Why Hitler Was Able to Establish a Dictatorship in Germany by 1934?

In 1934 Hitler moved in to take supreme power of Germany and was able to establish a dictatorship. I agree that the main reason why Hitler was able to do this was because of the Reichstag Fire in 1933. There were many other reasons other than this such as the Enabling Act, the banning of political parties and trade unions and finally the Night of the Long Knives. The Reichstag fire was the most important why Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship. On the evening of the 27th of February 1933, the Reichstag building was destroyed by a huge fire caused by a Dutch communist supporter called van der Lubbe who was caught at the site of the fire with matches and firelighters. He was put on trial and was then executed after being found guilty of doing it. Hitler used this opportunity to plan an attack against the communists. This was the excuse the Nazis needed. Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to declare a state of emergency by saying that Van der Lubbe was part of a communist conspiracy against the government. I think that the Reichstag fire was the most important reason because it allowed Hitler to have a reason to end Communism and gave him the idea to increase his power.

This reason was more important than the Enabling Act because without the Reichstag Fire, there wouldn’t have been an election in 1933 meaning not enough seats for the Nazi’s which couldn’t enable Hitler to pass his new Enabling Act. It practically set forward a chain of events. Although the Reichstag Fire was the most important reason, I think that the Enabling Act was also important in enabling Hitler to establish a dictatorship. The Enabling Act was an act that changed the structure of the Weimar Republic. The full name of the acts was the Law for the Removal of the Distress of the People and Reich. It was just a plan that gave the right for Hitler to make laws for four year without the consent of the Reichstag. It was then renewed in 1937 which meant he could make laws for another four years. Hitler forced this law through the Reichstag in late March 1933. It was completely legal, even though Reichstag members were daunted during the vote if the new law should be passed.

The Enabling Act was an important part of the movement to enable Hitler to establish a dictatorship because it gave Hitler total control of Germany by allowing him to make laws. He was practically a dictator already because of the Enabling Act. I think that the Enabling Act was more important than the banning of trade unions and political parties because it enabled Hitler to pass the laws to banish the trade unions and political parties, so without the Enabling Act Hitler would have still had threats from the communists. Even though the Enabling Act was more important that the banning of political parties and trade unions, I think that the ban was still important in the establishment of Hitler’s dictatorship. Trade unions were an impending threat to Hitler, they were sources of opposition to him. He supposed that if the communists that were among the working men took control of their trade unions, they could use them to strike against Hitler and to weaken the government. So after he took this into consideration, in May 1933, Hitler used his powers to ban the trade unions and made strikes illegal.

Following the ban of trade unions, in July 1933, Hitler issued a decree to make every political party in Germany except from the NSDAP, illegal. The decree said that if anyone undertakes to maintain the organisation of another political party or forms a new political party they will be punished with imprisonment of up to three years. The ban was important because it made Hitler become a step further to absolute freedom from any threats from communists and it also meant he was coming closer to total control of Germany and he was able to make the NSDAP the only political party in the Reichstag which meant that there was no point of the Reichstag anymore. The Reichstag was now just a meeting place for the NSDAP. The final reason for the establishment of Hitler’s dictatorship was the Night of the Long Knives. Some SA leaders demanded that the Nazi party should carry out its socialist agenda, and that the SA should take over the army. Hitler couldn’t afford to annoy the businessmen or the army.

On the 30th of June 1934, Hitler, with the help of the SS, murdered around 400 of the SA members, including its leader Ernst Röhm, along with a number of Hitler’s other political opponents. All this was done in just 4 days! The Night of the Long Knives was important. The first reason it was important was because of this, Hitler was given loyalty by the army. Because the army was much smaller than the SA, they feared them a lot. Consequently, many of the Army’s leaders asked Hitler to abolish the power of the SA. If he didn’t do this, the army warned him that they will put up a candidate to oppose Hitler. The army was also the only organisation that had the power to remove Hitler. After he did this, the army swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler.

So what am I to conclude? Is it still a yes or is it a no. In fact, I think the answer is still yes, because not only did the Reichstag Fire spark a series of important events leading up to the granting of the dictatorship to Hitler, but it started the movement to end Communism in Germany. As I stated before the Reichstag Fire was more important than the Enabling Act because without the Reichstag Fire, there wouldn’t have been an election in 1933 meaning not enough seats for the Nazi’s which couldn’t enable Hitler to pass his new Enabling Act. The Reichstag fire was the main reason why Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship in Germany by 1934.