Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1933 was in-fighting among conservatives, who persuaded the virtually senile
Hindenburg to make Hitler chancellor. his move was based on a gamble that the
Nazis would usefully crush the left but fail to form an effective government - so that
within a few months Hitler could be nudged aside. Hitler became chancellor on
January 4, 1933 and Berlin thronged with Nazi supporters bearing torches. For the vast
majority of Berliners it was a nightmare come true: three quarters of the city had voted
against the Nazis at the last elections.
Nazi takeover
he pretext for an all-out
Nazi takeover
was provided by the
Reichstag fire
(February
28, 1933), which was likely started by them, rather than the simple-minded Dutch
communist Marius van der Lubbe on whom it was blamed. An
emergency decree
the
following day effectively legalized a permanent state of emergency, which the Nazis
quickly used to start crushing the communists and manipulate the 1933
elections
in
which the Nazis won 43.9 percent of the vote. hough short of a majority, this need
was quickly rendered unnecessary by the arrest of communist deputies and SPD
leaders to pass an
Enabling Act
that gave the Nazis dictatorial powers. Hitler was
only just short of the two-thirds majority he needed to legally abolish the Weimar
Republic. he SPD salvaged some self-respect by refusing to agree, but Catholic
centrists meekly supported the Bill in return for minor concessions. It was passed by
441 votes to 84, hammering the final nails into the co
n of German parliamentary
democracy. With Hindenburg's death in the summer of 1934, Hitler merged the
o
ces of president and chancellor declaring himself
Führer
of the German Reich
and producing an absolute dictatorship.
Nazi terror begins
Once in absolute power Hitler quickly consolidated his control by removing
opposition and tightening the Nazi grip on all areas of society. Rival political parties
were effectively banned, unions quickly disbanded, and leaders of both arrested and
sent to
concentration camps
. hen the persecution of Nazi opponents was extended
to embrace “active church members, freemasons, politically dissatisfied people …
abortionists and homosexuals”. On May 11, 1934, they shocked the world by
burning
thousands of books
that conflicted with Nazi ideology on Opernplatz (now Bebelplatz)
in central Berlin. he
exodus from Berlin
of known anti-Nazis and those with reasons
to fear them began in earnest. Well-known names including Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill,
Lotte Lenya and Wassily Kandinsky all left the city, joining the likes of Albert Einstein
and George Grosz in exile.
Nazi ruthlessness extended to their own, and in 1934 the party was purged during a
night later called the “
Night of the Long Knives
”. Under
Ernst Röhm
, the SA had grown
JEWISH BERLIN
Though commonly remembered in the context of their persecution under the Third Reich,
Jews
had had a far longer and happier history in Berlin, which, as one of the most progressive
cities in Europe, had fostered a large Jewish population between the late seventeenth century
and the 1930s (see box, pp.80-81).
1894
1901
The Reichstag is completed after ten years of
building work.
Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich is born
in Schöneberg.
