CAMBRIDGE A2 HISTORY: HITLER APPOINTED AS A CHANCELLOR. It contains: moments of Hitler being appointed a s a chancellor.

1. HISTORY CAMBRIDGE A2 (PAPER 4)
PRESENTATION 3 (HOMEWORK)
HITLER MODULE
1. WHY DID HITLER GAIN POWER IN 1933?
HITLER APPOINTED
AS A CHANCELLOR

2. 30 JANUARY 1933
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.
The supposed one thousand year Reich had started. But it would be
another nineteen months before Hitler achieved absolute power.
1932 Germany saw the rise of the Nazi party into a prominent political
force. The Weimar government had failed its people and, following the
worldwide depression, Germany was in economic ruin, people’s
livelihoods shattered and the nation still burdened with the humiliation
of the post-First World War Treaty of Versailles.
Germans, fearful of Communists and Jews, looked for an alternative and
that alternative lay in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

3. THAT MAN A CHANCELLOR?
In the July 1932 Reichstag elections, the Nazi party gained almost 40% of
the vote making it the most powerful party in Germany.
There was a slight dip in the elections four months later but the party still
had enough electoral clout that Hitler, as dictated by the Weimar
constitution, should have been appointed chancellor.
But the Weimar president, the 85-year-old Paul von Hindenburg, was
reluctant to appoint the former corporal: “That man a chancellor?” he
exclaimed, “I’ll make him a postmaster and he can lick stamps with my
head on them.”

5. THAT MAN A CHANCELLOR?
Franz von Papen, Hindenburg’s former chancellor, who believed the Nazis
were already a spent force after the dip in the Nazi vote in November
1932, decided to work with Hitler (or rather his objective was to
manipulate the Nazi leader).
Hitler would become chancellor and Papen would serve as his vice
chancellor.

6. CONVINCING PAPEN
But the real power, Papen persuaded the aging president, would be
himself. Hitler, Papen argued, needed to be contained and this would be
far easier with Hitler working inside the government than agitating from
outside. “In two months,” said Papen, “we’ll have pushed Hitler into a
corner where he can squeal to his heart’s content.”
Reluctantly, Hindenburg agreed.

7. JUSTICE FOR ALL
And so on 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor within a
coalition government.
At around noon, Hitler took his oath: “I will employ my strength for the
welfare of the German people, protect the Constitution and laws of the
German people, conscientiously discharge the duties imposed on me, and
conduct my affairs of office impartially and with justice to everyone.” Yes,
Hitler promised to respect the German constitution with justice for all.
He had done it – Hitler had achieved what he had striven for since 1923
following the failed attempt to seize power by force, the Munich Putsch –
power through legitimate means.

8. NO EXPERIENCE IN DEMOCRACY
Germany was a nation that in its history had little experience or interest in
democracy. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler took the reins of a 14-year-old
German democratic republic which in the minds of many had long
outlived its usefulness.
By this time, the economic pressures of the Great Depression combined
with the indecisive, self-serving nature of its elected politicians had
brought government in Germany to a complete standstill. The people
were without jobs, without food, quite afraid and desperate for relief.
Now, the man who had spent his entire political career denouncing and
attempting to destroy the Republic, was its leader. Around noon on
January 30th, Hitler was sworn in.

10. "I will employ my strength for the welfare of the German people, protect the Constitution
and laws of the German people, conscientiously discharge the duties imposed on me, and
conduct my affairs of office impartially and with justice to everyone."
Adolf Hitler

11. THE MOMENT OF TRIUMPH
That evening Hitler looked out from his balcony at the Chancellery.
Below him filed passed thousands of torch bearing Nazis, singing the Nazi
anthem, the Horst Wessel song (so named after a martyr of the Nazi
cause). This was their moment of triumph, the day of national exultation;
the Nazi era had begun and their mood was jubilant.
That evening, an ecstatic Joseph Goebbels wrote his in diary:
“It is almost like a dream – a fairy tale. The new Reich has been born.
Fourteen years of work have been crowned with victory. The German
revolution has begun!”

12. Chancellor Hitler chats with Göring as Papen and other Cabinet members look on.
Behind Papen is Hugenberg who had nearly ruined the whole day for Hitler.

13. LUDENDORFF’S OPINION
Not everyone however was delighted by the turn of events.
Hindenburg’s old wartime partner, Erich Ludendorff, who had been at
Hitler’s side during the Munich Putsch, wrote to the president:
“By appointing Hitler Chancellor of the Reich you have handed over our
sacred German Fatherland to one of the greatest demagogues of all time. I
prophesy to you this evil man will plunge our Reich into the abyss and will
inflict immeasurable woe on our nation. Future generations will curse you in
your grave for this action.”

14. Nazi Stormtroopers parade through the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the dawn of a new era.

15. PAPEN’S PLAN
Papen and many non-Nazis thought having Hitler as chancellor was to
their advantage.
Conservative members of the former aristocratic ruling class desired an
end to the republic and a return to an authoritarian government that
would restore Germany to glory and bring back their old privileges.
They wanted to go back to the days of the Kaiser. For them, putting Hitler
in power was just the first step toward achieving that goal.
They knew it was likely he would wreck the republic. Then once the
republic was abolished, they could put in someone of their own choosing,
perhaps even a descendant of the Kaiser.

16. PAPEN’S realisation
Papen (pictured in the next slide) was to soon realise the folly of his
intrigue – it was he, not Hitler, who was pushed into a corner and became
an inconsequential figure.
He was fortunate to survive Hitler’s murderous purge, the Night of the
Long Knives, in which close associates of Papen’s were shot, and was
shunted off to serve as German ambassador first in Vienna then later,
during the war, in Turkey.
He lived to the age of 89, dying in Germany on 2 May 1969.

18. UNDERESTIMATING HITLER
Big bankers and industrialists, including Krupp and Farben, had lobbied
Hindenburg and schemed behind the scenes on behalf of Hitler because
they were convinced he would be good for business. He promised to be
for free enterprise and keep down Communism and the trade union
movements.
The military also placed its bet on Hitler, believing his repeated promises
to tear up the Treaty of Versailles and expand the Army and bring back its
former glory.
They all had one thing in common – they underestimated Hitler.

19. THE ROAD TO RUIN
But for Hitler in January 1933, the road to absolute power had only just
begun.
The Reichstag Fire, a month later, followed by the Enabling Act in March
1933 which, despite his oath, allowed Hitler to dispense with the German
constitution, solidified his power.
But it was the death of President Hindenburg, in August 1934, that
allowed Hitler to establish his dictatorial rule. The road to ruin lay ahead.

20. HOMEWORK
What best explains Hitler’s accession to power in March 1933?