3. The Potsdam church plot of 1933
In 1933, Hitler pushed the Enabling Act through the Reichstag. Intended to be (according to Hitler) a temporary measure which enabled the Chancellor to enact laws without the need to have them passed by parliamentary action, it was in fact the Enabling Act which gave Hitler the dictatorship over Germany. With the passage of the act, Hitler held full dictatorial powers and the Nazi propaganda machine immediately began a campaign to gain the support of the German people for the new order. As part of the campaign, a speech given by Hitler, and attended by nearly all of the senior Nazi officials was scheduled to be held in Potsdam. Hitler was to be honored for his success in obtaining the new authority, and the ceremony and attendant proceedings were scheduled for March 21, in a Potsdam church.
In the days before the ceremony, security forces inspecting the church and the surrounding area discovered a tunnel, evidently newly excavated, running beneath the church and under the areas in which the senior Nazi officials, including Hitler, were to be seated. From the shape of the tunnels and the direction in which they were laid out the officials inferred that an individual or group planned to pack them with high explosives and detonate them during the ceremony. From the size of the tunnels, the security officers surmised that the explosion would have been large enough to probably kill everyone in the church at the time. Despite rigorous investigation by civilian and military police, whoever dug the tunnels was never found. While it is possible the tunnel was dug for another purpose, the timing of its excavation convinced the authorities it was an attempted assassination.