Nazi Seizure of Power

The Nazi seizure of power (German: Machtergreifung) was the acquisition by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) of the chancellorship of Germany, and of several other high-ranking cabinet posts, on 30 January 1933, following the appointment of Hitler as chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. It also refers to the period of consolidation of Nazi power through intimidation and violence, culminating in the banning of all political parties except the Nazi Party in July 1933.

The Nazis had learned from the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 9 November 1923, whereafter Hitler's lawyer and adviser Hans Frank developed a Legalitätsstrategie ("lawful strategy") for the "National Revolution" to formally and avowedly observe the law on the way to government takeover. After the huge success of the Nazi Party in the 1930 elections, the government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning (Centre Party) tried to keep the state and constitution alive through a minority government supported by the Social Democrats, ruling by Article 48 emergency decrees. He pushed through a law proscribing the Nazi SA and SS paramilitary organizations, which had to be revoked in 1932 after pressure from right-wing forces around President Hindenburg and Defense Minister Kurt von Schleicher.

From an economic perspective, Brüning pursued a policy of rigid austerity and public budget balancing, and his Chancellorship saw an increase in mass unemployment. On 1 June 1932 President Hindenburg, urged by Schleicher, appointed as chancellor his right-wing confidant Franz von Papen, who strove for collaboration with the Nazis in order to use their popularity with the masses for his own purposes. A coalition between the Centre Party, the national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), and the Nazis only failed because of Hitler's demand for the chancellorship. Since Papen had courted the Nazis, he did not forbid the NSDAP as a seditious party, though the Boxheimer Dokumente written by Werner Best and leaked to the Hesse State Police in 1931 revealed plans for another putsch by the Nazis and could have given rise to stern measures. Instead, Papen and Hindenburg instigated a coup against the Prussian state government, the Preußenschlag deposing the democratic state government under Minister-President Otto Braun, who was succeeded by Papen as a Reichskommissar.

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