How Hitler Became a Dictator

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anti_bush_2004 How Hitler Became a Dictator

 

 

 

How Hitler Became a Dictator

by Jacob G. Hornberger, Posted June 28, 2004

 

Whenever U.S. officials wish to demonize someone, they inevitably

compare him to Adolf Hitler. The message immediately resonates with

people because everyone knows that Hitler was a brutal dictator.

 

But how many people know how Hitler actually became a dictator? My bet

is, very few. I'd also bet that more than a few people would be

surprised at how he pulled it off, especially given that after World

War I Germany had become a democratic republic.

 

The story of how Hitler became a dictator is set forth in The Rise and

Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer, on which this article is

based.

 

In the presidential election held on March 13, 1932, there were four

candidates: the incumbent, Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler,

and two minor candidates, Ernst Thaelmann and Theodore Duesterberg.

The results were:

 

Hindenburg 49.6 percent

Hitler 30.1 percent

Thaelmann 13.2 percent

Duesterberg 6.8 percent

 

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, almost 70 percent of the German

people voted against Hitler, causing his supporter Joseph Goebbels,

who would later become Hitler's minister of propaganda, to lament in

his journal, " We're beaten; terrible outlook. Party circles badly

depressed and dejected. "

 

Since Hindenberg had not received a majority of the vote, however, a

runoff election had to be held among the top three vote-getters. On

April 19, 1932, the runoff results were:

 

Hindenburg 53.0 percent

Hitler 36.8 percent

Thaelmann 10.2 percent

 

Thus, even though Hitler's vote total had risen, he still had been

decisively rejected by the German people.

 

On June 1, 1932, Hindenberg appointed Franz von Papen as chancellor of

Germany, whom Shirer described as an " unexpected and ludicrous

figure. " Papen immediately dissolved the Reichstag (the national

congress) and called for new elections, the third legislative election

in five months.

 

Hitler and his fellow members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party,

who were determined to bring down the republic and establish

dictatorial rule in Germany, did everything they could to create chaos

in the streets, including initiating political violence and murder.

The situation got so bad that martial law was proclaimed in Berlin.

 

Even though Hitler had badly lost the presidential election, he was

drawing ever-larger crowds during the congressional election. As

Shirer points out,

 

In one day, July 27, he spoke to 60,000 persons in Brandenburg, to

nearly as many in Potsdam, and that evening to 120,000 massed in the

giant Grunewald Stadium in Berlin while outside an additional 100,000

heard his voice by loudspeaker.

 

 

Hitler's rise to power

 

The July 31, 1932, election produced a major victory for Hitler's

National Socialist Party. The party won 230 seats in the Reichstag,

making it Germany's largest political party, but it still fell short

of a majority in the 608-member body.

 

On the basis of that victory, Hitler demanded that President

Hindenburg appoint him chancellor and place him in complete control of

the state. Otto von Meissner, who worked for Hindenburg, later

testified at Nuremberg,

 

Hindenburg replied that because of the tense situation he could not in

good conscience risk transferring the power of government to a new

party such as the National Socialists, which did not command a

majority and which was intolerant, noisy and undisciplined.

 

Political deadlocks in the Reichstag soon brought a new election, this

one in November 6, 1932. In that election, the Nazis lost two million

votes and 34 seats. Thus, even though the National Socialist Party was

still the largest political party, it had clearly lost ground among

the voters.

 

Attempting to remedy the chaos and the deadlocks, Hindenburg fired

Papen and appointed an army general named Kurt von Schleicher as the

new German chancellor. Unable to secure a majority coalition in the

Reichstag, however, Schleicher finally tendered his resignation to

Hindenburg, 57 days after he had been appointed.

 

On January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler

chancellor of Germany. Although the National Socialists never captured

more than 37 percent of the national vote, and even though they still

held a minority of cabinet posts and fewer than 50 percent of the

seats in the Reichstag, Hitler and the Nazis set out to to consolidate

their power. With Hitler as chancellor, that proved to be a fairly

easy task.

 

 

The Reichstag fire

 

On February 27, Hitler was enjoying supper at the Goebbels home when

the telephone rang with an emergency message: " The Reichstag is on

fire! " Hitler and Goebbels rushed to the fire, where they encountered

Hermann Goering, who would later become Hitler's air minister. Goering

was shouting at the top of his lungs,

 

This is the beginning of the Communist revolution! We must not wait a

minute. We will show no mercy. Every Communist official must be shot,

where he is found. Every Communist deputy must this very day be strung up.

 

The day after the fire, the Prussian government announced that it had

found communist publications stating,

 

Government buildings, museums, mansions and essential plants were to

be burned down... . Women and children were to be sent in front of

terrorist groups.... The burning of the Reichstag was to be the signal

for a bloody insurrection and civil war.... It has been ascertained

that today was to have seen throughout Germany terrorist acts against

individual persons, against private property, and against the life and

limb of the peaceful population, and also the beginning of general

civil war.

 

So how was Goering so certain that the fire had been set by communist

terrorists? Arrested on the spot was a Dutch communist named Marinus

van der Lubbe. Most historians now believe that van der Lubbe was

actually duped by the Nazis into setting the fire and probably was

even assisted by them, without his realizing it.

 

Why would Hitler and his associates turn a blind eye to an impending

terrorist attack on their national congressional building or actually

assist with such a horrific deed? Because they knew what government

officials have known throughout history — that during extreme national

emergencies, people are most scared and thus much more willing to

surrender their liberties in return for " security. " And that's exactly

what happened during the Reichstag terrorist crisis.

 

 

Suspending civil liberties

 

The day after the fire, Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to issue

a decree entitled, " For the Protection of the People and the State. "

Justified as a " defensive measure against Communist acts of violence

endangering the state, " the decree suspended the constitutional

guarantees pertaining to civil liberties:

 

Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free _expression of

opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and

association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and

telephonic communications; and warrants for house searches, orders for

confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also

permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

 

Two weeks after the Reichstag fire, Hitler requested the Reichstag to

temporarily delegate its powers to him so that he could adequately

deal with the crisis. Denouncing opponents to his request, Hitler

shouted, " Germany will be free, but not through you! " When the vote

was taken, the result was 441 for and 84 against, giving Hitler the

two-thirds majority he needed to suspend the German constitution. On

March 23, 1933, what has gone down in German history as the " Enabling

Act " made Hitler dictator of Germany, freed of all legislative and

constitutional constraints.

 

 

The judiciary under Hitler

 

One of the most dramatic consequences was in the judicial arena.

Shirer points out,

 

Under the Weimar Constitution judges were independent, subject only to

the law, protected from arbitrary removal and bound at least in theory

by Article 109 to safeguard equality before the law.

 

In fact, in the Reichstag terrorist case, while the court convicted

van der Lubbe of the crime (who was executed), three other defendants,

all communists, were acquitted, which infuriated Hitler and Goering.

Within a month, the Nazis had transferred jurisdiction over treason

cases from the Supreme Court to a new People's Court, which, as Shirer

points out,

 

soon became the most dreaded tribunal in the land. It consisted of two

professional judges and five others chosen from among party officials,

the S.S. and the armed forces, thus giving the latter a majority vote.

There was no appeal from its decisions or sentences and usually its

sessions were held in camera. Occasionally, however, for propaganda

purposes when relatively light sentences were to be given, the foreign

correspondents were invited to attend.

 

One of the Reichstag terrorist defendants, who had angered Goering

during the trial with a severe cross-examination of Goering, did not

benefit from his acquittal. Shirer explains:

 

The German communist leader was immediately taken into " protective

custody, " where he remained until his death during the second war.

 

In addition to the People's Court, which handled treason cases, the

Nazis also set up the Special Court, which handled cases of political

crimes or " insidious attacks against the government. " These courts

 

consisted of three judges, who invariably had to be trusted party

members, without a jury. A Nazi prosecutor had the choice of bringing

action in such cases before either an ordinary court or the Special

Court, and invariably he chose the latter, for obvious reasons.

Defense lawyers before this court, as before the Volksgerichtshof, had

to be approved by Nazi officials. Sometimes even if they were approved

they fared badly. Thus the lawyers who attempted to represent the

widow of Dr. Klausener, the Catholic Action leader murdered in the

Blood Purge, in her suit for damages against the State were whisked

off to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where they were kept until

they formally withdrew the action.

 

Even lenient treatment by the Special Court was no guarantee for the

defendant, however, as Pastor Martin Niemoeller discovered when he was

acquitted of major political charges and sentenced to time served for

minor charges. Leaving the courtroom, Niemoeller was taken into

custody by the Gestapo and taken to a concentration camp.

 

The Nazis also implemented a legal concept called Schutzhaft or

" protective custody " which enabled them to arrest and incarcerate

people without charging them with a crime. As Shirer put it,

 

Protective custody did not protect a man from possible harm, as it did

in more civilized countries. It punished him by putting him behind

barbed wire.

 

On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg died, and the title of president was

abolished. Hitler's title became Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. Not

surprisingly, he used the initial four-year " temporary " grant of

emergency powers that had been given to him by the Enabling Act to

consolidate his omnipotent control over the entire country.

 

 

Accepting the new order

 

Oddly enough, even though his dictatorship very quickly became

complete, Hitler returned to the Reichstag every four years to renew

the " temporary " delegation of emergency powers that it had given him

to deal with the Reichstag-arson crisis. Needless to say, the

Reichstag rubber-stamped each of his requests.

 

For their part, the German people quickly accepted the new order of

things. Keep in mind that the average non-Jewish German was pretty

much unaffected by the new laws and decrees. As long as a German

citizen kept his head down, worked hard, took care of his family, sent

his children to the public schools and the Hitler Youth organization,

and, most important, didn't involve himself in political dissent

against the government, a visit by the Gestapo was very unlikely.

 

Keep in mind also that, while the Nazis established concentration

camps in the 1930s, the number of inmates ranged in the thousands. It

wouldn't be until the 1940s that the death camps and the gas chambers

that killed millions would be implemented. Describing how the average

German adapted to the new order, Shirer writes,

 

The overwhelming majority of Germans did not seem to mind that their

personal freedom had been taken away, that so much of culture had been

destroyed and replaced with a mindless barbarism, or that their life

and work had become regimented to a degree never before experienced

even by a people accustomed for generations to a great deal of

regimentation.... The Nazi terror in the early years affected the

lives of relatively few Germans and a newly arrived observer was

somewhat surprised to see that the people of this country did not seem

to feel that they were being cowed.... On the contrary, they supported

it with genuine enthusiasm. Somehow it imbued them with a new hope and

a new confidence and an astonishing faith in the future of their country.

 

 

 

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom

Foundation. Send him email.

 

This article originally appeared in the March 2004 edition of Freedom

Daily.

 

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0403a.asp