Topic 2 - Weimar Establishment Notes

~ The Fall of the Weimar and Establishment of a Dictatorship ~

Success & Müller

·       In the 1924 and 1928 elections, parties loyal to the Weimar system did well

·       These elections produced a series of coalition governments that managed to get their legislation passed by the Reichstag

·       Strongest of these was the ‘grand coalition’ government led by the Socialist Hermann Müller that took office I 1928

Worrying Signs for the Parliamentary System

·       Before Depression, Hindenburg was discussing a more authoritarian state to ‘put an end to the impotence of politics’

·       This new form of government would rely on using Article 48 to issue decrees and would threaten the dissolution of the Reichstag if it opposed the government

·       Article 48: of the constitution gave the President powers to issue decrees, but had intended only to be used in an emergency, to protect the regime against potential enemies

Deterioration of Weimar

·       After 1930 Article 48 was increasingly used to sustain governments that were unable to get their legislation through the Reichstag

·       Further weakened by the Reichstag elections of 1932.  In both July and November, they majority of voters supported the two extremist parties who were hostile to the parliamentary regime

	1930	1931	1932
Presidential Decree Laws	5	44	66
Reichstag Laws	98	34	5
Reichstag: day sitting	94	42	13

	Dictatorship In 1933 Hindenburg appointed Hitler, leader of the largest party, as Chancellor.  Within a year he had set up a dictatorship.

 

Brüning:

·      All three Chancellors wanted to reorder the Weimar Republic into a more authoritarian form of state

·      More prepared to accept a greater role for the Reichstag than Papen or Schleicher

·      Tried to work with Reichstag but found it increasingly difficult

·      Planned agrarian reforms (redistribution of agricultural land) that upset the elite

·      His austere (harsh/severe) policies and inability to inspire the masses meant that he was unpopular

·      His position was also weakened by his hostility to co-operation with the Nazis

Papen:

·      Most hostile to Reichstag

·      His ‘government of barons’ had no real chance of getting Reichstag support on any positive basis

·      Blatant attempt at authoritarian government with no hope of Reichstag support

General Shleicher:

·      Tried to create a broader government through links with trade unions and the more socialist wing of the Nazis

·      This failed, and like Brüning his preparedness to consider agrarian reform upset the elite

Papen’s Coup Against the Prussian State Government:

·      Weimar Republic remained a federal state

·      Prussia was the most important state government

·      Since 1919 it had been run by an SPD-ZZ coalition, which had acted effectively to reform the state – could be seen as an example of what could have happened nationally if parties cooperated

·      In 1932, under the impact of the Depression, the SPD-Z lost its majority in the Prussian Assembly

·      There were then political fights in the streets

·      Papen used this decline in law to replace the system with an authoritarian government

·      Shows how Article 48, designed to protect democracy, could be used to replace it

·      Papen’s coup was a great blow to the Left – the SPD lost its last stronghold without resisting

·      When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 he inherited control of the Prussian state and used the precedent of Papen’s actions to overthrow other state governments

·      Papen’s coup was a mortal blow to the Weimar regime

·      Von Papen and Hindenburg had enough of democracy and wanted a dictatorship.  Von Papen had kicked out main German party (Prussian party) – ex of a dictatorship.  They were responsible for the downfall of democracy 

Hitler Appointed Chancellor on January 30^th 1933:

·      President Hindenburg appointed Hitler

·      Hindenburg and elite didn’t like Nazis, their radicalism, and their vulgar behavior

·      Despite this, the elite convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler

·      By 1932, key industrialists and landowners were concerned about the lack of effective governments

·      The Junkers were also  upset by Brüning and Schleicher’s reform proposal to buy up bankrupt estates to resettle poor farmers.  This was seen as ‘agrarian Bolshevism’

·      They had never been committed to democracy and saw the possibility of using the Nazis’ popular support to channel the political system in a more authoritarian direction

·      Hitler was constrained by Papen who, in his position of Vice Chancellor, had to be involved in any contacts between Chancellor and President.  Hitler had no emergency powers beyond those which Hindenburg was prepared, under Article 48 of the Constitution, to grant him.  It seemed, therefore, that Papen was fully justified in believing that Hitler could be tamed

·      Members of the elite used a ‘taming strategy’ for the Nazis

1. Make Hitler Vice-Chancellor under Papen, but Hitler refused demanding Chancellorship.  Hitler’s rejection was risky, since he didn’t get the chancellorship, and it was seen as a great defeat by many Nazis
2. Used in December 1932.  Schleicher, hoping to split the Nazis, proposed the idea of himself and Chancellor and the Nazi Gregor Strasser as Vice-Chancellor.  This failed and Stasser left the Nazi party
3. Final tactic (arranged by a Cologne banker, Kurt von Schröder, members of the Reich Agrarian League, industrialists, and Hindenburg’s son) was put Hitler into office as Chancellor, but surrounded by Papen as Vice and oter conservatives.  The Nazis’ current differences would make it easier to control.  Hindenburg agreed, against his own judgment

Factors to bring elite and Nazis together	Factors that kept them apart
Electoral support for Nazism	Hitler’s humble origin
Anti-Versailles settlement	A vulgar upstart
Attraction of Nazism for some in military and industrial elite	‘Democratic nature of the Nazi movement
Intrigue of key individuals around President Hindenburg (his son Oscar and Papen)	Radical socialist elements of Nazi movement
Need to change political system and failure of other schemes
Anti-Weimar parliamentarianism

Was Hitler’s Rise to Power Inevitable?

·      Many historians object to this decree of determinism

o      Was Hitler lucky to be appointed Chancellor just as the Nazis were on the verge of disintegration

o      Were there viable alternatives, either authoritarian, liberal, or communist

·       Inevitability of Hitler coming to power

o      Nazi movement was having severe difficulties by late 1923

o      It seems possible that if Hitler hadn’t been appointed Chancellor the movement might have declined

o      Hitler’s options would have been limited; might have tried a repeat of a Putch, or winning electorial support to gain Chancellorship, ideally through controlling a majority of the Reichstag

o      With Nazi electoral vote declining, if Hindenburg hadn’t appointed him, Hitler’s prospects looked bleak

Nazi Position in Late 1932 and Early 1933

·      Election results

o      In November 1932 the Nazis lost 2million votes and 34 seats, partly because some voters were disillusioned as they had failed to gain power

o      The unstoppable advance of the Nazis thus seemed to be reversed

o      Some middle-class voters were alienated by Nazi moves to attract more working-class support (ex by supporting the Berlin’s transport strike November 1932 and the party’s radical propaganda

o      Nazis were still the largest party in the Reichstag where anti-parliamentary parties had a majority

·      State elections

o      The Nazis did badly in local elections in November and December 1932 (ex they had lost 40% of their vote in he Thuringian municipal elections

o      In January 1933 the Nazis poured in the small state of Lippe; they increased their vote and claimed a comeback

·      Finances

o      By the end of 1932, Nazi finances were very low due to the cost of competing in so many elections

·      Organization

o      The SA had 400,000 members in 1932 – making it 4 times larger than the Reichswehr

o      Party membership stood at 850,000, but there was a high turnover

·      Internal disagreements

o      There was considerable discord in the party and SA; some in the party criticized the SA’s unruly behavior and its lack of commitment to the electioneering in November

o      The internal disagreements in the Nazi Party were evident enough for General Schleicher to believe he could split the Nazi movement

o      Hitler’s ‘all or nothing’ tactics worried some (ex Gregor Strasser, who resigned in December 1932

o      There were internal reports of low moral

·      Other points

o      The SPD newspaper Vorwärts predicted in December 1932: ‘The decline of the Nazi party will hardly be less rapid than its rise has been’

o      The Nazis had been successful to keep the party together and to maintain their sense of momentum

o      In April 1932 Goebbles said, ‘We must come to power in the foreseeable future.  Otherwise we will win ourselves in death elections’

o      Apart from the KPD, the Nazis were the only party not associated with a discredited government

Establishment of Weimar:

·      2 days before Armistice, on 9 November 1918, the Kaiser fled to Holland and Phillip Scheidemann proclaimed a German Republic in Berlin

·      Yet by 1922, the experiment in democracy had come to a tragic end, with the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor

Economic Problems in the Downfall of German Democracy:

·      Wall Street Crash in October 1929

·      Banks collapsed, prices fell and world trade contracted

·      Agriculture was badly affected by the fall in world trade

·      Foreign banks withdrew funds

·      Brüning adopted a deflationary economic policy to balance the Budget by cutting public expenditure – helped to rise unemployment, which by early 1932 had reached 6million

·      In such a dire economic climate, political extremism flourished

·      The NADAP was the main beneficiary – winning only 12 seats (2.6% of vote) in 1928 its support rose to 107 seats in 1930 and 230 in July 1932

·      Similarly, the KPD (Communist party) saw a dramatic rise in electoral support, gaining 100 seats in November 1932

·      Without the economic depression of 1929-33, the Weimar Republic may have survived.  However, it is important to remember that economic problems hit Germany immediately after the Great War and these persisted through the 1920s

·      From its creation, the Weimar had economic risks:

o      Loss of territory under Versailles

o      Huge reparation payment of $6,600 million

o      Undermined German postwar recovery

o      Need to provide for war victims and war widows meant that 1/3 of Reich government’s funds went on pensions

o      Even before 1929, an unemployment insurance scheme collapsed in 1927

o      In 1927, unrest spread throughout the main industrial area of the Rhur

·      Effect of economic collapse and hyperinflation

o      Erosion of German savings

o      German industry became dependant on foreign loans

o      Once crash occurred, it was the German economy that suffered the most from the loss of foreign investment

How Far Did the Constitution undermine the Weimar Republic?

·      Constitution was drafted by Professor Hugo Preuss made Germany one of the most democratic countries

·      However, it contained within it its own seeds of destruction

·      The President was given strong powers; under Article 48 he could issue decrees in emergencies.  Under Article 52 he could appoint a Chancellor if no government could command majority support in the Reichstag

·      First President, Ebert, did not use these powers, but second President, Hindenburg did.  Article 52 was used to appoint the last 4 Chancellors of the Republic including Hitler

·      Reason nobody was in majority after 1930 was due to the system of proportional representation.  This led to multi-party representation and coalition government

·      The system also made it easy for anti-democratic parties such as the KPD and NSDAP to gain seats

·      The lack of strong, stable government and the constant political intrigue between parties, undermined faith in the democratic system

·      As a result, many moderate middle class and working class voters began to fear for their future and to look to extreme, undemocratic alternatives, such as Nazism and Communism

·      The constitution allowed for referenda to be held on specific issues

·      This enabled the enemies of democracy to put their case directly and forcefully before the public

·      The referendum called by nationalist Hungenburg against the Young Plan in 1929 allowed right-wing nationalists and Nazis to engage in nationwide campaigning to publicize their views

Hitler’s Personality:

·      Any explanation for the end of German democracy must be inextricably connected with the appointment of Hitler by Hindenburg

·      Once appointed, Hitler was determined to destroy the Weimar constitution and replace it with a dictatorship

·      After his release from prison in 1925, Hitler reconstructed and refocused the NSDAP

o      Abandoned violent, revolutionary methods, he turned it into a quasi-constitution party, which sought election the Reichstag and local government bodies.  He did so in order to disrupt and discredit Weimar democracy

o      The SA provided the NSDAP with a potent combination in its bid for power

o      Economic collapse following the events of 1929 aided

o      Hitler’s ability as an orator and campaigner proved an important factor

·      Nazis did not come to power directly through the electoral process, but through political intrigue between Wiemar politicians and President Hindenburg’s advisers Hitler’s ability as a politician and party member enabled him to thwart Scheicher’s attempt to split the Nazi party

·      Hitler refused to accept any post in the government other than Chancellor

·      When Hitler made an agreement with von Papen on 4 January 1933, it was on the basis of gaining the chancellorship for himself

·      Once in power, Hitler took steps to ensure he would not loose it

Other Factors

·      Economic collapse

·      Weakness of the constitution

·      Role of the Reichswehr

·      Legacy of Versailles

·      Split between the SPD and the KPD

·      Opposition from traditional, conservative elites like the judiciary and the civil service

·      The role of Hindenburg’s advisers

·      Inexperience of democracy led it to seek a unique solution to its problems

How the Dictatorship formed:

·      Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933.  18 months later he was dictator with total power

·      Hitler used the democratic system in order to destroy democracy

·      Obstacles:

o      Hitler could not make laws, unless the Reichstag agreed to them, but more than half the seats belonged to parties that opposed him and their were only 2 other Nazis in the Reichstag – he needed to get rid of Socialists and Communist who opposed him

o      General von Hindenburg gave Hitler Chancellorship, and could make him resign if he thought Hitler was not running the country properly

1. Hitler arranged for a general election to be held in March 1933.  He hoped that the Nazi party would win a landslide victory and get the majority of the seats in the Reichstag.  (Hitler brought money and radio, which Hindenburg wanted to utilize)

·      He had two main advantages in the election; He had access to media, especially radio, which he used to enhance the electoral appeal, which he did better than anyone else. 

·      Also, he was able to use emergency powers to weaken his opponents. 

·      For example, the decree of 4 February made it possible to control meetings of other parties. 

·      It also enabled Goering to draft a special police order in Prussia to the effect that the ‘activities of subversive organizations are…to be combated with the most drastic measures.’ 

·      Even more extreme measures were allowed by the decree of 28 February which suspended many personal liberties ‘until further notice’ The pretext for this was the Reichstag fire

·      The election results were announced on March 5 and they showed considerable gains for the NSDAP when compared with the election of November 1932.  The Nazi vote increased from 11.7 million to 17.2 million, whereas DVP, middle-class, and communist votes decreased. 

·      Three reasons for Hitler’s gains: The tactic of calling an immediate election completely unsettled his opponents.  Most of the non-Nazis in his cabinet had meekly submitted to this demand for a dissolution.  Second, there appears to have been a degree of resignation in the Reichstag itself as the deputies failed to use the Committee for the Protection of Parliamentary Rights effectively; this might have challenged Hitler’s demand for the election as being to hasty.  Thirdly, the Nazi monopoly of the state media and extensive use of emergency decrees cut away much of the opposition’s capacity to present an effective case against Hitler

·      The NSDAP still lacked the overall majority, so it used local government.  In March 1933 SA and SS squads took over town halls, police headquarters, and newspapers – in effect the Nazis rule was imposed at the local level throughout Germany even before the dictatorship had been completed at the center

2. A week before voting day, the Reichstag building went up in flames.  A Communist, van der Lubbe, was caught.  Hitler said this was the start of a Communist plot to take over the country
3. He went to General Hindenburg and asked to made the Law for the Protection of the People and State.  He made the law that Hitler wanted, not realizing that it would help Hitler become a dictator
4. The new law banned Communists and Socialists from taking part in the election campaign. They were thrown into prison, their newspapers were shut down, and the Storm Troopers beat up supporters in the street.  As a result, Hitler won just under half of the Nazi vote.  He also negotiated with the Center Party an agreement whereby the latter would vote for Enabling Act in return for special guarantees for the churches
5. It wasn’t the majority he wanted, but it was enough to get the Enabling Law passed by Reichstag on March 1933.  This let Hitler make laws without asking the Reichstag for its consent (Center parties voted for consent)
6. Hitler used Enabling Law to get rid of anyone or anything that limited his authority.  He put Nazis in charge of local governments that ran German provinces, closed down unions, took away their funds, and put their leaders in prison.
7. Made Law Against the Formation of New Parties, which stated that the only party allowed was the Nazi party.  It was a criminal offence to organize any political grouping outside the NSDAP – Germany became a one party state.  In November 1933, another election was held, in which a single party list was put into the electorate for its approval.  The result was that the NSDAP took all the seats in the Reichstag.
8. The leader of the Storm Troopers, Ernst Roehm, wanted to make the SA part of the army.  This alarmed Hitler, for it would make Roehm the most powerful man in Germany. The army generals didn’t like this either because they were busy building up the strength of the army and ‘rearmament was too serious a buissness and tricky to allow thieves, drinkers, and sods to be involved.’ 

·      The destructive capacity of Nazi radicals had been evident in March 1933 when the rank and file had brought about at local level changes, which were far more sweeping than Hitler intended

·      By the middle of 1933 there were also new demands for a new Nazi revolution

·      Ernest Röhm wanted to entend the scope of the SA so that the German army would be absorbed into iy

·      Hitler was wary because if the army was threatened by the Nazis then it might attempt a coup against Hitler and might prevail upon him to name a successor.

·      The Reichswhr commanders saw Hitler as a moderate who would seek to preserve some tradition.  They were prepared to make a deal with Hitler, they would stand back while Hitler took measures against his own delinquents.  They would even intervene to save Hitler from the SA if necessary

·      By the beginning of July 1934 the SA leadership had been cut down by the SS

·      On the Night of the Long Knives, Roehm and the other SA leaders were arrested on Hitler’s orders, taken to prison, and shot. 

9. One month later, Hindenburg died and Hitler immediately took over the Presidency and gave himself the title of ‘Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
10. On the same day, the army swore an oath to Hitler

	▼    Hitler, leader of Nazi Party ▼    42 Gauleiters (district leaders) A Gua, or area was a province of a country ▼    60 Kreisleiters (area leaders) A Kreis was a subdivision of a Gua ▼    21,354 Ortsgrupperfuehrer (local group leaders) ▼    70,000 Zellenleiters (cell leaders) in charge of a town or city ▼    400,000 Blockleiters (block leaders) in charge of one block of flats or houses

 

Nobody Prevented Hitler:

• Had no choice
• Parties to Left were smashed by Emergency powers
• Communists were prevented from taking seats in the Reichstag and the SPD were outright banned
• Center Party gave up opposition in return for a guarantee of religious freedom
• President Hindenburg made no attempt to interfere with Hitler’s assault on the opposition, for fear of provoking a more violent and radical constitutional upheaval

A Legal Revolution:

• Part of the process was accomplished technically within the ambit of the constitution
• Gleichschaltung: meaning ‘coordination’ or ‘making the same’ it is the Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a type of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society
• Used to describe Hitler’s overall approach in the opening years of his Regime
• The Enabling Act was passed by 2/3 of the majority of the Reichstag
• Wasn’t as radical as the Bolsheviks in Russia, after all the Reichstag and Reichsrat remained intact as legislative institutions
• The list of officials in cabinet were similar to Weimar; foreign minister, finance minister, ministers for economics, justice, defense
• The Nazification of the institution of the Weimar Republic occurred in such a way as to minimize the chance of sudden climatic break which might generate resistance
• ‘Legal revolution’ is paradoxical
• The whole emphasis was on using the legal powers of the Weimar to destroy it, not to amend it
• The letter of law may have been kept, but the spirit was not
• Hitler’s objectives were to destroy the Wiemar Republic on three accounts:
• Converted emergency powers from precautionary to regular.  The Enabling Act reversed Article 48 by making it permanent which originally had been conceived as a temporary power.  Article 48 had been included to preserve democracy against future enemies, whereas the Enabling Act was clearly based on the premise that democracy itself was the enemy
• He shredded the autonomous power of the Länder.  Laws issued under the Enabling Act abolished the rights of the Länder legislatures and subordinated the state Ministers-President to the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin.  This undermined the entire federal system which had been a crucial part of the Weimar constitution 
• The law against new parties wiped out the multi-part system, a vital ingredient of the Weimar Republic. Proportional representation ceased.  The notion of legality is therefore a mockery.  A democratic constitution was imploded by anti-democrats who targeted its emergency charges inward

Hitler’s Illegal Tactics:

• Hitler’s ‘legal changes’ were accompanied by a considerable degree of mobilized pressure that the constitution was originally conceived to prevent
• Article 48 was intended for presidential use to put down massive activism, not unleash it against selected targets
• Difficult to distinguish terroristic attacks from legal measures:
• Nazi control over the Ministry and of the Interior and other key organs of the state gave them control over the police.  Goering used this to create an auxiliary police force, the Gestapo, which comprised on SS and SA.  The result was a rampage of law and order directed against political enemies of the Nazi movement and an officially sanctioned continuation of previously illegal methods.  The same happened when the SA intimidated the social Democrat deputies during the Reichstag vote of the Enabling Act
• Mass movement was also incompatible with the principle of legality.  Town hall revolutions, by which the SA purged local governments, and the boycott of Jewish goods
• This was a revolution in the political structure of Germany which transcended all notions of legality