Chancellor Hitler Acquires Emergency Powers

Hitler won from Hindenburg approval for yet more parliamentary elections in the coming weeks, on the grounds that his government did not have majority support in parliament. Hitler's lieutenant, Herman Goering (Göring), was put in charge of the police, and in late February came the fire at the parliament building set by Hitler's men but attributed to a Communist plot to make revolution. A good portion of the German people bought the story. Communists were arrested and taken away to prison. The elections were held in the crisis atmosphere created by the parliament building (Reichstag) fire, and the National Socialists won 43.9 percent of the vote -- another indication that nothing succeeds like success.

To win emergency powers, Hitler needed a two-thirds vote of approval from parliament. With his new numbers in parliament and the support of conservative and middle-road politicians, he won his two-thirds. The only party to oppose the emergency powers (the Enabling Act) was the Social Democrats. The Communists, whose votes would have prevented a two-thirds majority were not present. They had been arrested.

Armed with emergency powers, Hitler now moved against the Social Democrats and their trade unions. In May and June their headquarters were occupied. They were declared illegal and enemies of the people and the state. More Communists were arrested and imprisoned, along with socialists, liberals and trade unionists -- all those deemed by the Hitler regime as dangerous Leftists. The first concentration camps appeared, to number about fifty by the end of the year, some of them established by Himmler's SS and some by the Brown Shirts (the S.A.). Despite the continued German proclivity toward order and legality, a few of the political prisoners were murdered, and some graft appeared as a few were ransomed to relatives or friends.

The spirit arose for a revival of what National Socialists called German culture. On May 10, 1933, students caught up in the National Socialist spirit tossed 20,000 or so books onto a bonfire outside of the University of Berlin - as Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, watched with elation. Among the books burned were those written by H.G. Wells, Havelock Ellis, Sigmund Freud, Prouse, Emile Zola, André Gide, Upton Sinclair, Helen Keller, Margaret Sanger, Jack London and the German author of All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque. As the fire subsided Goebbels spoke to the crowd, saying that "these flames not only illuminate the final end of an old era; they also light up the new."

On July 20, Monsignor Pacelli, Papal Nuncio (later Pius XII) and Vice-Chancellor Papen signed a Concordat. Papen was the right man for that job. He was a respected and civilized man and a devout Roman Catholic. Hitler wanted respectability and leverage with the Germany Catholic Center Party. Hitler was still appealing to Christians, having recently proclaimed that "we demand freedom for all religious beliefs," and he had recently proclaimed that Christianity was "the basis of our collective morals," the basis of the family and "the kernel of our people." Pope Pius XI saw Communism as the greatest danger in the world, and he saw the Hitler-Papen government as a bulwark against Communism, atheism and attendant evils, including the destruction of civilization. He too did not have the hindsight that would come later. And for the Church the Concordant was practical business. In signing the Concordant, the Church acquired a guarantee of the right to regulate its own affairs in Germany, including continuing its confessional schools.

Also in July, a law was passed against the formation of new political parties - for the sake of the unity of the German people. Later that year, Jews were excluded from holding public office, from holding jobs in the civil service, in journalism, radio, farming, teaching, the theater, or in Germany's motion picture industry. And those Jews who were uncomfortable with all this and chose to leave the country had to pay a departure tax.

On November 11, 1933, the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918, Hitler spoke of the "honor" that Germany had lost with that armistice. President Hindenburg that day addressed the nation by radio, and he told the nation to "support with me and the Reich Chancellor [Hitler] the principle of equal rights and peace with honor." "With the help of God," he concluded, " Germany will maintain its unity."

The next day a plebiscite was held across Germany, designed to underscore the legitimacy of Hitler's government. Ninety-six percent of the voting public cast their ballots. Ninety-two percent voted their approval of the single list of National Socialists and a handful of Nationalists to fill parliament. Some intimidation may have been involved in the voting, but it is estimated that overall the vote was a genuine expression of support for Hitler's government.

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