Nazi seizure of power

The process by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party dismantled Germany’s democratic institutions and established a dictatorship in 1933–1934.

Reichstag Fire Decree: A decree issued on 28 February 1933 that suspended civil liberties and expanded police powers in Germany. It gave the government a legal pretext to arrest opponents and suppress the press after the Reichstag fire.
Great Depression in Germany: The severe economic crisis in Germany after 1929, marked by mass unemployment and business failures. The crisis weakened confidence in parliamentary government and enlarged the Nazi electorate.
Adolf Hitler: The leader of the Nazi Party who became German chancellor in January 1933 and dictator by 1934. He used the chancellorship to eliminate political competition and consolidate personal rule.
One-party state: A political system in which one party controls government and legally excludes meaningful competition from other parties. By July 1933, the Nazi regime had made the NSDAP Germany’s only legal political party.
Enabling Act of 1933: A law that allowed Hitler’s cabinet to enact legislation without the Reichstag for four years. It transferred legislative authority to Hitler’s government and enabled rule by decree.
Weimar Republic: Germany’s parliamentary republic from 1918 to 1933, established after the First World War. Its constitutional institutions were the system the Nazi movement sought to capture and destroy.
Joseph Goebbels: A leading Nazi politician who directed propaganda and later served as Germany’s propaganda minister. His propaganda operation shaped public responses to the Reichstag fire and the regime’s consolidation.
Nazi Germany: The German state under Nazi rule from 1933 to 1945. The seizure of power established the regime whose institutions and policies followed.
Gleichschaltung: The Nazi policy of coordinating German institutions and organizations under party control. It describes how independent institutions, state governments, and associations were brought into line.
July 1932 German federal election: A German Reichstag election in which the Nazi Party became the largest parliamentary group, without winning a majority. The result strengthened Hitler’s claim to the chancellorship but did not itself put him in power.

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