What did the Nazis do when they came to power?

Answer 1

Very initially after coming to power, the Nazis passed the Enabling Act. This was hugely important for the Nazi regime.

When Hitler came to power on the 30th of January 1933, he did not have a majority government (a majority government is when one party has more seats in parliament than any other parties put together). Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, there were many coalition governments in Germany (governments made of more than one party), and governments tended not to last very long.

Hitler had been appointed Chancellor (Head of Government) by President Hindenburg, who was Germany's Head of State. Hindenburg was convinced by one of his advisors, Franz von Papen, that Hitler was a weak man, and that if he was put into power, Hindenburg would be able to control him. However, this proved not to be the case; Hitler was actually much more strong-willed than Hindenburg and von Papen had thought.

However, although Hitler was Chancellor, the Nazis did not have a majority in parliament, which meant any measures they put forward could be blocked by other parties. Hitler wanted a majority, so asked President Hindenburg to call another election for the 5th of March 1933.

Then something fortuitous happened. On the 27th of February 1933, the Reichstag (the main government building) was set on fire, apparently by a Dutch Communist, Marinus Van der Lubbe*. Hitler made huge political mileage out of the fire. He asked Hindenburg for a decree that would seriously curtail civil liberties in Germany, which Hindenburg granted. On gaining this decree, the Nazis then went on to insist that the setting fire of the Reichstag was the first part of an attempted Communist Coup. This isolated the Communists in German society hugely, and many were arrested, including leaders of the Communist Party in Germany, effectively removing them as political rivals.

This started a national panic among the German population over fears of a Communist takeover, and the arrests meant that on the day of the election, the 5th of March, there were fewer Communists able to vote. The Nazi vote increased from 33% to 44%, and their allies, the German National People's Party, got 8%. They still did not technically have a majority in government, as they were reliant on the German National People's Party to vote with them, but it was close enough.

Close enough, indeed, to allow the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act on the 23rd of March 1933. This changed the Weimar Constitution (the constitution written in 1919 at the start of the period known as the 'Weimar Republic') to give the Chancellor the power to rule by decree. It was already written into the Constitution that the President (which was Hindenburg) could rule by decree, but it was only meant to be used in times of emergency. The Enabling Act gave Hitler the power to pass laws, even those contravening other areas of the Constitution, without the involvement of the Reichstag at any time, for a period of four years (however, Hitler just extended the four year period every time it was due to run out).

This act was supremely important, as it gave Hitler the power to be a virtual dictator, and was what allowed the Nazis to then pass the many laws that followed.

After this, the Nazis then preceded to do many things. They wanted to control every aspect of German life - culture, politics, popular opinion - and began a number of plans to achieve this.

Militarily, Hitler was keen to reverse the Treaty of Versailles (the treaty signed at the end of the First World War, which was forced on Germany by the Allies, and was a source of extreme bitterness in Germany), so in 1935 began rebuilding the army, navy and air force, which the treaty had prohibited. The treaty also decreed that Germany was "forbidden to maintain or construct any fortification" in the Rhineland (the part of Germany that borders France and Benelux), but in 1936, Hitler marched his soldiers into the Rhineland and remilitarized it.

Nazi Germany also annexed Austria to Germany in 1938 in what is called the "Anschluss", to mixed reactions in Austria. The political union of Germany and Austria had also been prohibited in the treaties made after the First World War.

That same year, Nazi Germany also annexed the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia that bordered Germany. On the 14th of March 1939, Hitler bullied Slovakia into declaring itself independent and allying itself very closely to Nazi Germany, essentially making it a German satellite state. Germany then began to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia, calling it the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

These measures put Nazi Germany into a good strategic position to begin its invasion of Poland later in the year.

Politically, Hitler banned all other political parties on the 14th of July 1933, and in 1936, he made Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, head of the Police. These measures went a long way to making the Nazis all-powerful in Germany.

Hitler also instituted a number of Racial Laws, most famously the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on the 7th of April 1933, which banned Jews, Gypsies and "political opponents" of the Nazis from the civil-service, and the Nuremburg Laws, passed on the 15th of September 1935, which deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited any kind of romantic relationship between Jews and "Aryans" (this law was supplemented in November 1935 by a decree which included gypsies and black people).

Between 1939 and 1941, the Nazis embarked on a "euthanasia programme" called Aktion T4. The Nazis had long expressed the view in their Propaganda that mentally or physically disabled people were a burden on their families and society as a whole; after receiving a letter from the father of an extremely disabled baby asking permission to mercy kill the child, Hitler decided to authorise a programme of "euthanasia" for disabled children. Doctors and nurses working in hospitals and asylums had to report on the condition of the children in their care, and the Nazis then selected children to be sent to special hospitals where they would be murdered. Parents were told that their child had died despite the best care.

By 1941, rumours about the programme began to circulate, and after a campaign against the policy from certain sections of German society, especially the Catholic Church (and most prominently by Count August von Galen, the Cardinal Archbishop of Munster), the programme was halted.

Socially, the Nazis instigated an extensive welfare program, which hoped to ensure a minimum standard of living for all "Aryan" Germans and provide employment. Included in this was the desire to create a car that every German could afford, and eventually the Volkswagen - the "people's car" - was designed. However, this was converted into a military vehicle at the start of the Second World War.

The Nazis also started the "Winter Relief" programme, an annual drive to generate charity for the unfortunate.

In 1933, they began the construction of the autobahn, the first motorway system in the world.

The Nazis also had a great focus on health - they had a huge anti-tobacco movement and proved that asbestos was harmful, as well as cleaning up water supplies, and removing lead and mercury from consumer products.

Culturally, the Nazis created the Reich Chamber of Culture, which coordinated cultural products such as cinema, literature, music, theatre, et cetera. It was virtually impossible to continue working in any cultural area without official approval through membership of one of the Reich Chambers. This meant that the Nazis could control all cultural product produced. They capitalised on this and used the Reich Chambers to spread Nazi ideology and Anti-Semitism.

They also embarked on a tireless propaganda campaign encouraging loyalty to the Nazi regime and discrediting their enemies, be they ideological or racial.

The Nazis had a huge focus on the importance of the family. They instilled in women that their place was as a wife and mother, and discouraged the use of makeup. In line with their health-conscious views, they encouraged regular Breast cancer screenings.

In 1936, they made membership of the Hitler Youth (started in 1922) and the League of German Maidens (started in 1930, although earlier incarnations had existed during the 1920s) compulsory. These groups encouraged loyalty to the Nazi government, as well as emphasising exercise and healthy living.

On the 1st of September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, starting the Second World War. The war in Europe went on until the 8th of May 1945 (or the 7th of May 1945 in Commonwealth countries).

One of the most famous actions of the Nazi Regime was the Holocaust. It is difficult to say when the Holocaust actually began; although it is true that the systematic implementation of the Final Solution did not properly begin until 1942, Hitler's plans for the Jews always involved mass murder on some scale, whether it was death by "natural wastage" or execution by the Einsatzgruppen (a special "task force" that followed behind the soldiers on the Eastern Front to murder "political opponents" - mostly Jewish citizens). By 1942, about one million Jews had already been killed, and as racial laws and officially authorised Anti-Semitism began immediately after Hitler came to power, it would not be untrue to say that, retrospectively, the Holocaust began in 1933.

Interestingly, although the Holocaust has played a major part in the analysis of Nazi Germany since the war ended in 1945, at the time, Germany's racial laws were seen by the allies as a very minor cause for concern, and the treatment of Jews played a non-existent part in the decision to go to war with Germany. Indeed, it was considered so unimportant that even though allied governments had detailed information on the Holocaust by 1943, they deliberately withheld it from the public as they feared people would "confuse" the allied motive for war (which was actually a desire to curb Germany's power) with concern for the Jewish people, and would not want to fight "on behalf of the Jews".

*There is much debate over how and why the Reichstag Fire was started. It is certain that Marinus Van der Lubbe was involved, although there are many schools of thought among historians that believe he was working for the Nazis.

Answer 2

They used violence and intimidation to gain seats in parliament. They allied with the Nationalists to gain a majority vote and then voted Hitler into power. They voted to give Hitler complete power and outlawed groups who would speak out against the Nazi party.