How Hitler and The Nazi Party Came to Power

Hitler and the nazi party were able to come into power as they offered simple solutions to germany’s many problems. The economic state of germany never recovered from the efects of WWI. Although the Nazi Party had become very powerful, they lost close to two million votes in the November 1932 Reichstag elections, this meant they only had 33 percent of the vote, and not the majority they needed. Papen, who wanted the position of vice chancellor and thought he could control Hitler, convinced Hindenburg to form a coalition with the Nazis and appoint Hitler as the chancellor of germany. Hindenburg agreed and gave in and appointed Hitler as chancellor. Hitler’s final grab for power was when he negotiated with the Reichstag members to give him temporary “emergency” powers for four years, enabling him to act without the consent of parliament or the German constitution. While negotiations were taking place, his large military force was surrounding parliament with the threat of war, should they refuse. They didn’t have much of a choice but grant him what he wanted and Hitler became absolute ruler of Germany. This lead the way for Hitler’s terrier throughout Europe and discrimination against the Jews.

At the annual party rally held by the Nazis in Nuremberg in 1935, the Hitler and Nazis announced new laws which established many of the racial theories in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of “German or related blood.”Although it wasn’t only the Nazi officials acting upon them, it was the government that primarily instigated the chaos that resulted from the Nuremberg laws being set in place. The laws not only targeted a specific ethnic group, but made other non-Jewish people discriminate against the Jews in response from the laws. The Nuremberg Laws included a law that prohibited marriages and extra-marital intercourse between Jews and non-Jews. A Jew was anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether or not that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Although there was discrimination against the Jews before the laws were placed,hate acts only took place after the laws. The government also made the Nuremberg laws so they would seem to justify the holocaust.

The government set up the Nuremberg laws to stir up discriminatory feelings among the German people. The government angled the laws to make the Jews sound at fault or as an escape goat to germany’s problems. Hitler had said, The Jew is a parasite. Wherever he flourishes, the people will die...Elimination of the Jew from our community is to be regarded as an emergency defense measure. With that mindset in his people’s heads, it’s inevitable that these laws were to be discriminatory towards the Jews. In the first two articles especially, the wording made it obvious that non-Jews should not have or keep relationships with Jews. The laws were obvious and affected the rest of the German people as well. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, he was finally in a position where he could use the power of law to control German society. His ability to pass laws continued to get stronger, in 1934 when the German electorate approved the decree that gave Hitler dictatorial power.

Hitler established a dictatorship, any of democratic institutions were destroyed. Without a parliament, courts, and elections to stop him, Hitler had created the power to make all of the rules. There was no system of checks and balances on Hitler and his party. This attitude is exemplified by the first law Hitler passed after becoming Führer. On August 20, 1934, Hitler declared that all soldiers and government officials were obliged to recite an oath not to German law or nation, but to Hitler himself. By Hitler now having absolute power over germany, this allowed him to discriminate against the Jews and begin the process of antisemitism. Which lead him to the first way of oppressing the Jews with the nuremberg laws. That was the first of many steps that Hitler and the nazis would take to oppress the Jews and to create his so called perfect race.