservatives would best serve their interests. As, however, the mass of the working class
and also of the middle classes turned against Brüning, more of the great capitalists and landowners declared themselves in favour
of his opponents - Hitler and Hugenberg. By late 1931 conservatism as a movement was dead, and the time was coming when
Hindenburg and the Reichswehr would drop Brüning and come to terms with Hugenberg and Hitler.
Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hugenberg and Hitler.[3]
On May 30, 1932, Brüning resigned after no longer having Hindenburg's support. Five weeks
earlier, Hindenburg had been re-elected Reichspräsident with Brüning's active support, running against Hitler (the
president was directly elected by the people while the Reichskanzler was not).
Franz von Papen calls for elections
Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as new Reichskanzler. Von Papen
lifted the ban on the SA, imposed after the street riots, in an unsuccessful attempt to
secure the backing of Hitler.
Von Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and land-owning classes and pursued an extreme Conservative policy
along Hindenburg's lines. He appointed as Reichswehr Minister Kurt von Schleicher
and all of the members of the new cabinet were of the same political opinion as Hindenberg. This government was to be expected to
assure itself of the co-operation of Hitler. Since the Republicans and Socialists were not yet ready to take action and the
Conservatives had shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hindenberg were certain to achieve power.
Elections of July 1932
Since most parties opposed the new government, von Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. The general elections on July 31, 1932 yielded major gains for the KPD and the Nazis, who won 37.2% of the vote, supplanting the Social Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag.
July 1932 resulted in the question as to now what part the immense Nazi Party would play in the Government of the country. The
Nazi party owed its huge increase to an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and middle-class people. The millions
of radical adherents at first forced the Party towards the Left. They wanted a renewed Germany and a new organisation of German
society. The left of the Nazi party strove desperately against any drift into the train of such capitalist and feudal
reactionaries. Therefore Hitler refused ministry under Papen, and demanded the chancellorship for himself, but was rejected by
Hindenburg on August 13 1932. There was still no majority in the
Reichstag for any government; as a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and elections took place once more in the hope that
a stable majority would result.
November and 'Socialist General' Schleicher
The November 6, 1932 elections yielded 33.1% for the
Nazis[4]: it dropped 2 million voters. Franz von
Papen stepped down, and was succeeded by General von Schleicher as Reichskanzler on December
3. The political army officer Schleicher, had developed in atmosphere of semi-obscurity and intrigue that encompassed the
Republican military policy. He had for years been in the camp of those supporting the Conservative counter-revolution.
Schleicher's bold and unsuccessful plan was to build a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the Trade Unionist left wings in the various parties, including that of the Nazis led by Gregor Strasser. This
did not prove successful either.
In this brief Presidential Dictatatorship entr'acte, Schleicher took the role of 'Socialist General', and entered into
relations with the Christian Trade Unions, the Left Nazis, and even with the Social Democrats. Schleicher's plan was for a sort
of Labour Government under his Generalship. It was an utterly un-workable idea as the Reichswehr officers were hardly prepared to
follow Schleicher on this path, and the working class had a natural distrust of their future allies. Equally, Schleicher aroused
hatred amongst the great capitalists and landowners by these plans. The SPD and KPD could have achieved success building on a
Berlin transport strike.
Hitler learned from von Papen that the general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag parliament, whereas any
majority of seats did. The cabinet (under a previous interpretation of Article 48) ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could
vote only for its own dissolution. Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi debts were to be relieved by German big
business.
On January 22, Hitler's efforts to persuade Oskar von Hindenburg (the President's son)
included threats to bring criminal charges over estate taxation irregularities at the President's Neudeck estate (although 5000 extra acres were soon allotted to Hindenburg's property). Out maneuvered by von
Papen and Hitler on plans for the new cabinet, and having lost Hindenburg's confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. On
January 28 von Papen described Hitler to Paul von
Hindenburg as only a minority part of an alternative, von Papen-arranged government. The four great political movements,
the SPD, KPD, Centre, and the Nazis were in opposition. If this continued there was real danger that the Centre and Nazi parties
would radicalize further, and that in the end a vast united national bolshevist front would be formed against the ruling
system.
On 29 January Hitler and von Papen thwarted a last-minute threat of an
officially-sanctioned Reichswehr takeover, and on 30 January 1933 Hindenburg accepted the new Papen-Nationalist-Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding only three of eleven
Cabinet seats. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in
the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). Eyeing the Catholic Centre
Party's 70 (+ 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for
constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the Reichstag.
Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed to Papen's theory
that, with Nazi popular support on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. The date dubbed Machtergreifung (seizure of power) by the Nazi propaganda is commonly seen as the beginning of
Nazi Germany.
Hitler's chancellorship and the death of the Weimar Republic (1933)
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of
January 30, 1933 in what some observers later described as a
brief and indifferent ceremony. By early February, a mere week after Hitler's assumption of the chancellorship, the government
had begun to clamp down on the opposition. Meetings of the left-wing parties were banned, and even some of the moderate parties
found their members threatened and assaulted. Measures with an appearance of legality suppressed the Communist Party in
mid-February and included the plainly illegal arrests of Reichstag deputies.
Reichstag Fire
The Reichstag Fire on February 27 was blamed by
Hitler's government on the Communists, and Hitler used the ensuing state of emergency to obtain the assent of President von
Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day. The decree
invoked Article 48 of the Weimar
Constitution and suspended a number of constitutional protections of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to take
swift action against political meetings, arresting or murdering members of the Communist party.
Reichstag election of March 5
Hitler and the Nazis exploited the German state's broadcasting and aviation facilities in a massive attempt to sway the
electorate, but this election — the last democratic election to take place until the end of the Third Reich twelve years later — yielded a scant majority of 16 seats for the coalition. At the Reichstag
elections, which took place 5 March, the NSDAP obtained seventeen million votes. The Communist,
Socialist and Catholic Centre votes stood firm.
Hitler addressed disparate interest groups, stressing the necessity for a definitive solution to the perpetual instability of
the Weimar Republic. He now blamed Germany's problems on the Communists, even threatening their lives on March 3. Former Chancellor Heinrich Bruning proclaimed that his Centre
Party would resist any constitutional change and appealed to the President for an investigation of the Reichstag fire. Hitler's
successful plan was to induce what remained of the now Communist-depleted Reichstag to grant him, and the Government, the
authority to issue decrees with the force of law. The hitherto Presidential Dictatorship hereby was to give itself a new legal
form.
On 15 March the first cabinet meeting was attended by the two coalition parties,
representing a minority in the Reichstag: The Nazis and the DNVP led by
Alfred Hugenberg (196 + 52 seats). According to the Nuremberg Trials this cabinet meeting's first order of business was how at last to achieve the complete
counter-revolution by means of the constitutionally-allowed Enabling Act, requiring
two-thirds parliamentary majority. This Act would, and did, bring Hitler and the NSDAP
unfettered dictatorial powers.
Hitler cabinet meeting in mid-March
At the meeting of the new cabinet on March 15, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act, which would have authorised the cabinet to enact legislation without the approval of
the Reichstag. Meanwhile, the only remaining question for the Nazis was whether the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) would support the Enabling Act in the Reichstag, thereby providing
the two-thirds majority required to ratify a law that amended the constitution. Hitler expressed his confidence to win over the
Centre's votes. Hitler is recorded at the Nuremberg Trials as being sure of eventual Centre Party Germany capitulation and thus rejecting of the DNVP's suggestions to "balance" the
majority through further arrests, this time of socialists. Hitler however assured his coalition partners that arrests would
resume after the elections, and in fact some 26 SDP Socialists were physically removed. After meeting with Centre leader
Monsignor Ludwig Kaas and other Centre Trade Union leaders daily, and denying them a
substantial participation in the government, negotiation succeeded in respect of guarantees towards Catholic civil-servants and
education issues.
At the last internal Centre meeting prior to the debate on the Enabling Act, Kaas expressed no preference or suggestion
on the vote, but as a way of mollifying opposition by Centre members to the granting of further powers to Hitler, Kaas somehow
arranged for a letter of constitutional guarantee from Hitler himself prior to his voting with the centre en bloc in favor
of the Enabling Act. This guarantee was not ultimately given. Kaas, the party's
chairman since 1928, had strong connections to the Vatican
Secretary of State, later Pope Pius XII. In return for pledging his support for the act,
Kaas would use his connections with the Vatican to set in train and draft the Holy See's long
desired Reichskonkordat with Germany (only possible with the co-operation of the
Nazis).
Ludwig Kaas is considered along with von Papen as being one of the two most important
political figures in the creation of a National Socialist dictatorship.[5]
Enabling Act negotiations
On March 20 negotiation began between Hitler and Frick on one side and the Catholic
Centre Party (Zentrum) leaders — Kaas, Stegerwald and Hackelsburger — on
the other. The aim was to settle on conditions under which Center would vote in favor of the Enabling Act. Because of the Nazis'
narrow majority in the Reichstag, Center's support was necessary to receive the required two-thirds majority vote. On
March 22, the negotiations concluded; Hitler promised to continue the existence of the German
states, agreed not to use the new grant of power to change the constitution, and promised to retain Zentrum members in the
civil service. Hitler also pledged to protect the Catholic confessional schools and to respect the concordats signed between the
Holy See and Bavaria (1924), Prussia (1929) and Baden (1931). Hitler also agreed to mention these promises in his speech to the
Reichstag before the vote on the Enabling Act.
Ceremonial opening of the Reichstag in Potsdam on March 21
The ceremonial opening of the Reichstag on March 21 was held at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, a shrine of Prussianism, in the presence of many Junker landowners and representatives of
the imperial military caste. This impressive and often emotional spectacle — orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels — aimed to link Hitler's government with Germany's imperial past and portray National
Socialism as a guarantor of the nation's future. The ceremony helped convince the "old guard" Prussian military elite of Hitler's
homage to their long tradition and, in turn, produced the relatively convincing view that Hitler's government had the support of
Germany's traditional protector — the Army. Such support would publicly signal a return to conservatism to curb the problems
affecting the Weimar Republic, and that stability might be at hand. In a cynical and politically adroit move, Hitler bowed in
respectful humility before President and Field Marshal von Hindenburg.
Passage of the Enabling Act by the Reichstag on March 23
The Reichstag Government convened on March 23, 1933, and in
the midday opening, Hitler made a historic speech, appearing outwardly calm and conciliatory. It is most noticeable for its
abrupt reversal of the Nazi Party's hardline stance against Christianity and particularly Catholicism. Hitler presented an
appealing prospect of respect towards Christianity by paying tribute to the Christian faiths as "essential elements for
safeguarding the soul of the German people". He promised to respect their rights and declared his government's "ambition is a
peaceful accord between Church and State" and that he hoped "to improve our friendly
relations with the Holy See." This speech aimed especially at the future recognition by the
named Holy See and therefore to the votes of the Centre Party addressing many concerns Kaas had
voiced during the previous talks. Kaas is considered to have had a hand therefore in the drafting of the speech.[5] Kaas is also reported as voicing the Holy
see's desire for Hitler as bulwark against atheistic Russian nihilism previously as early as May 1932.[6]
In the debate prior to the vote on the Enabling Act, Hitler orchestrated the full political menace of his paramilitary forces like the
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