The establishment of Hitler's dictatorship

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The German Labour Front (DAF), led by Robert Ley.

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The authors may differ because of their involvement and their purpose. The author of Interpretation A was a Centre Party deputy who voted for the Enabling Act and was in the Kroll Opera House when the SA and SS lined the hall, so his view is shaped by his own experience of fear on that day. He was writing in 1950, after the dictatorship, the war and the Holocaust had shown what the Act led to. Many people were asking how democratic politicians could have given Hitler such power ('People ask today...'), so he has a strong motive to justify his vote by stressing the intimidation and Hitler's broken promises. Many former Centre Party politicians were by then leading figures in West Germany's new democracy, which made this question sensitive.

The author of Interpretation B was a historian writing in 1983 who was not involved. With hindsight and access to records, he knew that the SPD had voted against despite the same threats, that Hitler's promised written guarantee to the Centre Party never came, and that the Centre Party dissolved itself only months later. He was writing for the fiftieth anniversary, when Germans were encouraged to think about the lessons of 1933 for their own democracy, so his purpose was to stress the responsibility of the democratic parties rather than to excuse them.

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The most important change was that Hitler's government could now make laws without the Reichstag. Under the Enabling Act of 23 March 1933, the cabinet could pass laws for four years without the Reichstag's approval, and these laws could even break the Weimar constitution. The constitution was never formally abolished, but it no longer limited the government, so parliamentary democracy ended in all but name. The Reichstag lost its purpose: it met only rarely, to listen to Hitler's speeches and approve what he had already done.

A second change was that Hitler no longer depended on President Hindenburg. Before the Act, Hitler had to ask Hindenburg to sign emergency decrees under Article 48 whenever he wanted to bypass the Reichstag. Now he could make laws himself, which removed one of the main checks on his power and left Hindenburg with little influence over day-to-day government.

Thirdly, the Act gave Hitler the legal means to destroy the rest of the Weimar system. In 1933 his government used it to reorganise the state (Land) parliaments and appoint Reich governors, ending the independence of states such as Bavaria; to purge the civil service of Jews and political opponents in April 1933; and to pass the Law against the Formation of New Parties in July 1933, which made the Nazis the only legal party. These changes were linked, because each new law was made possible by the Act. Because everything was done 'legally', civil servants, judges and the army accepted the new system, and the Act was renewed in 1937 and 1939, remaining the foundation of Hitler's dictatorship until 1945.

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The destruction of the trade unions was important in removing opposition because the unions were the most powerful organisations of German workers. In 1920 a general strike called by the unions had defeated the Kapp Putsch, showing that organised workers could bring the country to a halt. The Nazis understood this danger. On 1 May 1933 they declared a 'Day of National Labour' to win workers over, and on 2 May SA and SS men occupied union offices across Germany, arrested union leaders and seized their funds. The unions were replaced by the German Labour Front under Robert Ley, strikes were banned and wages were set by Trustees of Labour. This removed the only means by which millions of workers could resist the government, and it also took away money and support from the SPD.

The banning of other political parties was also important. The Communists had already been crushed after the Reichstag Fire: about 4,000 were arrested and their deputies could not take their seats. The SPD, which had voted against the Enabling Act, was banned on 22 June 1933 and its leaders were arrested or fled abroad. The Nationalists, the Centre Party and the other parties then dissolved themselves, and on 14 July 1933 the Law against the Formation of New Parties made Germany a one-party state. From then on there was no legal way to oppose the Nazis: no opposition newspapers, meetings or candidates, and in the election of November 1933 voters were offered only a Nazi list.

I think the banning of other political parties was more important. The destruction of the unions removed a powerful potential threat, and it made the SPD's ban easier, because without the unions the SPD could not call a general strike to defend itself. However, the unions were organisations of workers, while the parties represented every group in society, including Catholics, conservatives and liberals as well as the working class. Banning them removed all legal political opposition at once, turned the Reichstag into a body of Nazi deputies, and meant that any future opposition had to be secret and illegal. It was this that turned Hitler's government into a permanent one-party dictatorship.