What day did Hitler take office?
Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by Paul von Hindenburg. Upon taking office, Hitler immediately began accumulating power and changing the nature of the chancellorship. After only two months in office, and following the burning of the Reichstag building, the parliament passed the Enabling Act giving the chancellor full legislative powers for a period of four years – the chancellor could introduce any law without consulting Parliament. Powers of the chancellor continued to grow until August 1934, when the incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg died. Hitler used the Enabling Act to merge the office of chancellor with that of the president to create a new office, "the leader". Although the offices were merged, Hitler continued to be addressed as "Führer und Reichskanzler" indicating that the head of state and head of government were still separate positions, albeit held by the same man. This separation was made more evident when, in April 1945, Hitler gave instruction that upon his death the office of leader would dissolve and there would be a new president and chancellor. On 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide, he was briefly succeeded as chancellor by Joseph Goebbels, as dictated in Hitler's will and testament. With Goebbels following Hitler's suicide with his own, the reins of power passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as president of Germany. Dönitz, in turn, appointed conservative Count Schwerin von Krosigk as head of government with the title “Leading Minister”.
European theatre of World War II
Hitler, learning of Mussolini's death, realized that the end had finally come. He remained in Berlin, the crumbling Nazi capital, even as the city was encircled and trapped by the Soviets and the Battle of Berlin raged. On April 30, Adolf Hitler, with his wife of one day, Eva Braun, committed suicide in his bunker to avoid capture by Soviet troops. In his last will and testament, Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as the new German leader. But Germany lasted only 7 days longer under the "Flensburg government" of Dönitz. He surrendered unconditionally to the Americans, British, and Soviets on May 8, 1945.
Hitler family
The Hitler family comprises the relatives and ancestors of Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945), an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party ("Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei", abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was dictator of Germany, holding the titles Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state as "Führer und Reichskanzler" from 1934 to 1945. He is noted for his central role in the rise of fascism in Germany, provoking the start of World War II, and the death of millions of people in the Holocaust.
List of Presidents of Germany
The Weimar Constitution of August 1919 created the office of President of Germany (). Upon the death of Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934 the office was left vacant, with Adolf Hitler becoming head of state as "Führer und Reichskanzler". In April–May 1945, Karl Dönitz briefly became President upon the suicide of Hitler (in accordance with last will and testament of Hitler).
Reichswehreid
In August 1934, after Hindenburg died, Hitler merged the offices of Reichsprasident and Reichskanzler, and declared himself "Führer and Reichskanzler". War Minister Werner von Blomberg issued a new wording which became known as Führereid, the "Hitler oath":
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
Hitler's considerable oratory and propaganda skills were appreciated by the party leadership. With the support of Anton Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in early 1920 and his actions began to transform the party. He organised their biggest meeting yet of 2,000 people, on 24 February 1920 in the "Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München". There Hitler announced the party's 25-point program ("see" National Socialist Program). He engineered the name change of the DAP to the "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" – NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party), commonly known to the rest of the world as the Nazi Party. Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background. Hitler was later discharged from the army in March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP.
In 1920, a small "hall protection" squad was organised around Emil Maurice. The group was first named the "Order troops" ("Ordnertruppen"). Later in August 1921, Hitler redefined the group, which became known as the "Gymnastic and Sports Division" of the party ("Turn- und Sportabteilung"). By the autumn of 1921 the group was being called the "Sturmabteilung" (Storm Detachment) or SA, and in November 1921 the group was officially known by that name.
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building (home of the German parliament) in Berlin on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Hitler's government stated that Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was found near the building and attributed the fire to communist agitators in general—though later that year, a German court decided that van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he claimed. After the fire, the Reichstag Fire Decree was passed. The Nazi Party used the fire as a pretext that communists were plotting against the German government, and the event is considered pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. The term Reichstag fire has come to refer to false flag actions perpetrated or facilitated by an authority to promote their own interests through popular approval of retribution or retraction of civil rights.
Führer
An additional title was adopted by Hitler on 23 June 1941 when he declared himself the "Germanic Führer" ("Germanischer Führer"), in addition to his duties as Führer of the German state and people. This was done to emphasize Hitler's professed leadership of what the Nazis described as the "Nordic-Germanic master race", which was considered to include peoples such as the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, and others in addition to the Germans, and the intent to annex these countries to the German Reich in 1933. Waffen-SS formations from these countries had to declare obedience to Hitler by addressing him in this fashion. On 12 December 1941 the Dutch fascist Anton Mussert also addressed him as such when he proclaimed his allegiance to Hitler during a visit to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. He had wanted to address Hitler as "Führer aller Germanen" ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style. Historian Loe de Jong speculates on the difference between the two: "Führer aller Germanen" implied a position separate from Hitler's role as "Führer und Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches" ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the Greater German Empire"), while "germanischer Führer" served more as an attribute of that main function. As late as 1944, however, occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title.
Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment
In 1925, Hitler brought his widowed half-sister Angela Raubal from Austria to serve as housekeeper for both his Munich apartment and his rented villa The Berghof. She brought along her two daughters, Geli and Friedl. Hitler became very close to his niece Geli Raubal, and she moved into his apartment in 1929, when she was 20. Their relationship is shrouded in mystery but was widely rumored to be romantic. On September 18, 1931, she died of a gunshot wound in the apartment; the coroner proclaimed her death a suicide. Hitler was on his way to Erlangen to give a speech, but he returned immediately to Munich on hearing the news. He took her death very hard and went into a depression. He mourned her for years, maintaining her rooms exactly as they had been.
Hitler continued to live in the apartment until 1934, when he became Führer and Reichskanzler of Germany. After that, Hitler kept the apartment, but spent most of his time either in Berlin or in his Berghof residence.
Political views of Adolf Hitler
Hitler's political views were formed during three periods: (1) His years as a poverty-stricken young man in Vienna and Munich prior to World War I, during which he turned to nationalist-oriented political pamphlets and antisemitic newspapers out of distrust for mainstream newspapers and political parties; (2) The closing months of World War I when Germany lost the war; Hitler is said to have developed his extreme nationalism during this time, desiring to "save" Germany from both external and internal "enemies" who, in his view, betrayed it; (3) The 1920s, during which his early political career began and he wrote "Mein Kampf". Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925, but did not acquire German citizenship until almost seven years later; thereby allowing him to run for public office. Hitler was influenced by Benito Mussolini who was appointed Prime Minister of Italy in October 1922 after his "March on Rome".
President of Germany (1919–1945)
Ebert intended to stand in presidential elections in 1922 when the outcry about assassination of Walther Rathenau seemed to generate a pro-republican atmosphere. However, National Liberal politician Gustav Stresemann persuaded the other centrist parties that the situation was still too turbulent to hold elections. Hence, the Reichstag extended Ebert's term to June 30, 1925, a move that contravened the constitution's text but was passed by two-thirds of the Reichstag, the majority needed for changes or deviations from the constitution. Ebert died in office in February 1925.
The first presidential election was held in 1925. After the first ballot had not resulted in a clear winner, a second ballot was held, in which Paul von Hindenburg, a war hero nominated by the right-wing parties after their original candidate had dropped out after the first ballot, managed to win a majority. Hindenburg served a full term and was reelected in 1932, this time nominated by the pro-republican parties who thought only he could prevent the election of Adolf Hitler to the office. Hindenburg died in office in August 1934, a little over two years after his reelection, having since appointed Hitler as Chancellor. Hitler then assumed the powers of head of state, but did not use the title of President until his own death, when he named Karl Dönitz his successor as President in his Final Political Will and Testament.The Weimar constitution granted the president sweeping powers in the event of a crisis. Article 48 empowered the president, if "public order and security [were] seriously disturbed or endangered" to "take all necessary steps to re-establish law and order". These permissible steps included the use of armed force and the suspension of many of the civil rights otherwise guaranteed by the constitution. Most importantly, the president could take over the legislative powers of the Reichstag by issuing "Notverordnungen", (emergency decrees) which had the same rank as conventional acts of parliament.
Hermann Göring
By 26 April, the complex at Obersalzberg was under attack by the Allies, so Göring was moved to his castle at Mauterndorf. In his last will and testament, Hitler expelled Göring from the party and formally rescinded the decree making him his successor. He then appointed Karl Dönitz, the Navy's commander-in-chief, as president of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide on 30 April 1945, a few hours after a hastily arranged wedding. Göring was freed on 5 May by a passing Luftwaffe unit, and he made his way to the US lines in hopes of surrendering to them rather than to the Soviets. He was taken into custody near Radstadt on 6 May by elements of the 36th Infantry Division of the US Army. This move likely saved Göring's life; Bormann had ordered him executed if Berlin had fallen.
Hitler oath
Diensteid der öffentlichen Beamten
Hitler oath
Although the popular view is that Hitler drafted the oath himself and imposed it on the military, the oath was the initiative of Defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg and General Walther von Reichenau, the chief of the Ministerial Office. Indeed, Hitler was surprised by the oath. Before Hitler took office, the military swore the "Reichswehreid" to the German constitution and president. The intention of Blomberg and Reichenau in having the military swear an oath to Hitler was to create a personal special bond between him and the military, which was intended to tie Hitler more tightly towards the military and away from the NSDAP. Years later, Blomberg admitted that he did not think through the full implications of the oath at the time.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring, Minister Without Portfolio (and Minister of the Interior for Prussia). The SA and SS led torchlit parades throughout Berlin.
It is this event that would become termed Hitler's "Machtergreifung" ("seizure of power"). The term was originally used by some Nazis to suggest a revolutionary process, though Hitler, and others, used the word "" ("take-over of power"), reflecting that the transfer of power took place within the existing constitutional framework and suggesting that the process was legal.
Anschluss
Hitler, an Austrian German by birth, picked up his German nationalist ideas at a young age. Whilst infiltrating the German Workers' Party (DAP), Hitler became involved in a heated political argument with a visitor, a Professor Baumann, who proposed that Bavaria should break away from Prussia and found a new South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratory skills and, according to Hitler, the "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat. Impressed with Hitler, Anton Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on September 12, 1919, becoming the party's 55th member. After becoming leader of the DAP, Hitler addressed a crowd on February 24, 1920, and in an effort to appeal to wider parts of the German population, the DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).
Hans Joachim Sewering
Sewering was born on 30 January 1916, 17 years to the day before Adolf Hitler came to power. Sewering joined the SS on 1 November 1933 for "social reasons", claiming that young men were "simply the victims of propaganda." A year later, he joined the Nazi Party. In the summer of 1942, he worked as assistant physician at the Schönbrunn Sanitarium, near Dachau in Bavaria. According to two nuns who broke their silence in 1993, he killed 900 physically and mentally handicapped children by transferring them from Schönbrunn to the Eglfing-Haar "healing center", a facility south of Munich. One of these children he was accused of killing, the 14-year-old Babette Fröwis whom he consigned to Eglfing-Harr as epileptic, was never examined by him. She later became a postergirl for the practice of Nazi euthanasia. Sewering denied these allegations. However, he was barred from entering the United States on these grounds and Jewish organizations called for him to be tried for murder.
Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union, and served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU and the CSU, and the liberal FDP, Köhler was elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Assembly on 23 May 2004 and was subsequently inaugurated on 1 July 2004. He was reelected to a second term on 23 May 2009. Just a year later, on 31 May 2010, he resigned from his office in a controversy over his comment on the role of the German Bundeswehr in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan. During his tenure as German President, whose office is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician, with approval rates above those of both chancellor Schröder and later chancellor Merkel.
Adolf Hitler
Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP. The party headquarters was in Munich, a hotbed of anti-government German nationalists determined to crush Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic. In February 1921—already highly effective at crowd manipulation—he spoke to a crowd of over 6,000. To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and distributing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.
Aloys, 7th Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 made the work of the central committee impossible. German participants were largely unable to attend the planned 1933 "Allgemeiner Deutscher Katholikentag" in Vienna, due to travel restrictions. For the 1934 "Deutscher Katholikentag" planned in Gleiwitz, Hermann Göring as Prussian prime minister requested an allegiance oath to the Third Reich; Aloys zu Löwenstein refused and canceled the "Katholikentag". It was not until 1948 that another "Katholikentag" took place, which was to be the last one under Aloys zu Löwenstein's leadership. He handed over the presidency to his son, Karl Friedrich.
Weimar Republic
On 29 January, Hitler and 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: Hitler as Chancellor, Wilhelm Frick as Minister of the Interior and Hermann Göring as Minister Without Portfolio. Later that day, the first cabinet meeting was attended by only two political parties, representing a minority in the "Reichstag": The Nazis and the German National People's Party (DNVP), led by Alfred Hugenberg, with 196 and 52 seats respectively. Eyeing the Catholic Centre Party's 70 (plus 20 BVP) seats, Hitler refused their leader's demands for constitutional "concessions" (amounting to protection) and planned for dissolution of the "Reichstag".
Albert Kesselring
As Germany was cut in two, Kesselring's command was enlarged to include Army Groups Centre, South and South-East on the Eastern Front, and Army Group C in Italy, as well as his own Army Group G and Army Group Upper Rhine. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. On 1 May, Karl Dönitz was designated German President ("Reichspräsident") and the Flensburg government was created. One of the new president's first acts was the appointment of Kesselring as Commander-in-Chief of Southern Germany, with plenipotentiary powers.
Nazi Party
The votes that the Nazis received in the 1932 elections established the Nazi Party as the largest parliamentary faction of the Weimar Republic government. Hitler was appointed as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.
President of Germany (1919–1945)
In 1934, after the death of President Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler, already Chancellor, assumed the Presidency, but did not usually use the title of President – ostensibly out of respect for Hindenburg – and preferred to rule as "Führer und Reichskanzler" ("Leader and Reich Chancellor"), highlighting the positions he already held in party and government. In his last will in April 1945, Hitler named Joseph Goebbels his successor as Chancellor but named Karl Dönitz as "Reichspräsident", thus reviving the individual office for a short while until the German surrender.
Führer
Hitler saw himself as the sole source of power in Germany, similar to the Roman emperors and German medieval leaders. He used the title "Führer und Reichskanzler" (Leader and Chancellor), highlighting the positions he already held in party and government, though in popular reception, the element "Führer" was increasingly understood not just in reference to the Nazi Party, but also in reference to the German people and the German state. Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as ""Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes"" (Leader of the German Realm and People). The title was changed on 28 July 1942 to ""Führer des Großdeutschen Reiches"" (Leader of the Greater German Realm). In his political testament, Hitler also referred to himself as "Führer der Nation" (Leader of the Nation).
Death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and "Führer" ("Leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his "Führerbunker" in Berlin. Eva Braun, his wife of one day, committed suicide with him by taking cyanide. In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burnt remains were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1946. In 1970, they were again exhumed, cremated, and the ashes scattered.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
A pivotal moment came when Hitler led the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempted "coup d'état" on 8–9 November 1923. Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup. Hitler was arrested on 11 November 1923. Hitler was put on trial for high treason, gaining great public attention.
Adolf Hitler
Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
Świebodzin
Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933. Hitler quickly moved to consolidate and expand his power, adopting severe repressive measures against his political opposition and the German Jewish minority. However, Hitler remained popular with the public because he oversaw the German economic recovery of the 1930s. The new government sponsored many public works programs and a massive rearmament campaign which included the construction of an extensive fortified line of bunkers, "Ostwall" (today known as the Międzyrzecz Fortified Region) twenty kilometers north of Schwiebus.
Political views of Adolf Hitler
In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the Nazi Party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. They capitulated to Hitler's demand and on 29 July 1921 a special congress was convened to formalize Hitler as the new chairman; the vote was 543 for Hitler and one against.
Nazi Germany
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, on 30 January 1933. The NSDAP then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934 and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the Chancellery and Presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's person and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of "Autobahnen" (motorways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.
Werner von Blomberg
In the same year, after Hindenburg's death on 2 August, as part of his "self-Gleichschaltung" strategy, Blomberg personally ordered all soldiers in the army and all sailors in the Navy to pledge the "Reichswehreid" (oath of allegiance) not to "People and Fatherland", but to the new "Führer" Adolf Hitler, which is thought to have limited later opposition to Hitler. The oath was the initiative of Blomberg and the "Ministeramt" chief General Walther von Reichenau. The entire military took an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler, who was most surprised at the offer; the popular view that Hitler imposed the oath on the military is incorrect.
Anti-union violence
Along with Franco in Spain, other totalitarian regimes in Europe brought their labor unions under government control, violently when necessary. After coming to power as chancellor in January 1933, Adolf Hitler declared May Day a national holiday, then on May 2, 1933 unexpectedly moved to outlaw labor unions as part of the Nazi "synchronization" process. Major unions such as the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund were raided that day, their accounts seized, and their leaders (Gustav Schiefer, Wilhelm Leuschner, Erich Luebbe) arrested and sent to concentration camps. (The bodies of four murdered trade union officials in Duisburg were only found a year later, in April 1934.) Every worker in the nation was then compelled to join the single party-controlled union, the German Labour Front. Similar coercive violence was exercised against labor unions in conquered nations, as in the Netherlands in 1941.
Interwar period
Hitler came to power in January 1933, and inaugurated an aggressive power designed to give Germany economic and political domination across central Europe. He did not attempt to recover the lost colonies. Until August 1939, the Nazis denounced Communists and the Soviet Union as the greatest enemy, along with the Jews.
Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty, and began to re-arm (1935), won back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), seized Austria (1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French "appeasement" of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began – somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
In June 1921, while Hitler and Dietrich Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the NSDAP in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP). Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party. Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich. The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. In the following days, Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful: at a general membership meeting, he was granted absolute powers as party chairman, with only one nay vote cast.
Death of Adolf Hitler
At the afternoon situation conference on 22 April, Hitler suffered a total nervous collapse when he was informed that the orders he had issued the previous day for SS-General Felix Steiner's Army Detachment Steiner to move to the rescue of Berlin had not been obeyed. Hitler launched a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders; his outburst culminated in a declaration—for the first time—that the war was lost. Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself. Later that day he asked SS physician Dr. Werner Haase about the most reliable method of suicide. Haase suggested the "pistol-and-poison method" of combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head. When the head of the Luftwaffe, "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring, learned about this, he sent a telegram to Hitler asking for permission to take over the leadership of the Reich in accordance with Hitler's 1941 decree naming Göring his successor. Hitler's influential secretary, Martin Bormann, convinced Hitler that Göring was threatening a coup. In response, Hitler informed Göring that he would be executed unless he resigned all of his posts. Later that day, he sacked Göring from all of his offices and ordered his arrest.
Allied Control Council
As the German collapse approached, Strang became convinced that Germany was about to undergo a total collapse, in which case a total occupation and control would be inevitable. He even proposed a draft declaration to be issued by the Allied governments in case no political authority remained in Germany due to chaotic conditions. For a brief period, this prospect was feared by some Allied representatives.
After the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945, Karl Dönitz assumed the title of president of Germany in accordance with Hitler's last political testament. As such, he authorised the signing of the unconditional surrender of all German armed forces, which took effect on 8 May 1945, and tried to establish a government under Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk in Flensburg. This government was not recognised by the Allies, and Dönitz and the other members were arrested on 23 May by British forces.
President of Germany (1919–1945)
Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, as World War II in Europe drew to a close. In his Final Political Testament, Hitler intended to split again the two offices he had merged: he appointed Karl Dönitz as new President, and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was to succeed him as Chancellor. Goebbels committed suicide shortly after Hitler and within days Dönitz ordered Germany's military (not political) surrender on the 7 May, which ended the war in Europe. He had by then appointed Ludwig von Krosigk as head of government and the two attempted to gather together a government. However this government was not recognised by the Allied powers and was dissolved when its members were captured and arrested by British forces on 23 May at Flensburg.
Abdication of Wilhelm II
After Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933, the Nazi regime restored the Prussian imperial flag. On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, which was until 1918, the Parish church of the Prussian royal family. This "Day of Potsdam" was held to demonstrate unity between the Nazi movement and the old Prussian elite and military. Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg.
Wolfgang Köhler
The Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler, rose to power on January 30, 1933. The regime started practicing discriminatory policies against Jews, and dismissed any professors with a Jewish background from German universities. Max Planck, a well-known physicist, petitioned Hitler to stop the dismissal of Jewish professors, stressing their importance regarding scientific contributions. Hitler has been quoted as responding to Planck, "if the dismissal of Jewish scientists means the annihilation of contemporary German science, then we shall do without science for a few years".
Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany
On 2 August 1934, the aged President von Hindenberg died. The offices of President and Chancellor were combined, and Hitler ordered the Army to swear an oath directly to him. Hitler declared his "revolution" complete.
Werner von Blomberg
Two days later, on 30 January 1933, Hindenburg swore in Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, after telling him that Blomberg was to be his defence minister regardless of his wishes. Hitler for his part welcomed and accepted Blomberg. Hitler told Blomberg, much to his satisfaction, that he wanted the Army to continue to be the main military force of the "Reich".
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer's promising academic and ecclesiastical career was dramatically altered with the Nazi ascension to power on 30 January 1933. He was a determined opponent of the regime from its first days. Two days after Hitler was installed as Chancellor, Bonhoeffer delivered a radio address in which he attacked Hitler and warned Germany against slipping into an idolatrous cult of the "Führer" (leader), who could very well turn out to be "Verführer" (mis-leader, or seducer). He was cut off the air in the middle of a sentence, though it is unclear whether the newly elected Nazi regime was responsible. In April 1933, Bonhoeffer raised the first voice for church resistance to Hitler's persecution of Jews, declaring that the church must not simply "bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam the spoke in the wheel itself."
Adolf Hitler's wealth and income
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 and grew up in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian village on the border with Germany. His family was rather poor and three of his siblings—Gustav, Ida and Otto— died in infancy due to common childhood diseases. Hitler's father, Alois, unsuccessfully tried to establish a farm, and his wife, Klara, was a housewife. In 1913, Hitler received legacies from his deceased relatives and decided to move to Munich, a large German city located in Bavaria.
Ludwig Kaas
When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933 based on a coalition between National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), German National People's Party (DNVP) and independent conservatives which excluded the Centre Party, Kaas felt betrayed. In the campaign leading up to the election on 5 March, Kaas vigorously campaigned against the new government, but after the government parties succeeded in attaining a majority, he visited Vice Chancellor Papen, offering to put an end to their old animosities.
Night of the Long Knives
President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Over the next few months, during the so-called Gleichschaltung, Hitler dispensed with the need for the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as a legislative body and eliminated all rival political parties in Germany, so that by the middle of 1933 the country had become a one-party state under his direction and control. Hitler did not exercise absolute power, however, despite his swift consolidation of political authority. As chancellor, Hitler did not command the army, which remained under the formal leadership of Hindenburg, a highly respected veteran field marshal. While many officers were impressed by Hitler's promises of an expanded army, a return to conscription, and a more aggressive foreign policy, the army continued to guard its traditions of independence during the early years of the Nazi regime.
Hitler oath
Germany's voters went to the polls and 89.9% voted their approval for Hitler to assume complete power over Germany. The following day, August 20, 1934, the cabinet decreed the "Law On The Allegiance of Civil Servants and Soldiers of the Armed Forces", which superseded the original oaths. Prior to the decree, both members of the armed forces and civil servants had sworn loyalty to "the People and the Fatherland" ("Volk und Vaterland"); civil servants had additionally sworn to uphold the constitution and laws of Germany. The new law decreed that instead, both members of the armed forces and civil servants would swear an oath to Hitler personally.
Adolf Hitler
On 30 April 1945, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule. Their bodies were carried outside to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol, and set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assumed Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.
Hitler (disambiguation)
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was the authoritarian Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945.
Downfall (2004 film)
In November 1942, at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia, Chancellor of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler selects Traudl Junge as his personal secretary. Three years later, the Red Army has pushed back Germany's advance and surrounded Berlin. On Hitler's 56th birthday, the Red Army begins shelling Berlin's city centre. "Reichsführer-SS" Heinrich Himmler tries to persuade Hitler to leave Berlin, but Hitler refuses. Himmler leaves to negotiate terms with the Western Allies in secret. Later, Himmler's adjutant Hermann Fegelein also attempts to persuade Hitler to flee, but Hitler insists that he will win or die in Berlin.
Criticism of the Catholic Church
Adolf Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933. On March 23, his government was given legislative powers through the Enabling Act of 1933, which was passed by all Reichstag except the Social Democrats and Communists (the latter had already been banned). These included the Centre Party, led by Father Ludwig Kaas. Before the Enabling Act was voted on, Hitler addressed the Reichstag, promising the Weimar Parliament that he would not interfere with the rights of the churches and stating that he attached the highest importance to cultivating and maintaining the friendliest relations with the Holy See. With power secured in Germany, Hitler quickly broke this promise. Cardinal Bertram, on March 28, announced that the bishops had dropped their prohibitions against Nazi membership. The bishops' decision opened the way for a concordat between the Holy See and the nominally functioning Weimar Republic. Kershaw wrote that the Vatican was anxious to reach agreement with the new government, despite "continuing molestation of Catholic clergy, and other outrages committed by Nazi radicals against the Church and its organisations". In April, the non-Nazi Vice Chancellor, Franz von Papen, was chosen by the new government to begin negotiations with the Vatican for a concordat. On behalf of Cardinal Pacelli, Ludwig Kaas, the out-going chairman of the Centre Party, negotiated the draft of the terms with Papen. The concordat was finally signed, by Pacelli for the Vatican and von Papen for Germany, on July 20 and ratified on September 10. The Centre Party had been dissolved on July 6. The concordat gave the Catholic Church what it wanted in order to preserve the autonomy of ecclesiastical institutions and their religious activities, with full freedom of communication with Catholics in Germany for the Holy See and the bishops in all matters of their pastoral office (article 4), guarantees for the right to pastoral care in hospitals, prisons and similar institutions (article 20), and for the Catholic educational system (articles 19-25); it assured Hitler that the Church would end so-called political Catholicism. It required newly appointed bishops to take an oath of loyalty to the German Reich and to the Land (article 16), excluded clergy and religious from membership of political parties (article 32), and required priests and religious superiors whose headquarters were within Germany to be German citizens (articles 14-15). Article 31 acknowledged the Church would not support political causes. Nevertheless, Hitler routinely disregarded the concordat and permitted a persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany. Shortly before the July 20 signing of the Reichskonkordat, Germany signed similar agreements with the major Protestant churches in Germany.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
During the 12 September 1919 meeting, Hitler took umbrage with comments made by an audience member that were directed against Gottfried Feder, the speaker, a crank economist with whom Hitler was acquainted due to a lecture Feder delivered in an army "education" course. The audience member (Hitler in "Mein Kampf" disparagingly called him the "professor") asserted that Bavaria should be wholly independent from Germany and should secede from Germany and unite with Austria to form a new South German nation. The volatile Hitler arose and scolded the unfortunate Professor Baumann, using his speaking skills and eventually causing Baumann to leave the meeting before its adjournment. Impressed with Hitler's oratory skills, Drexler encouraged him to join the DAP. On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler applied to join the party. Within a week, Hitler received a postcard stating he had officially been accepted as a member and he should come to a "committee" meeting to discuss it. Hitler attended the "committee" meeting held at the run-down Alte Rosenbad beer-house. Later Hitler wrote that joining the fledgling party "...was the most decisive resolve of my life. From here there was and could be no turning back. ... I registered as a member of the German Workers' Party and received a provisional membership card with the number 7". Normally, enlisted army personnel were not allowed to join political parties. However, in this case, Hitler had Captain Mayr's permission to join the DAP. Further, Hitler was allowed to stay in the army and receive his weekly pay of 20 gold marks.
Victory in Europe Day
The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, "Reichspräsident" Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The preliminary act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France, and the final document was signed on 8 May in Berlin, Germany.
German Instrument of Surrender
On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler killed himself in the bunker of the Berlin Chancellery, having drawn up a testament in which Admiral Karl Dönitz succeeded him as Head of State, with the title of Reich President. But with the fall of Berlin two days later, and American and Soviet forces having linked up at Torgau on the Elbe, the area of Germany still under German military control had been split in two. Moreover, the rapidity of the final Allied advances of March 1945 – together with Hitler's insistent orders to stand and fight to the last – had left the bulk of surviving German forces in isolated pockets and occupied territories, mostly outside the boundaries of pre-Nazi Germany. Dönitz attempted to form a government at Flensburg on the Danish border, and was joined there on 2 May 1945 by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht under Wilhem Keitel, which had previously relocated, first to Krampnitz near Potsdam, and then to Rheinsberg, during the Battle of Berlin. But, although Dönitz sought to present his government as 'unpolitical', there was no repudiation of Nazism, the Nazi party was not banned, leading Nazis were not detained, and the symbols of Hitlerism remained in place. Both the Soviets and the Americans remained adamant in not recognising Dönitz or the Flensburg Government as capable of representing the German state.
Confessing Church
Hitler was infuriated with the rejection of his candidate, and after a series of political maneuvers, Bodelschwingh resigned and Müller was elected as the new "Reichsbischof" on 27 September 1933, after the government had already imposed him on 28 June 1933. The formidable propaganda apparatus of the Nazi state was deployed to help the German Christians win presbyter and synodal elections in order to dominate the upcoming synod and finally put Müller into office. Hitler discretionarily decreed unconstitutional premature re-elections of all presbyters and synodals for 23 July; the night before the elections, Hitler made a personal appeal to Protestants by radio.
German occupation of Norway
Prior to the invasion, on 14 and 18 December 1939, Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway's fascist party, the "Nasjonal Samling" ("National Gathering"), had tried to persuade Adolf Hitler that he would form a government in support of occupying Germans. Although Hitler remained unreceptive to the idea, he gave orders to draft up plans for the possible military invasion of Norway. Hence, on the first day of invasion, Quisling, using his own initiative, burst into the NRK studios in Oslo on 9 April and made a nationwide broadcast at 7:30pm declaring himself prime minister and ordering all resistance halted at once. This did not please the German authorities, who initially wanted the legitimate government to remain in place. Nevertheless, when it became obvious that the Norwegian parliament would not surrender, the Germans quickly came to recognise Quisling. Hitler not being aware of anyone better, supported him from the evening of 9 April. They demanded that Haakon formally appoint him as prime minister and return his government to Oslo; in effect, giving legal sanction to the invasion.
Martin Heidegger
Heidegger was elected rector of the University on 21 April 1933, and joined the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party on 1 May. In his inaugural address as rector on 27 May he expressed his support of a German revolution, and in an article and a speech to the students from the same year he also supported Adolf Hitler.
Adolf Hitler
On 9 April, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. On the same day Hitler proclaimed the birth of the Greater Germanic Reich, his vision of a united empire of Germanic nations of Europe in which the Dutch, Flemish, and Scandinavians were joined into a "racially pure" polity under German leadership. In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These victories prompted Mussolini to have Italy join forces with Hitler on 10 June. France and Germany signed an armistice on 22 June. Kershaw notes that Hitler's popularity within Germany – and German support for the war – reached its peak when he returned to Berlin on 6 July from his tour of Paris. Following the unexpected swift victory, Hitler promoted twelve generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.
History of German foreign policy
Hitler came to power in January 1933, and inaugurated an aggressive power designed to give Germany economic and political domination across central Europe. He did not attempt to recover the lost colonies. Until August 1939, the Nazis announced Communists and the Soviet Union is the greatest enemy, along with the Jews.
Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations (1933), rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm (1935), won back the Saar (1935), remilitarized the Rhineland (1936), formed an alliance ("axis") with Mussolini's Italy (1936), sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), seized Austria (1938), took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French "appeasement" of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began – somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for.
Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil
Helmut joins the SS in January 1933, just after Hitler is appointed as Chancellor of Germany. Resigning from the university, Helmut travels to Berlin and becomes an officer in the "Sicherheitsdienst" (SD). His formal title is "Special Assistant to Heydrich"; however, what Helmut actually does in the SS (apart for delivering paperwork to Heydrich) is not made entirely clear and only once is anyone seen working for him.
Erich Neumann (politician)
Neumann joined the Nazi Party in May 1933, four months after Adolf Hitler took power. He joined the SS in 1934, being commissioned as a Major (). In 1936, he was appointed the director of the Foreign Currency department of the Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan. By 1938, Neumann was promoted to undersecretary and attended Hermann Göring's meeting about the "Aryanisation" of the German economy. He represented the Ministries of Economy, Labour, Finances, Food, Transport and Armaments and Ammunition at the 1942 Wannsee Conference. Neumann requested that Jewish workers in firms essential to the war effort not be deported for the time being. Between August 1942 and May 1945, Neumann was the general manager of the German Potassium Syndicate.
Adolf Hitler Schools
The first AHS opened on 20 April 1937 (Hitler's forty-eighth birthday) in Pomeranian Crössinsee, and while the Hitler Youth's (HJ) leadership envisioned fifty such schools with in excess of 15,000 students, as late as the end of 1943 only ten schools were operational with a meager 2,027 pupils in attendance. Economic considerations related to the war effort strained the planned budget for the schools. Overall the curriculum at the AHS represented an outright rejection of previous educational ideas since it was anti-traditional, anti-knowledge, anti-Gymnasium, and anti-parent in disposition. While the AHS original educational plan was intended to entirely transform schooling in Nazi Germany, it proved not much more than a duplicate model to the Education Institutes' boarding schools. HJ leaders and Order Fortress teachers operated as overseers and despite the rigid discipline at the schools, all HJ ranks addressed one another using the informal/familiar "Du", and instead of regional Gauleiter supervising schools in their respective territories, authority was given to Hitler Youth commanders.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
The rather spectacular trial began in February 1924. Hitler endeavored to turn the tables and put democracy and the Weimar Republic on trial as traitors to the German people. Hitler was convicted and on 1 April sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison. Hitler received friendly treatment from the guards; he had a room with a view of the river, wore a tie, had regular visitors to his chambers, was allowed mail from supporters and was permitted the use of a private secretary. Pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court, he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections.
Hitler and Mannerheim recording
In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Despite the initial and overwhelming success of the campaign, the Soviets repulsed the German assault on Moscow and stalled the German advance. Hitler required his allies to tie down as much of the enormous Soviet military machine as possible. In 1942, Hitler, under extreme secrecy, visited Finland, officially to congratulate Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. Mannerheim did not wish to greet Hitler at his headquarters, as it would have appeared like a state visit. Therefore, the meeting occurred at Imatra in Southern Finland. At Immola Airfield, Hitler was greeted and accompanied by President Ryti and other state and military officials to Mannerheim's personal train, where a birthday meal and negotiations took place.
Nazi Germany
During the Battle of Berlin (16 April 1945 – 2 May 1945), Hitler and his staff lived in the underground "Führerbunker" while the Red Army approached. On 30 April, when Soviet troops were within two blocks of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler, along with his girlfriend and by then wife Eva Braun committed suicide. On 2 May, General Helmuth Weidling unconditionally surrendered Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Hitler was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reich President and Goebbels as Reich Chancellor. Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide the next day after murdering their six children. Between 4 and 8 May 1945, most of the remaining German armed forces unconditionally surrendered. The German Instrument of Surrender was signed 8 May, marking the end of the Nazi regime and the end of World War II in Europe.
Holidays in Nazi Germany
Many of the official national holidays in the Third Reich were anniversaries of political events, namely the seizure of power (January 30), the announcement of the Party program in 1920 (24 February), Hitler's birthday (20 April) and the Beer Hall Putsch (9 November). Others were traditional German holidays. Heroes' Memorial Day was celebrated on 16 March, National Labour Day on 1 May, Mothering Sunday in May, Summer Solstice in June, Harvest Thanksgiving in Autumn and Winter Solstice in December.
Greater Germanic Reich
This title was assumed by Hitler on 23 June 1941, at the suggestion of Himmler. On 12 December 1941 the Dutch right-wing nationalist Anton Mussert also addressed him in this fashion when he proclaimed his allegiance to Hitler during a visit to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. He had wanted to address Hitler as "Führer aller Germanen" ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style. Historian Loe de Jong speculates on the difference between the two: "Führer aller Germanen" implied a position separate from Hitler's role as "Führer und Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches" ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the Greater German Reich"), while "germanischer Führer" served more as an attribute of that main function. As late as 1944 occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title as well however. Mussert held that Hitler was predestined to become the Führer of Germanics because of his congruous personal history: Hitler originally was an Austrian national, who enlisted in the Bavarian army and lost his Austrian citizenship. He thus remained stateless for seven years, during which, according to Mussert, he was "the Germanic leader and nothing else".
Hitler oath
"I swear to God this sacred oath 
that to the Leader of the German Empire and people, 
Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces,
I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared 
to give my life for this oath."
Alois Hitler
On 20 April 1889, she gave birth to another son, future leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, Adolf. He was a sickly child, and his mother fretted over him. Alois was 51 when he was born. Hitler had little interest in child-rearing, and left it all to his wife. When not at work he was either in a tavern or busy with his hobby, keeping bees. Hitler was transferred from Braunau to Passau. He was 55, Klara 32, Alois Jr. 10, Angela 9, and Adolf was three years old.
Political views of Adolf Hitler
Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the party. Displaying his talent for oratory and propaganda skills, with the support of Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in early 1920. When early party members promulgated their 25-point manifesto on 24 February 1920 (co-authored by Hitler, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, and Dietrich Eckart), it was Hitler who penned the first point, revealing his intention to unify German-speaking peoples, claiming that the party demanded, "all Germans be gathered together in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right of all peoples to self-determination." By the spring of 1920 he engineered the change of name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party ("Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" – NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. Under his influence the party adopted a modified swastika, a well-known good luck charm that had previously been used in Germany as a mark of "volkishness" and "Aryanism", along with the Roman salute used by Italian fascists.
At this time the Nazi Party was one of many small extremist groups in Munich, but Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships. He gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews. Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to advantage while engaged in public speaking.
Military career of Adolf Hitler
Six days after being sworn in as Chancellor in 1933, Hitler met with the German military leaders, declaring that his first priority was rearmament. The new Defense Minister, General Werner von Blomberg, introduced Nazi principles into the armed forces, emphasizing the concept of "Volksgemeinschaft" (national community), in which Germans were united in a society without classes. "The uniform makes all men equal." Military rank specified a chain of command, not class boundaries. Officers were instructed to mingle with other ranks. Blomberg's decree on the army and National Socialism on 25 May 1934 ordered: "When non-commissioned officers and men take part in any festivity, care must be taken that the officers do not all sit together. I request that this guidance be given the most serious attention." The rapidly expanding armed forces enlisted many new officers and men from the Hitler Youth. The American William L. Shirer reported that all ranks ate the same rations, socialized when off duty, and that officers were concerned with their men's personal problems.
History of Germany
In the early 1930s, the worldwide Great Depression hit Germany hard, as unemployment soared and people lost confidence in the government. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hitler quickly established a totalitarian regime. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. First came the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, the annexing of Austria in the "Anschluss" and parts of Czechoslovakia with the Munich Agreement in 1938 (although in 1939 Hitler annexed further territory of Czechoslovakia). On 1 September 1939, Germany initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland. After forming a pact with the Soviet Union in 1939, Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe. After a "Phoney War" in spring 1940, the Germans swept Denmark and Norway, the Low Countries and France, giving Germany control of nearly all of Western Europe. Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Hitler oath
Die Vereidigung der Wehrmacht auf Adolf Hitler, 2.8.1934
President of Germany (1919–1945)
Adolf Hitler was served as Führer (the office position mergence of President and Chancellor) of Germany from 2 August 1934 to 30 April 1945.
Magnus Hirschfeld
On 30 January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. Less than four months after the Nazis took power, Hirschfeld's Institute was sacked. On the morning of 6 May, a group of university students belonging to the National Socialist Student League stormed into the institution, shouting ""Brenne Hirschfeld"!" ("Burn Hirschfeld!") and began to beat up the staff and smash up the premises. In the afternoon, the SA came to the institute, carrying out a more systematic attack, removing all volumes from the library for a book-burning event four days later. In the evening, the Berlin police arrived to announce that the institution was now closed forever.
Franz von Papen
On 11 August 1932, the public holiday of Constitution Day in Germany to celebrate the adoption of the Weimar Constitution in 1919, Papen together with his Interior Minister Baron Wilhelm von Gayl called a press conference, apparently with no sense of the irony involved, to announce their plans for a new constitution which would turn Germany into a dictatorship. On 13 August 1932, Hitler met with Hindenburg to ask be named Chancellor and was refused. Hindenburg told Hitler as recorded by his Chief of Staff Otto Meissner: "The "Reich President" in reply said firmly that he must answer this demand with a clear, unyielding "No". He could not justify before God, before his conscience, or before the Fatherland the transfer of the whole authority of government to a single party, especially to a party that was biased against people who had different views from their own. There were a number of other reasons against it, upon which he did not wish to enlarge in detail, such as fear of increased unrest, the effect on foreign countries, etc".
Führerprinzip
In the case of the Nazis, the "Führerprinzip" became integral to the Nazi Party in July 1921, when Adolf Hitler forced a showdown with the original leaders of the party after he learned that they were attempting to merge it with the somewhat larger German Socialist Party. Learning of this, and knowing that any merger would dilute his influence over the group, Hitler quit the Nazis. Realizing that the party would be completely ineffective without Hitler as their front man, the founder of the party, Anton Drexler, opened negotiations with Hitler, who delivered an ultimatum: he must be recognized as the sole leader ("Führer") of the party, with dictatorial powers. The executive committee gave in to his demands, and Hitler rejoined the party a few days later to become its permanent ruler, with Drexler kicked upstairs to be honorary chairman for life.
Adolf Hitler
On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich". This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as "Führer und Reichskanzler" (leader and chancellor), although "Reichskanzler" was eventually quietly dropped. With this action, Hitler eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.
Hitler oath
"Ich schwöre: Ich werde dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes
Adolf Hitler treu und gehorsam sein, die Gesetze beachten,
und meine Amtspflichten gewissenhaft erfüllen, so wahr mir Gott helfe."
Friedrich Kellner
From his reading of "Mein Kampf", Kellner believed the election of Adolf Hitler would mean another war in Europe, and events soon were to support his view. Within a few years after coming to power, Hitler abrogated the Treaty of Versailles, re-militarized the Rhineland, expanded the German military forces, and spent great sums to outfit those forces with modern weaponry. Although the leaders in the democracies were concerned about such rearmament, they failed to take action to stop it. On September 1, 1939, in coordination with the Soviet Union, Hitler ordered the German armed forces to invade Poland.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in Germany in September 1919 when Hitler joined the political party known as the "Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" – DAP (German Workers' Party). The name was changed in 1920 to the "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" – NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party). This political party was formed and developed during the post-World War I era. It was anti-Marxist and opposed to the democratic post-war government of the Weimar Republic and the Treaty of Versailles; and it advocated extreme nationalism and Pan-Germanism as well as virulent anti-Semitism. Hitler's "rise" can be considered to have ended in March 1933, after the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act of 1933 in that month. President Paul von Hindenburg had already appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933 after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigues. The Enabling Act—when used ruthlessly and with authority—virtually assured that Hitler could thereafter constitutionally exercise dictatorial power without legal objection.
Adolf Hitler
On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff. Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow. Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither the army, nor the state police, joined forces with Hitler. The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them. Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup.
Werner Küchenthal
Adolf Hitler surrendered his Austrian citizenship in 1925 and submitted an . Under the Weimar constitution (Art. 41 para. 2) he would never be able to become President without it. A (bizarrely, anonymous) application was quietly submitted on Hitler's behalf in Thuringia. The application was not successful. Over the next seven years applications for German citizenship were submitted by or on behalf of Hitler in various other parts of Germany, but it became increasingly clear that they were all being blocked by Berlin, mindful of Hitler's attempt to overthrow the government back in 1923. Along the way, it was discovered by eagle eyed readers of the constitution that if Hitler could be found a job in government service, German citizenship might be conferred automatically. Various attempts to find the Nazi leader a low profile appointment floundered, partly because of resistance in the political establishment and partly because Hitler had more important preoccupations than accepting a low profile appointment in government service. In 1932 the focus of those attempting to obtain citizenship for the party leader switched to the Free State of Brunswick/Braunschweig. Braunschweig was small and for most purposes outside the usual ambit of political commentators. More importantly, it was a state where the Nazi Party already held power, albeit in coalition with other parties. The political leadership, including Minister-President Werner Küchenthal of the DNVP, were supportive. Küchenthal suggested that Hitler might be appointed mayor of the little town of Stadtoldendorf. That was rejected by other parties in the coalition, however. In the end it is not clear whether it was the support of the regional government under Küchenthal that secured Hitler's appointment to a government post in Braunschweig, and how far it was the implicit threat of the Nazi Party to pull out of the governing coalition which would have triggered new regional elections (which all parties had good reason to fear at that point). On 26 February 1932 Adolf Hitler was duly appointed to the appropriately obscure post of "Regierungsrat der braunschweigschen Gesandtschaft beim Reichsrat" ("loosely "Government official of the Braunschweig delegation to the National Council""). Citizenship for Adolf Hitler followed, backed by the practical support of the Free State of Brunswick/Braunschweig led by Werner Küchenthal. It was, in its way, an important contribution.
President of Germany
Friedrich Ebert (SPD) served as Germany's first president, followed by Paul von Hindenburg. The office effectively came to an end upon Hindenburg's death in 1934 and its powers merged with those of chancellor. Adolf Hitler now ruled Germany as "Führer und Reichskanzler", combining his previous positions in party and government. The office, however, was not abolished and briefly revived at the end of the Second World War when Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor as President of Germany. Dönitz agreed to the surrender to the Allies and was arrested a few days later.
German Workers' Party
In less than a week, Hitler received a postcard stating he had officially been accepted as a member and he should come to a committee meeting to discuss it. Hitler attended the committee meeting held at the run-down Altes Rosenbad beer-house. Normally, enlisted army personnel were not allowed to join political parties. In this case, Hitler had Captain Karl Mayr's permission to join the DAP. Further, Hitler was allowed to stay in the army and receive his weekly pay of 20 gold marks a week. At the time when Hitler joined the party, there were no membership numbers or cards. It was in January 1920 when a numeration was issued for the first time and listed in alphabetical order Hitler received the number 555. In reality, he had been the 55th member, but the counting started at the number 501 in order to make the party appear larger. In his work "Mein Kampf", Hitler later claimed to be the seventh party member and he was in fact the seventh executive member of the party's central committee. After giving his first speech for the DAP on 16 October at the "Hofbräukeller", Hitler quickly became the party's most active orator. Hitler's considerable oratory and propaganda skills were appreciated by the party leadership as crowds began to flock to hear his speeches during 1919–1920. With the support of Drexler, Hitler became chief of propaganda for the party in early 1920. Hitler preferred that role as he saw himself as the drummer for a national cause. He saw propaganda as the way to bring nationalism to the public.
Reichstag fire
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor and head of the coalition government on 30 January 1933. As Chancellor, Hitler asked German President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call for a new parliamentary election. The date set for the elections was 5 March 1933. Hitler's aim was first to acquire a National Socialist majority, to secure his position and to remove the communist opposition. If prompted or desired, the President could remove the Chancellor. Hitler hoped to abolish democracy in a more or less legal fashion, by passing the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act was a special law that gave the Chancellor the power to pass laws by decree, without the involvement of the "Reichstag". These special powers would remain in effect for four years, after which time they were eligible to be renewed. Under the Weimar Constitution, the President could rule by decree in times of emergency using Article 48. The unprecedented element of the Enabling Act was that the Chancellor possessed the powers. An Enabling Act was only supposed to be passed in times of extreme emergency and had only been used once, in 1923–24 when the government used an Enabling Act to end hyperinflation (see hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic). To pass an Enabling Act, a party required a vote by a two-thirds majority in the "Reichstag". In January 1933, the Nazis had only 32% of the seats.
Nazism
Before he joined the Bavarian Army to fight in World War I, Hitler had lived a bohemian lifestyle as a petty street watercolour artist in Vienna and Munich and he maintained elements of this lifestyle later on, going to bed very late and rising in the afternoon, even after he became Chancellor and then Führer. After the war, his battalion was absorbed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic from 1918 to 1919, where he was elected Deputy Battalion Representative. According to historian Thomas Weber, Hitler attended the funeral of communist Kurt Eisner (a German Jew), wearing a black mourning armband on one arm and a red communist armband on the other, which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified. In "Mein Kampf", Hitler never mentioned any service with the Bavarian Soviet Republic and he stated that he became an antisemite in 1913 during his years in Vienna. This statement has been disputed by the contention that he was not an antisemite at that time, even though it is well established that he read many antisemitic tracts and journals during time and admired Karl Lueger, the antisemitic mayor of Vienna. Hitler altered his political views in response to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 and it was then that he became an antisemitic, German nationalist.
Albert Vögler
Hitler became German Chancellor on 30 January 1933. He held a meeting with Hermann Göring, and German industrialists on 20 February 1933. Vögler was present at this meeting. Hitler presented the Nazi Party's political plans, and received a total of three million marks in donations.
Franz von Papen
On the evening of 29 January 1933, when the conservative "Junker" Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin told Papen that his plan to have Hitler as Chancellor while retaining power for himself was an absurd scheme that could only end very badly for everybody, Papen replied: "What do you want? I have the confidence of Hindenburg. In two months we'll have pushed Hitler so far into the corner that he'll squeal." In the end, the President, who had previously vowed never to allow Hitler (whom he derisively referred to as a 'Bohemian corporal'), to become Chancellor, appointed Hitler to the post on 30 January 1933, with Papen as Vice-Chancellor. The British historian Edgar Feuchtwanger wrote that Schleicher's rapid rise and fall from power was due to the system of presidential government he had created in 1930, as the system of presidential government reduced almost everything down to the whims of President Hindenburg, and gave enormous power to those like Papen who happened to enjoy Hindenburg's trust and favor. The system of presidential government created very personalized politics where those who had the approval of Hindenburg and his "Kamarilla" enjoyed power and those who did not were excluded from power, regardless of what the voters felt. On institutional grounds, Papen should have been in a weak position as he was a very unpopular former Chancellor without a seat in the "Reichstag" or even a political party, whose influence was based entirely on his friendship with Hindenburg. Feuchwanger wrote that Papen was a vain, irresponsible intriguer who was only powerful in January 1933 because he was Hindenburg's favorite politician and the president wanted his favorite back into office again. 
At the formation of Hitler's cabinet on 30 January, only three Nazis had cabinet posts: Hitler, Göring, and Wilhelm Frick. The only Nazi besides Hitler to have an actual portfolio was Frick, who held the then-powerless interior ministry. The other eight posts were held by conservatives close to Papen. Additionally, as part of the deal that allowed Hitler to become Chancellor, Papen was granted the right to attend every meeting between Hitler and Hindenburg. Under the Weimar Constitution, the Chancellor was a fairly weak figure, serving as little more than a chairman. Moreover, Cabinet decisions were made by majority vote. Papen believed that his conservative friends' majority in the Cabinet and his closeness to Hindenburg would keep Hitler in check. To the warning that he was placing himself in Hitler's hands, Papen replied, "You are mistaken. We've hired him." On the morning of 30 January 1933, when Hitler was due to be sworn in as Chancellor by Hindenburg, the "Government of National Concentration" almost collapsed before it began when Hugenberg learned that Hitler planned on dissolving the "Reichstag" to allow him to get the two-third majority so he could pass the Enabling Act, whereas Hugenberg had been given to believe that the "Government of National Concentration" would rule with the "Reichstag" elected in November 1932. Passing the Enabling Act would allow Hitler to rule via decree, which would mean that Hitler would not need the support of the DNVP in the "Reichstag" anymore. Hugenberg knew Hitler well enough to understand what Hitler ruling with the Enabling Act would mean for the DNVP. The discovery that Hitler planned on dissolving the "Reichstag" caused a lengthy shouting march between Hitler and Hugenberg that delayed the swearing of the Hitler government and was ended when Papen told Hugenberg not to doubt the word of a fellow German and Meissner came out to say Hindenburg was tiring of waiting to swear in the new government. In his 1996 book "Hitler's Thirty Days to Power", the US historian Henry Ashby Turner wrote that Papen was "the key figure in steering the course of events toward the disastrous outcome, the person who more than anyone else caused what happened. None of what occurred in January 1933 would have been possible in the absence of his quest for revenge against Schleicher and his hunger for a return to power".
End of World War II in Europe
Hitler's death: On 30 April, as the Battle of Nuremberg and the Battle of Hamburg ended with American and British occupation, in addition to the Battle of Berlin raging above him with the Soviets surrounding the city, along with his escape route cut off by the Americans, realizing that all was lost and not wishing to suffer Mussolini's fate, German dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his "Führerbunker" along with Eva Braun, his long-term partner whom he had married less than 40 hours before their joint suicide. In his will, Hitler dismissed "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring, his second-in-command and Interior minister Heinrich Himmler after each of them separately tried to seize control of the crumbling Third Reich. Hitler appointed his successors as follows; "Großadmiral" Karl Dönitz as the new "Reichspräsident" ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new "Reichskanzler" (Chancellor of Germany). However, Goebbels committed suicide the following day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany.
Interwar naval service of Erich Raeder
In 1933, Raeder welcomed the coming to power of Hitler, believing that this was the beginning of the militarized "Volksgemeinschaft" that would let Germany become the world's greatest power. Through Raeder had doubts about Hitler's commitment to navalism, the banning of the SPD and KPD together with the militarist and ultra-nationalist tone of the new regime were appealing to him. Raeder first met Hitler on 2 February 1933 when Hitler delivered a birthday speech for the Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath. During the speech, Hitler declared that his foreign policy was to "overthrow" Versailles as the prelude to the "conquest of "Lebensraum" in the East and its ruthless Germanization". Raeder was later at Nurmberg to claim that he was not paying attention when Hitler declared his ultimate foreign policy goals. On 21 March 1933, Raeder attended the "Day of Potsdam", an elaborate ceremony at the tomb of Frederick the Great where Hindenburg formally declared Hitler the heir to Prussian traditions, which left the conservative Raeder greatly impressed with Hitler's respect for Prussian traditions. On 28 March 1933, Raeder met with the Defence Minister, General Werner von Blomberg, to press for increased naval spending, but though Blomberg was sympathetic, Raeder complained that Blomberg was too much a Prussian Army officer with only a continental understanding of war, leading Raeder to believe that his only hope was to convert Hitler to the "Seemachtideologie". At a speech on 1 April 1933 at the launching of the , Raeder expressed his support for "the government of the National Revolution" which he hoped would "lead a unified people, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the great chancellor [Bismarck] to new heights". Shortly afterwards, Raeder had his first private meeting with Hitler, and came away impressed, believing that if Hitler was no navalist, then he could be made into one just like his mentor Tirpitz had converted Wilhelm II to navalism. As part of his efforts to model himself after "the Master", the "Immediatstellung" (informal meeting) in the hallways which had been such an important part in the relationship between Tirpitz and Wilhelm II was to be an equally important part of the Raeder-Hitler relationship. Raeder believed that if he could "educate" Hitler about the importance of sea power, then he would assure the creation of the greatest fleet ever in German history. Raeder was to spend the rest of the 1930s lobbying Hitler for bigger and bigger naval budgets while trying to win Hitler over to the "Seemachtideologie". Raeder, who had a high opinion of himself, started in this period to call himself the "second Tirpitz" who would exceed even "the Master" by achieving what Tirpitz had failed to achieve, the coveted "world power status" for Germany.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
When Hitler's citizenship became a matter of public discussion in 1924 he had a public declaration printed on 16 October 1924: "The loss of my Austrian citizenship is not painful to me, as I never felt as an Austrian citizen but always as a German only . . . . It was this mentality that made me draw the ultimate conclusion and do military service in the German Army." Under the threat of criminal deportation home to Austria, Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925, and did not acquire German citizenship until almost seven years later; therefore, he was unable to run for public office. Hitler gained German citizenship after being appointed a Free State of Brunswick government official by Dietrich Klagges, after an earlier attempt by Wilhelm Frick to convey citizenship as a Thuringian police official failed.
Austria under National Socialism
On 15 March Hitler, who had spent the previous two days in his birth town of Braunau am Inn, made a triumphal entry into Vienna and gave a speech on Heldenplatz in front of tens of thousands of cheering people, in which he boasted of his "greatest accomplishment": ""As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich."" Ernst Kaltenbrunner from Upper Austria, sentenced to death in 1946 at the Nuremberg trials, was promoted SS-Brigadeführer and the leader of the SS-upper section Austria. Beginning on 12 March and during the subsequent weeks 72,000 people were arrested, primarily in Vienna, among them politicians of the First Republic, intellectuals and above all Jews. Jewish institutions were shuttered.
Wehrmacht
After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the office of President of Germany, and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg, acting on his own initiative, had all of the Jews serving in the "Reichswehr" given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge. Again, on his own initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934. In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the "Ministeramt" chief General Walther von Reichenau, the entire military took the Hitler oath, an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. Hitler was most surprised at the offer; the popular view that Hitler imposed the oath on the military is false. The oath read: "I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath".
Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany. Lacking a majority in the "Reichstag", Hitler formed a coalition with the National-Conservatives (German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP)). Not long afterwards, he called elections for 5 March. Six days before the election, on 27 February, the Reichstag fire damaged the house of Parliament in Berlin. Claiming that the fire was the first step in a Communist revolution, the Nazis used the fire as a pretext to get the President, Hindenburg, to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, officially the "" (Presidential Decree for the Protection of People and State).
Dietrich Klagges
Obviously Hitler's job at the legation did not last long. On 16 February 1933 the new Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler requested in a short telegram discharge from the Braunschweig State Service, which was promptly granted "with immediate effect".
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. He was christened as "Adolphus Hitler". He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy. Also living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. (born 1882) and Angela (born 1883). When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life. The family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, and in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended "Volksschule" (a state-owned primary school) in nearby Fischlham.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power
The Act allowed Hitler and his Cabinet to rule by emergency decree for four years, though Hindenburg remained President. Hitler immediately set about abolishing the powers of the states and the existence of non-Nazi political parties and organisations. Non-Nazi parties were formally outlawed on 14 July 1933, and the Reichstag abdicated its democratic responsibilities. Hindenburg remained commander-in-chief of the military and retained the power to negotiate foreign treaties.
Chancellor of Germany
When the Nazis came to power on 30 January 1933, the Weimar Constitution was "de facto" set aside. After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Adolf Hitler, the dictatorial party leader and chancellor, took over the powers of the president. The new official title became "Führer und Reichskanzler" (meaning "Leader and Chancellor of the Realm").
Death of Adolf Hitler
By this time, the Red Army had advanced to the Potsdamer Platz, and all indications were that they were preparing to storm the Chancellery. This report, combined with Himmler's treachery, prompted Hitler to make the last decisions of his life. After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in a map room within the "Führerbunker". Afterwards Hitler hosted a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife. Hitler then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. It left instructions to be carried out immediately following his death, with Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assuming Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively. He signed these documents at 04:00 and then went to bed (some sources say Hitler dictated the last will and testament immediately before the wedding, but all agree on the timing of the signing).
Weimar Republic
Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on the morning of 30 January 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.