Chronology of the National Socialist seizure of power
The chronology of the Nazi takeover describes the historical process, there by the Nazi movement under its leader Adolf Hitler succeeded in 1930 to 1934, the Weimar Republic with constitutional means to eliminate and a dictatorship to build. The measures taken by the National Socialists and, until June 1933, also by the parties that supported them, were essentially aimed at abolishing parliamentarism , pluralism , federalism , the separation of powers and individual legal protection against state sovereignty and establishing sole rule for the NSDAP .
History until January 30, 1933
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October 24, 1929:
- Beginning of the global economic crisis , by which the German Reich, along with the USA , was hit hardest
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March 1930:
- The grand coalition of the SPD , Center Party , DVP , DDP and BVP breaks up on the initiative of the left wing of the SPD over the question of a reform of the unemployment insurance that has become necessary due to mass unemployment
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March 30, 1930:
- With the uncertain approval of the Reichstag, Reich President Hindenburg appoints Heinrich Brüning of the Catholic Center Party as Reich Chancellor , the government subsequently achieved narrow majorities in the Reichstag thanks to its support from parts of the DNVP and the SPD parliamentary group
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July 15, 1930:
- the conflict between the government and the Reichstag over a rigid austerity program ends with the (constitutionally problematic) implementation of the rejected bill as an emergency ordinance, the dissolution of parliament and the calling of new elections
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September 14, 1930:
- the NSDAP increases from 2.6 to 18.3% and becomes the second largest party in the 1930 Reichstag election ; The KPD also gained votes (13.1%); Due to the global economic crisis, foreign investors are increasingly withdrawing capital from the USA, which further exacerbates the German economic crisis; the SPD (24.5%) decided to continue tolerating the Brüning government
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February 25, 1932:
- Naturalization of Hitler with appointment to the government council of the Free State of Braunschweig by its NSDAP interior minister Dietrich Klagges
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April 10, 1932:
- Reich presidential election: despite a demagogic election campaign by the National Socialists in favor of their candidate Adolf Hitler and the street terror of the SA and SS , Hindenburg is re-elected as a candidate for the Center Party and the SPD in the second ballot
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April 13, 1932:
- Prohibition of the SA and SS by Reichswehr and Interior Minister Wilhelm Groener
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May 30, 1932:
- Brüning is dismissed by President Hindenburg as a result of the intrigues of the camarilla surrounding Hindenburg
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June 1, 1932:
- Establishment of a presidential cabinet under Chancellor von Papen , who in the course of his term of office implemented extensive savings and work programs by means of further emergency ordinances
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June 14, 1932:
- Lifting of the ban on the SA and SS as a result of a secret agreement; Civil war-like conditions in the election campaign: Hall battles and street fights between the individual fighting organizations with around 300 dead and over 1100 injured
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July 20, 1932:
- the non-party von Papen (previously: center) is appointed Reichskommissar of the Land of Prussia by emergency decree and deposes the Prussian SPD government under Otto Braun and Carl Severing ; the state power goes to the national government on ( " Prussian coup ")
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July 29, 1932:
- Appeal from 52 professors in the Völkischer Beobachter in favor of the NSDAP
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July 31, 1932:
- the Reichstag election brings further gains for the radical parties (KPD and NSDAP), with 37.4% the NSDAP becomes the strongest force in the party spectrum
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September 12, 1932:
- Parliamentary vote of no confidence in the Papen government and (already prepared) renewed dissolution of the Reichstag by Hindenburg
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Reichstag election on November 6, 1932 (the second of the year):
- the NSDAP falls to 33.1%, but remains by far the strongest party; The SPD and the center reject a coalition offer by Papen and his government's plans for a putsch and the fight against the NSDAP and KPD through the Reichswehr fail, Papen resigns
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November 19, 1932:
- Some industrialists, bankers and farmers submit to Hindenburg with the request to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor
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December 2, 1932:
- Lieutenant General Kurt von Schleicher from the presidential camarilla becomes the new Chancellor and remains Minister of Defense ; he tries unsuccessfully to organize a " cross front " to support his politics, but the split in the NSDAP fails and the SPD is suspicious of his ideas of having the Reichstag dissolved for a long time
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January 1933:
- Advocacy of numerous people close to Hindenburg with the Reich President in favor of the formation of a government by Hitler (including Wilhelm von Prussia and Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau )
- January 4, 1933:
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January 10, 1933:
- Meeting Papens with Hitler in the Villa Ribbentrop in Berlin-Dahlem
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January 15, 1933:
- after the state elections in Lippe, the NSDAP becomes the strongest force and thus indirectly increases the pressure on Schleicher
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January 18, 1933:
- The talks between von Papen and Hitler continued in the von Ribbentrop villa in the presence of Ernst Röhm and Heinrich Himmler , Reichsführer of the SS
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January 28, 1933:
- Schleicher resigns because all negotiations in support of his government have failed and Hindenburg rejects his state emergency plan
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January 29, 1933:
- Agreement between Papen and Hitler; Papen sets Hindenburg list of Cabinet Hitler ago
Events between January 30, 1933 and March 23, 1933
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January 30, 1933:
- Adolf Hitler is appointed Reich Chancellor , there are only two other National Socialists in the Hitler cabinet with Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick and Hermann Göring as ministers without portfolio , and Labor Minister Franz Seldte did not join the NSDAP until April 1933
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January 31, 1933:
- Hitler's propaganda leader Joseph Goebbels sums up the events of the decisive day for the seizure of power in his diary - although this entry can only be regarded as an example of the triumph, the pathos and an implicit hint of the upcoming dictatorship in the absence of a well-founded source criticism :
“The time has come. We are sitting on Wilhelmstrasse . Hitler is Reich Chancellor. Like in fairy tales. Yesterday at noon Kaiserhof : we're all waiting. Finally he's coming. Result: he Chancellor. The old man [meaning President Hindenburg] has given in. At the end he was very touched. That's the spirit. Now we have to win it all over. We all have tears in our eyes. We shake hands with Hitler. He deserves it. Big cheers. The people are rioting below. Get to work right away. Reichstag is dissolved. "
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February 1, 1933:
- Dissolution of the Reichstag by President von Hindenburg
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February 1, 1933:
- Appeal of the Reich Government to the German people, which Hitler reads out in his first radio speech at 10:00 p.m.
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February 3, 1933:
- Before generals of the Reichswehr, Hitler proclaimed the "conquest of new living space in the East and its ruthless Germanization ", the reintroduction of conscription and the arming of the Wehrmacht as the goal of his policy ( Liebmann record )
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February 4, 1933:
- Ordinance of the Reich President for the protection of the German people (so-called "drawer ordinance ") with interference in the freedom of the press and freedom of assembly
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February 4, 1933:
- Göring, acting as Prussian interior minister, ordered the compulsory dissolution of all Prussian municipal councils on February 8th and new elections on March 12th, while municipal organs such as councilors and mayors across the country were dissolved under threat of violence or people were imprisoned
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February 6, 1933:
- Ordinance of the Reich President to dissolve the Prussian state parliament and to call a new election - together with that of the Reichstag - on March 5, 1933.
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February 20, 1933:
- At the secret meeting between Hitler and 25 industrialists on February 20, 1933 , they made an election fund of three million Reichsmarks available to the NSDAP
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February 22, 1933:
- 50,000 SS / SA members are appointed as armed " auxiliary police officers "
- February 27, 1933:
- Fire in the Reichstag building , the Dutch and former communist Marinus van der Lubbe is accused of arson, but the question of the perpetrator has not yet been clearly clarified, the act is used by the SA and SS as a pretext to cover Germany with a wave of terrorism; political opponents are imprisoned, tortured or liquidated
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February 28, 1933:
- following the Reichstag fire is the Reichstag Fire Decree , called the Reichstag Fire Decree, enacted that the essential fundamental rights of the Weimar Constitution as the prohibition of restrictions of personal liberty, the inviolability of the home or the right to own property overrides and legalized protective custody
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February 28, 1933:
- Ordinance of the Reich President against treason against the German people and treasonous activities
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March 5, 1933:
- New elections : the National Socialists together with the Conservatives (DNVP) achieve a narrow majority, the other parties were massively hindered by the NSDAP, which missed the desired absolute majority by 6.1 percentage points
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March 8, 1933:
- the seats in the Reichstag won by the KPD are revoked; these parliamentary seats are deemed to have been extinguished (in this way, the two-thirds majority required for the Enabling Act is also secured)
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March 11, 1933:
- Decision on the establishment of a " Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ", which will take up its activities on April 1, 1933; Joseph Goebbels becomes Minister
- March 21, 1933:
- Establishment of the Oranienburg concentration camp near Berlin
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March 22, 1933:
- Establishment of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, used to imprison politically unpopular people, especially political left parties
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March 21, 1933:
- the " Day of Potsdam ", the constituent session of the Reichstag (excluding Social Democrats and Communists) in the Potsdam Garrison Church is staged by Goebbels to establish the harmony between old Germany (represented by Paul von Hindenburg) and the "young force" (Hitler's NS Movement)
- Ordinance of the Reich President to ward off insidious attacks against the government of the national insurrection (" Heimtückegesetz ")
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March 23, 1933:
- the Reichstag, after a fire in February in the Kroll Opera House sitting, right in the presence of armed SA and SS units on the law to address the plight of the people and the kingdom from ( "Enabling Act"), the legislative power in the hands of Reich government, the Reichstag MPs of the KPD can no longer take part in the vote, because they were arrested beforehand or had to go into hiding due to death threats, despite these circumstances the SPD MPs present are voting, some of them are also absent because of arrest or flight, against the law, while MPs from all other parties vote in favor
Events between March 24, 1933 and December 31, 1933
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March 24, 1933:
- Publication of the enabling law, initially limited to four years, in the Reichsgesetzblatt (law to remedy the plight of the people and the Reich) with the signatures of Reich Chancellor Hitler and Reich President Hindenburg
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March 28, 1933:
- The German Bishops' Conference officially withdraws its warning against Hitler.
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March 31, 1933:
- the provisional law for the alignment of the states with the Reich dissolves the state parliaments and determines their replacement according to the results of the Reichstag election of March 5, the state governments are authorized to legislate without the consent of the parliaments, in the second law of April 7, in the states Reichsstatthalter were appointed to ensure the implementation of the "policy guidelines established by the Reich Chancellor"
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March / April 1933:
- In numerous arrests by the SA and SS, those arrested are taken to SA cellars or “wild” camps and tortured
- Establishment of the secret state police as a police state instrument under Heinrich Himmler
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April 1, 1933:
- As the first trade union house in Germany, the trade union house in Hanover is attacked and occupied, allegedly “spontaneous” boycott measures against Jewish businesses all over Germany, which, however, do not meet with the popular approval desired by the National Socialists
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April 7, 1933:
- the law to restore the professional civil service enables the regime to dismiss civil servants "of non- Aryan descent" as well as civil servants "who, after their previous political activities, do not guarantee that they will always stand up for the national state without reservation". The regulations apply mutatis mutandis to employees and workers.
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May 1st and 2nd 1933:
- The May 1 is the day of national labor explained. The next day, the facilities of the free trade unions are occupied by the SA and NSBO ; the assets of the trade unions are confiscated, leading officials are taken into “ protective custody ”
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May 10, 1933:
- Book burnings : in many cities, including Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hanover, Munich and Nuremberg, works by socialist, pacifist, Jewish and liberal authors are thrown into the fire in an organized action, for example Bertolt Brecht , Alfred Döblin , Lion Feuchtwanger , Sigmund Freud , Erich Kästner , Heinrich Mann , Karl Marx , Carl von Ossietzky , Erich Maria Remarque , Kurt Tucholsky , Franz Werfel , Arnold and Stefan Zweig
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May 30th and 31st, 1933:
- By order of Kurt Otto , the provisional National Socialist governor of the province of Saxony , the murals by Charles Crodel that were created for the Goethe year 1932 as part of the restoration of the spa facilities in Bad Lauchstädt are publicly burned and completely destroyed.
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June 22, 1933:
- Prohibition of the SPD for alleged state and high treason
- June 21-26, 1933:
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June 27, 1933:
- Resignation of party chairman Alfred Hugenberg and self-dissolution of the DNVP under pressure from Hitler
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July 5, 1933:
- Self-dissolution of the Center Party
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July 7, 1933:
- Ordinance of the Reich Minister of the Interior to secure the leadership of the state
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July 14, 1933:
- All parties except the NSDAP are banned or have dissolved themselves, the law against the formation of new parties establishes the one-party state: the establishment and continued existence of (other) political parties is made a criminal offense, the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring is passed, the Reich Concordat is passed by Hitler cabinet
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July 20, 1933:
- Conclusion of the Reich Concordat between the German Reich and the Holy See
- November 12, 1933:
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December 1, 1933:
- Law to ensure the unity of party and state : the NSDAP is recognized “after the victory of the National Socialist Revolution” as “the bearer of the German state idea and connected with the state”; the deputy leader and the SA chief become members of the Reich government
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December 15, 1933:
- On January 1, 1934, the Prussian Municipal Constitutional Act unified all municipal constitutions in force in Prussia ; Mayors as community leaders are appointed for twelve years without election and can make all decisions in the community according to the leader principle without a community council.
Events from January 1, 1934
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January 20, 1934:
- the law on the order of national labor introduced the leader principle in the economy, the DAF was incorporated into the NSDAP
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January 30, 1934:
- With the “ Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich ”, the federal structure of the Weimar Republic is abolished, the sovereign rights of the states are transferred to the Reich, and the government is given the right to set new constitutional law
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February 14, 1934:
- The Reichsrat and consequently the participation of the Länder in the Reich legislation is abolished by law
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June 30, 1934:
- the " Röhm Putsch " serves as a pretext for internal party purges and a further concentration of power in the party, in the so-called " Night of Long Knives " the leadership of the SA is smashed, and former political opponents such as Kurt von Schleicher are murdered
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August 1, 1934:
- Law on the State of the German Reich : the Office of the President is combined with that of the Chancellor, the existing powers of the President go to Adolf Hitler on
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August 2, 1934:
- Reich President von Hindenburg dies at Gut Neudeck , Hitler gives himself the title "Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor"
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August 19, 1934:
- Referendum to merge the offices of the Reich President and the Reich Chancellor in the person of Adolf Hitler , the following day the Reichswehr takes the oath of leadership . As a result, all important offices are united under Hitler, there are no longer any control bodies.
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April 1, 1935:
- the unified German municipal code of 30 January 1935 comes into force: it abolishes the previous federally structured and often only on paper municipal constitutional law of the German states
literature
- Karl Dietrich Bracher , Wolfgang Sauer, Gerhard Schulz (ed.): The National Socialist seizure of power. Studies on the establishment of the totalitarian system of rule in Germany in 1933/34 . Westdeutscher Verlag, Cologne [u. a.] 1960 (= writings of the Institute for Political Science 14, ISSN 0522-9677 ); 3 volumes. Ullstein, Berlin a. a. 1974.
- Martin Broszat : The seizure of power. The rise of the NSDAP and the destruction of the Weimar Republic . dtv, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-04516-7 .
- Richard J. Evans : The Third Reich . Volume 1, Ascent . Translated by Holger Fliessbach and Udo Rennert, DVA, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-421-05652-8 .
- Gotthard Jasper : The failed taming. Paths to Hitler's seizure of power 1930–1934 . edition suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-11270-8 .
- Wolfgang Michalka (ed.): The National Socialist seizure of power. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1984, ISBN 3-506-99374-7 (= UTB , vol. 1329).
Web links
- Reinhard Sturm: Weimar Republic / Destruction of Democracy 1930–1933 Federal Agency for Civic Education , December 23, 2011
- Michael Wildt : Conquest of power in 1933 Federal Agency for Civic Education , May 24, 2012
- National Socialism: Rise and Rule Federal Agency for Civic Education , Information on Civic Education No. 314/2012
- Arnulf Scriba: Establishing the Nazi Rule Timeline (LeMO) , June 22, 2015
- Decrees, ordinances and emergency ordinances of the Reich President dokumentarchiv.de
- Timeline of the seizure of power in 1933 in the memorial workshop in Norderstedt
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ralf Georg Reuth (Ed.): Joseph Goebbels Tagebücher , Vol. 2, Piper, Munich, 2nd edition 2000, ISBN 3-492-25284-2 , p. 757.
- ↑ RGBl. 1933 I, pp. 85-87
- ^ Helmut Heiber : Joseph Goebbels , Colloquium, Berlin (West) 1962, p. 129; Reprinted in 1988 by dtv, Munich: ISBN 3-423-01095-7 .
- ↑ RGBl. 1933 I, p. 135
- ↑ Law to remedy the plight of the people and the Reich of March 24, 1933, in: 100 (0) key documents on German history in the 20th century , Bayerische Staatsbibliothek .
- ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Police in the Nazi State: When the "friend and helper" became a murderer Die Welt , March 23, 2011.
- ↑ The "Third Reich" in the interwar period and world war ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the German Police University , accessed on August 4, 2017.
- ↑ Zdenek Zofka: The emergence of the Nazi repression system or: The seizure of power by Heinrich Himmler ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Bavarian State Center for Political Education, 2004
- ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Original of Hitler's Gestapo law discovered Die Welt , November 15, 2013.
- ↑ Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Goseriede 4 , in: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 135.
- ↑ Everything will be done to erase the ugly traces in the area of the provincial administration that the so-called modern art movement, misled by Jews, has left here and there. In the venerable Goethe Theater in Lauchstädt, I found out with indignation that this space, sanctified by our great German poet, had been disguised in a horrible way by graffiti that had nothing to do with art. I have ordered that the cultural shame be wiped out immediately. The work is already in progress. The stage framing of the Goethetheater will be restored in the form that Goethe gave it. In this act of restoring the original condition of this sacred space, see the symbol that National Socialism completely wiped out everything foreign and bad from the cultural sites of the German people. (Measures taken by the governor in the Lauchstädter Goetheater; Magdeburgische Zeitung , June 1, 1933, No. 277, main edition); see. https://sites.google.com/site/charlescrodel/home/kunstverbrnung The burning of art on May 30th / 31st, 1933 and the destruction of the painting class and graphic workshop at Giebichenstein Castle.
- ^ Anton Ritthaler : A stage on Hitler's path to undivided power. Hugenberg's resignation as Reich Minister. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , 2nd issue / April 1960, pp. 193–219 (PDF; 1.4 MB).
- ^ Hans W. Schmuhl, The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927–1945 , Springer Verlag, 2008, p. 130.
- ↑ Law on the swearing in of civil servants and soldiers of the Wehrmacht of August 20, 1934 (full text)