Third Reich , official national socialist Label for the regime in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945 as the putative successor to the medieval and early modern Holy Roman Empire from 800 to 1806 (First Empire) and the German Empire from 1871 to 1918 (the Second Empire).
The collapse of Weimar Republic and the creation of the Third Reich
With the outbreak of Great Depression in 1929, the Weimar Republic into catastrophic economic free fall. The political Impact were immediate:The Coalition Government des social democratic Chancellor's Hermann Müller collapsed, and the Nazis and Communists saw membership surge as the Germans abandoned more moderate parties. In July 1930, the new chancellor, Heinrich Brüning from the Roman Catholic Center Party who was forced by his economic program to move to the available under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution emergency powers . Days later he solved the Reichstag and called for new elections. In September 1930, the new Reichstag was installed with greatly increased representation for both the Nazis and the Communists.
Brüning managed to stay in office by turning sharp right and taking the nationalism addressed. In early 1932, however, the number of unemployed in Germany was more than six million. In the March 1932 election, the incumbent president. Paul von Hindenburg failed to secure an outright majority, but in a runoff election the following month he overtook the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler by about six million votes. Although Hindenburg dying Bruning wanted to replace, he hesitated to raise Hitler and chose Franz von Papen . To strengthen his parliamentary position, Papen called for an early election in July 1932. The move was a disaster for Papen's fledgling government, and the Nazis won 230 seats in the Reichstag. Papen called a another election in November 1932 and the Nazis saw a significant portion of their voting at the expense of an ever-growing Communist Party and eroding Alfred Hugenberg 's German National People's Party .
The political deadlock persisted, however, and in December 1932 Hindenburg put Papen aside and replaced him with General Kurt von Schleicher . Papen, who retained power and influence as vice chancellor, persuaded Hindenburg to bring Hitler into government, forming a coalition with a majority in the Reichstag. Having achieved his goal of legally attaining the chancellorship, Hitler took office on January 30, 1933. The democratic interlude of the Weimar Republic was practically over.
Hitlers Power Consolidation
In the coalition cabinet, the Nazis held only 3 out of 11 seats. They had Hitler as chancellor, Wilhelm Frick as Reichsminister of the interior, and Hermann Göring as a Reichsminister without portfolio. Notably, Göring also became the minister of the interior for Prussia, a position he used to Nazify the largest police force in Germany and establish the Gestapo. The ministry of economy and that of food and agriculture, both in the Reich and in Prussia, were held by the nationalist Hugenberg. The foreign ministry was held by Konstantin, Freiherr (baron) von Neurath, a career diplomat of conservative views, while the ministry of defense was led by Gen. Werner von Blomberg. As vice-chancellor, Papen claimed the right to be present on all occasions when the chancellor saw the president, and, as Reich commissioner for Prussia, he controlled the principal administrative machine in Germany. In this way Papen believed that he had effectively blocked any threat of extremist action by the Nazis. He was soon to be disillusioned.
Hitler's first step was to persuade the cabinet to agree to new elections in order to provide a majority in the Reichstag. He overcame their doubts with a categorical promise that, whatever the results, no change would be made in the composition of the coalition. The elections were fixed for March 5, 1933, and the Nazis made full use of the power that they now possessed over the apparatus of the state, including the radio, to launch a whirlwind campaign. Although the other parties were still allowed to function formally, their meetings were broken up, their speakers assaulted, and their newspapers constantly suppressed. Göring, who was in control of the Prussian police, showed great energy in conducting a purge that placed the force under Nazi control. He also shouted 50,000 Auxiliary Police on , most of them SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS (protection squadron). Police were forbidden to interfere in the many attempts at intimidation by the SA, who were granted "freedom of the streets".
