Adolf Hitler: After He Took Power in 1930s Germany

Thousands of political science books and magazines discuss the idea of ​​democratic transformation. For example: how can a country once under authoritarian rule, transform from that to individual and democratic rule? And what do we truly know about dictatorships? Can a democratic country transform into a dictatorial country, despite the pre-existence of a constitution and elections?

Probably the most well-known example of this is Germany: which had a parliament; a multi-party system; laws protecting elections; and laws protecting individual freedoms. At the time, the illiteracy rate was almost zero percent,yet it transformed from a democracy into an expansionist dictatorship in 1933, after Hitler's rise to power.

Here, Nora Manseur and Kaye Porter explain how Adolf Hitler took power. Read part 1 on Hitler’s early years here.

Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Reich President Paul V. Hindenburg in March 1933. Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S38324 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, available here.

Taking advantage of Germany’s financial and social instability, Hitler’s party became the largest in the Reichstag in 1932. Later then President of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg, appointed Hitler Chancellor. Meanwhile, Hitler also hadarmed paramilitary troops known as “Storm Troops” or more commonly known as Brownshirts, because of their brown uniforms. The Storm Troops were under Hitler's command, and the number of soldiers reached in the region of some 400,000 in 1932. The goal of these forces was to control the streets, because; Hitler saw that controlling the streets was the key to controlling the state. Despite his growing military force and political power, Hitler did not yet have theabsolute power, which would enable him to achieve his expansionist dreams. In order to achieve full power, he would need a majority in parliament; the support of the German people; and the support of the German army. Seeing the growing militia power on the streets, however, the military had begun to fear the influence of the Brownshirts.

Taking power

Hitler systematically and strategically overcame these obstacles. The German parliament contained left-wing parties who strongly opposed to the Nazi Party. On February 27, 1933, the opposition became violent when  Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe set fire to the German parliament in protest against the spread of Nazism. Hitlerrecognized this as an opportunity in his interest, as this was an opportunity to get rid of his opponents in parliament.Combined with his growing power on the streets, this was a brutal stab against democracy. The next day, Hitler issued a decision to suspend civil and political freedoms under the guise of bringing safety and order to the chaos.The result was a successful declaration of emergency law.

On March 5, 1933, the government organized new elections, in which Hitler won 44%, 17 million votes. Because Hitler still did not have a majority,  he proposed and persuaded parliament to vote legislation called The Enabling Act. This legislation allowed Hitler to issue laws without the approval of  parliament. With this power, any known communists in parliament were arrested, beaten and prevented from entering parliament. With legislative and executive power in hand, Hitler issued a decision to dissolve all parties and unions except the Nazi Party. With control over the leadership an electoral body, Hitler's target now became the German army.

1934

In 1934, Hitler’s paramilitary Storm Troops numbered roughly 2 million soldiers, many times more the number of soldiers in the German army. Ernst Röhm, who had socialist political beliefs, was also the commander of the Storm Troops. He demanded that Hitler carry out their original plans to lead a revolution and implement socialism. The original party values had been to support the German workers, and in fact they had been known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Hitler’s goals had changed however, and he knew that in order to achieve control, he would need the support of businessmen. When Ernst Röhm asked Hitler to join the German army with his Storm Troops under his command as one entity, Hitler had a decision to make. He knew that this combined army would carry out the promised Socialist revolution. The army leaders, however, opposed this therefore Hitler had two options: either  take control of the army leaders who might betray him, or give the power of the military to his friend Ernst Röhm. He chose the army over his friend.

Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the Nazi SS, an elite Nazi security force separate from the Storm Troops, informed Hitler that Ernst Röhm was planning a coup against him. In response Hitler ordered the killing of Ernst Röhm and other Storm Troops Leaders without trial. On June 27, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives, more than 800 people were liquidated in cold blood. This once again showed Hitler to be a bloody and violent ruler. The German president thanked him and told him that he had saved the German nation.

Hitler knew that a massacre of German citizens could have dangerous repercussions. In order to get control of the media and message, he ordered Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, to spread the word that there was a plot to overthrow him by Ernst Röhm. If he could justify in the minds of the people that what happened was simply law and order, and for their safety, then fewer people would question his actions. In addition, he bribed terrified wives and children of those who were killed that night to keep silent about anything that might harm his image.

Greater power

Shortly after the Night of Long Knives, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, and the position of presidentmerges with that of Chancellor. A referendum was held in August 1934, where the German people voted for Hitler to be the Supreme Leader or "Führer." Then, as the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels already controlled all film production companies, and newspapers, helping to consolidate power. Another factor for Hitler’s success was the Autobahn - work began in 17 cities at the same time, and would ultimately be a giant highway network linking German cities together. This project was so important to Hitler, that he himself opened the excavation works in his first year in power. This project aimed to eliminate unemployment, giving jobs to at least 600,000 Germans, Promises of employment and spending on a huge project, combined with the propaganda, inevitably increased  his popularity and he won easily.

Scapegoat

The economic improvement did not last long. The Autobahn only employed approximately 125,000 people and old problems such as unemployment and inflation reappeared. Clutching at power, Hitler used a people he considered to be an enemy, a scapegoat on which to hang all the problems.

The Jews, whom Hitler blamed for everything, from economic difficulties to the decision to surrender in the war, were influenced by Hitler's anti-Jewish ideology since he was in Austria, and also the communists who were carrying out strikes that were one of the reasons for the surrender in 1918, most of whom Hitler said were Jews.

In 1935, in a celebration at the Berlin Opera House, Hitler issued a set of laws called the Nuremberg Laws, which divided the German people into: Germans and Jews. They would mean that Jews were stripped of their German citizenship, were forbidden to marry non-Jewish Germans, were barred from entering universities and schools, and were required to wear visible badges that would identify them on the street.

These laws established the legal persecution of Jews before they were systematically exterminated.

This continued until November 1938, when a German Jew living in France, Herschel Grynszpan, shot a German diplomat in France, Ernst Vom Rath, and a major campaign of incitement against the Jews began. On November 9, 1938, this resulted in  the Jews being subjected to a wave of severe violence in which about 100 Jews died, and the synagogue, homes, and shops of Jews were destroyed. This night is known as the Night of Broken Glass, and a collective fine was also imposed on the Jews, and about 30,000 Jews were arrested.

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The 1936 Summer Olympic Games: Nazism on the World Stage

The Olympic games have been around since the time of the ancient Greeks, being a showcase of physical feats and sport prowess. After Germany won the bid for the Olympic games in 1931, the Nazis would unfortunately be able to use it to showcase the country’s technological and economic prowess to the world. In the process they would also set the precedent for all Olympic games to come.

Kyle Brett explains.

The torch relay for the Summer Olympic Games, 1936. Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1976-116-08A / CC-BY-SA 3.0, available here.

Germany wins the Olympic bid

Germany originally won the Olympic bid to host the summer games in Berlin in 1908. This would not come to fruition as the advent of the first World War led to the games being canceled. Organizers of the event wanted to have the games continue to run during wartime like the ancient Greeks had done, but the brutality of the war made the games unfeasible. Thus the next Olympic games would be held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.

Germany, after the First World War, was broken, its economy was in tatters and its people left unhappy with their leadership. These problems were further exacerbated by the advent of the Wall street crash and the Great Depression. The 1924 Olympic games in Paris had even banned Germany from participating in the games, which followed the general public sentiment that people were not fond of Germany for their actions during the first World War. This would all change with Dr. Theadore Levalde and his lobbying for Berlin in the International Olympic committee.

The 1930 and 1931 meetings of the International Olympic committee saw much debate on which city would be the one to host the 1936 summer games. Levalde would spend much of these debates proposing Berlin as the host city and defending Germany in these meetings. Levalde was Germany’s Olympic representative since 1904 and was  a very well respected member of the International Olympic Committee community. That gave Germany a good chance to win the bid and host the Olympics. There was also a rising sentiment of utilizing the games to bring the world together. The past 20 years saw much division in the world, and the IOC sought to help right that with the Olympic games. At the end of the 1931 meeting 2 cities had to be chosen: Barcelona and Berlin. In the end it came down to an uncertainty surrounding the Republic of Spain and their ability to host the summer Olympics in Barcelona. This left Germany the winner and thus the 1936 bid for the Olympic games went to Germany and to the failing Weimar Republic.

A new Ideology rises to claim the Olympics

The Nazi party rose out of the failure of the Weimar Republic to capture the public's trust, thus the people of Germany yearned for a leader who would change the country for the better. To this end saw an ever growing support for the Nazi party and its very strong ideological values and economic solutions. This culminated in 1933 with the Nazi party seizing power from the Weimar Republic and becoming the leaders of Germany as well as the inheritors of the Olympic Games.

Originally Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler was apprehensive about the Olympic games as he saw no real need to host them or to participate in them. His opinion was swayed by the chief propagandist for the Nazi party Paul Joseph Goebbels. Goebbles convinced Hitler that the Olympics could be an opportunity to put Nazism and Germany’s achievements on the world stage, and thus construction of the Olympic stadium in Berlin began.  The Olympic games were to be a showcase of the success of Germany and how their new ideology was to be spread around the world.

Problems fueled by hate

The German government’s state sponsored anti-semitism was not unknown by many of the participating countries. It was originally decided that for the games that no Jewish athletes would be allowed to participate, however facing backlash that rule was lowered to appease the other countries that would be in the games. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws declared that all German Jews were no longer citizens of Germany and thus they were no longer allowed to participate in the games for the German team. These ideas of hate would not leave the games as many countries would sideline their Jewish athletes to appease the German hosts.

There was one problem with the games actually happening and that was the participation of the United States of America. The US would be the largest presence at the games and if they chose to stay out of the games many other countries might also back out. As for if they were to join, there were 2 people responsible for deciding if the US would participate in the games. Those 2 people were Avery Brundage and Jerimiah Mahoney. Avery was an Olympian himself as well as being a self made millionaire. He also saw what was happening in Germany and had no real problems with it, even aligning himself with Nazi values. Mahoney on the other hand would be the opposite, he was a judge who served on the supreme court and he was very staunchly anti-Nazi. His main point on his disdain for the Nazis was their anti-Christian stance on religion in society and that would drive his position against them.

Mahoney was against the games and Brundage was all for US participation, so in a bid to rally support for his position Brundage would travel to Berlin to make sure that the Jewish athletes were being treated fairly. His trip to Berlin, which was very controlled and deceptive, had shown no mistreatment of Jewish athletes by the Germans and had actually shown Germany to be a fair and equal place for all athletes. In reality Brundage was shepherded around by Hitler and taken to talk to actors. It also did not help that Brundage did not speak any German and would need a translator the entire trip. Nonetheless Brundage returned to the US and with his evidence was able to convince the organizers of American athletics that Germany was fit for the Olympics.

Olympic preparations

Germany began their preparations for the 1936 Olympics with the building of the Olympiastadion, a large neoclassical oval stadium that could house 100,000 spectators. This was only the start of Germany’s display of the opulence of the Third Reich.  They would do a tremendous amount of cleanup in Berlin for the upcoming games. One of the main things they would do is remove all forms of hate from the streets. They cleaned up all signs of anti-semitism and would replace them with either the swastika, or with the Olympic flag. This was in an effort to make Germany seem much more liberal than they were in reality. They would also set out to arrest and ship off all of the Romani people in the area around the venue to try to make the stadium seem more opulent and refined. Shops near the stadium were also told to lower the prices drastically in an effort to make the economy of Germany seem much better than it was. There was also a major campaign to repaint and fix up any buildings that were looking run down. This extended out of Berlin to any building along the train lines that lead to Berlin. All of these efforts culminated in a fresh and beautiful city perfect to host the Olympics.

Technology was another major point of focus for the Nazis and something they proudly displayed at the Olympic games. They built 6 large international transmitters so that the journalists could report back to their home countries about the games. They also put cameras in the stadium so that this could be the first ever televised Olympic games. On top of that they showed off other technological achievements like the Hindenburg which was a huge airship as well as various military technologies.

Let the Games begin

The 11th Olympiad began with an opening ceremony and with a new tradition that would become a staple of the modern Olympics. That tradition would be the Olympic flame and its journey from Olympia in Greece to the Olympic brazier. The tradition was treated as if it were an ancient tradition; however it was made up for the Olympics by the Nazis. It was followed by the entrance of Hitler and his entourage which was played up to show the extravagance of the German leadership. The marches of the 49 different countries would follow Hitler’s entrance, with each country showing off their flag and their teams. The opening ceremony continued with a flyover from the Hindenburg and with much more fanfare, really playing up the glory of the Third Reich. With that the games were underway and the first televised Olympics was on for the world to see.

Hitler made sure to provide the journalists and reporters with all the equipment they would need, along with nice living quarters to keep their opinions about Germany good and to keep their reports about the games in good spirits. The eyes of the world were on Germany as the games commenced. There were a few athletes that the public were eager to see like Jesse Owens from the US. The stands would be filled up for most of the games as people were eager to see this worldwide event in person.

The main goal of the Nazis in the Olympics was to show off the Aryan race and their superiority. When all was said and done, Germany led with the most gold medals and with the most medals overall. There were instances, such as Jesse Owens, a black athlete from the US, beating the German champion Luz Long in the long jump that may have hindered their aspirations. However when all was said and done the Germans came out of the Olympics the leaders of the world in athletic prowess, which ultimately was their goal.

The Olympics comes to a close

When the games came to a close and all of the spectators filtered out the hate and discrimination that surrounded the Nazi party before the Olympics had resumed. They returned to persecuting Jews and anyone who was Jewish through what the Nuremberg laws had dictated. Many Jewish families were invited back to Germany before and during the games in an attempt to show the liberalization efforts the Nazi party was trying to showcase. These families were persecuted along with every Jewish person under the Third Reich. The Olympics had generally been a pause for hate and discrimination, but once they had left Germany so too did the facade of a liberal society.

The 1936 summer Olympics was a major success for the Nazi party. They had turned the public perception of Germany from a hateful and downtrodden country, into a much more economically wealthy and liberalized society. They succeeded in showing their technological and economic prowess off to the world and painting the picture of a new and improved society.

What do you think of the 1936 summer Olympics? Let us know below.

Sources

Bachrach, Susan D. The nazi olympics: Berlin 1936. Little, Brown, 2000.

Walters, Guy. Berlin Games: How Hitler stole the Olympic Dream. London: John Murray, 2007.