Hitler’s „takeover”

On 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed Reich Chancellor by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg. The National Socialists propagandise this long-awaited day as the „Day of the Takeover“ and celebrate it with great pathos and a torchlight parade of Brown Shirts through the Brandenburg Gate.

© AdsD The first Hitler cabinet (sitting left to right): Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler, Franz von Papen

Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen believes he has contained Hitler within a coalition government. Beside the „Führer“, only two other National Socialists are called into the government: Wilhelm Frick as Interior Minister and Hermann Göring as Minister Without Portfolio. At first the new government continues to act as a presidential cabinet without any kind of parliamentary oversight. However, Hitler quickly makes it clear that his „cabinet of national concentration“ merely serves to broaden the power of his own party. With the goal of winning a dominant position in the Reichstag, the Reich Chancellor schedules new elections for 5 March 1933.