Why was Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30 1933 and were some of his first acts as chancellor?

Answer 1

It's a long and somewhat complicated question. So here goes...

To start, we need a little background info. Germany's government works kind of like the British government (and not at all like the US government). The President is the head of state- he gets elected, and has a lot of power like the Kaiser used to have, but generally does not use it, nor does he run the government. There is also a legislature; the lower house, which does most of the work, is called the Reichstag. The political party that has the most members ("seats") in the Reichstag gets to choose who is the Chancellor and the Cabinet. If no party has more than 50% of the seats, they can form a coalition with other parties, and then share the cabinet positions. If that doesn't work, the President can simply appoint someone to be the Chancellor.

In January 1933, there was no majority party. Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party had the most seats- a little over 30%. The previous Chancellor was unable to get the Reichstag to pass laws, so he had to resort to constantly asking the President to use emergency decrees to get anything done.

Some powerful politicians and businessmen asked the President to appoint Hitler to be Chancellor. They said that they believed he would be an independent who could make deals and get things done without having to use the President's decrees anymore. In reality, they thought Hitler was an idiot who they could manipulate. Hitler had also made promises to help the businessmen once he was in power, so they supported him. The President didn't like Hitler, but reluctantly appointed him anyway.

Once in power, Hitler wasn't able to immediately do much. He announced that there would be a new election for the Reichstag at the beginning of March 1933. The plan was to try to win more seats, and maybe get a majority of seats. However, fate would offer him a surprise opportunity.

About a week before the election, the Reichstag building was set on fire. A Communist was arrested at the scene; he admitted to setting the fire, and was sentenced to death. However, Hitler used the arson as evidence of an impending Communist revolt. The President passed an emergency decree, the "Reichstag Fire Decree", which suspended most civil liberties and gave Hitler broad powers to suppress the "revolt".

Hitler abused these powers, as well as his Nazi Party's stormtroopers, to influence the election by intimidating voters. The Nazi Party won over 40% of the seats, and allied with a couple other right-wing parties so that combined, they had 60%, enough to pass any law, even an amendment to the constitution. At the end of March 1933, Hitler's coalition passed a constitutional amendment called the "Enabling Act" which basically gave most of the government's power directly to Hitler- he was able to make laws and ignore the constitution as he saw fit.

And at this point, Hitler was the dictator of Germany. Over the next seventeen months or so, Hitler consolidated power, eliminated political opponents, and re-formed the government to suit his ideology. The last obstacle to his power was removed when the President died in August 1934; Hitler chose not to replace him, meaning he was officially the undisputed master of Germany until his death in April 1945.