18 Major Events During Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power

18 Major Events During Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power

Larry Holzwarth - October 21, 2018

18 Major Events During Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power
Ernst Rohm served in Hitler’s government as a Minister without Portfolio before being murdered under Hitler’s orders. Wikimedia

8. The SA and SS were banned following the presidential elections

The election of Germany’s president took place in two cycles during February and April 1932, and Adolf Hitler lost readily to the popular war hero Hindenburg. Nonetheless Hitler received more the 13 million votes, though official Nazi Party membership was counted at less than one million. Three days after the election results were announced, the Nazi paramilitary groups were banned from the streets in response to actions they had taken against Jewish businesses. The emergency decree was repealed less than two months later, and the SA and SS returned to their demonstrations and conflicts with the dwindling communist groups. When the Nazis gained the upper hand in the Reichstag in July, the increasingly desperate KPD increased its attacks, and the Nazis responded with attacks on Jewish activities, blaming the violence on a Jewish-Communist international conspiracy.

In August the Nazis elected Hermann Goering as President of the Reichstag, and although Hitler was offered the position of Vice Chancellor of Germany by von Papen he declined. Instead he focused on pushing the Reichstag, through Goering, to enact laws levying severe penalties for acts of political violence, directed against the increasingly violent communist KPD. In the fall of 1932 Hindenburg was persuaded to appoint Hitler as Chancellor, and the new government was created in January, 1933, with von Papen as Vice Chancellor, a position he was offered in return for his persuasion of Hindenburg to appoint Hitler. The SA and SS conducted demonstrations in the streets of German cities, carrying the symbols of the Nazi Party in torch lit parades. A conservative cabinet prepared to work with the coalition government established by Hitler.

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