1. Nazi Germany

2. Administration
• Landers abolished (March 1933)
• Reichsrat abolished (Jan 1934)
• Civil service:
– Professional Civil Service Law (April 1933)
– Law to ensure Unity of Party and State (Dec 1935)
• DAF
– Established on May 10th 1933
• To control labour
• To end disputes
• To ensure harmony at work
– New Labour Charter (Jan 1934)

3. Parties
• KPD abolished
• SPD abolished (June 1933)
• DNP & DNVP disbanded itself (June 1933)
• Zentrum disbanded itself
• Law Against Formation of the Parties (July
1933)

4. Opposition

5. Fuhrer
• Meeting with gen. Blomberg at the battleship
‘Deutschland’
• Hindenburg died (August 1934)
• 89,9% supported
• Oath of loyalty

6. The military
• Military conference at the Reich Chancellery
• Blomberg and Fritsch affair
• Appointing Wilhelm Keitl as Chief of Staff
• Creation of the OKW

7. State structure
• Main decissions made by Hitler
– Erlasse
• Problems with:
– Low-level decission-making
– Contradictions in Hitler’s orders
• No clear division of Party and state

8. State structure
• "Party's role is to spread propaganda and support the government”
• After the Night of the Long Knives: „Party was not to be powerless”
• The Law of Reconstruction of the Reich 1934:
– Reich Governros (replacing landtags) were to be appointed by Ministry of
Interior
– Gauleiters had more real power and better political base
– Lower party officials (Kreisleiters) were to chose Mayors.
• Decline of the Cabinet Government:
– In 1933 met 72 times
– In 1935 - 12 times
– In 1936 - 4 times
– In 1938 - 1 and last time
– In 1937 important ministers were dismissed (e.g. Schacht)
• The Reich Chancellery
– Was held by Dr Hans-Heinrich Lammers

9. Party
• Party
– Consisted of Gaus (structure - 32 Gauleitiers)
– Governed by
• Rudolf Hess (Fuhrer's Deputy for Party affairs)
• Martin Bormann (Hitler's Chief of Staff)
• No Politburo or Central Committee
• In 1939 party membership was compulsory

10. • What is Gleichschaltung?
• What changes in government did Nazis make?
• What changes in administration did Nazi make?
• What is DAF and how was it formed?
• What regulated the working conditions in the Third Reich
and since when?
• Why was the Night of the Long Knives conducted? (3
reasons)
• Who profited from the Night? (name few benefiters)
• What is Erlasse?
• What was the importance of the Oath of Loyalty?
• Name two people that run the Party.