On January 30, 1933, at 10:45 am, in the Chancellery Building, Germany's leaders met to decide the future of their country. Each man is accompanied by fear. As a result, each was determined to end the Weimar Republic and establishing, as historian Peter Fritzsche writes in Hitler's First Hundred Days: When Germans Embraced the Third Reich, an authoritarian government. Why? Because they feared the most influential and oldest party, the Social Democratic Party. And its Jewish leadership!
Germany's 84-year-old president Paul von Hindenburg, in his office at the Chancellery, waiting to hear the decision, sent his chief negotiator Joseph von Papen to confer with the right-wing German National People's Party and press tycoon Alfred Hugenberg and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazi Party), Adolph Hitler. The loser of the 1932 elections, despite huge turn outs at his rallies that averaged 100,000 people, received only 30% of the vote to Hindenburg's 49.6%, writes Fritzsche. Yet, here was Hitler, without the experience of these seasoned politicians, deciding the fate of Germany. Here he was now the leader of the nation's largest party, thanks to an increase in street violence and thuggery, Hitler at least won the attention of those leaders at the table.
As Fritzsche writes, the three men were unified in their hatred of the socialists and the Communists, but Hugenberg was weary of the "loud" rabblerouser. Hugenberg held out while Papen supported his boss, a man Hitler despised.
It was Hitler's plan to replace Hindenburg, to end the Republic by removing its leader. If Hitler succeeds in gaining Hugenberg's trust and vote, writes Fritzsche, the Nazi Party would have time to "revise the constitution and put emergency powers in his own hands." He would have to convince Hugenberg that his plan represented the "'legal'" path to a "'total'" authoritarian solution that would once and for all do away with the Weimar Republic.
In fact, Fritzsche writes, Hitler's plan, "to dismantle the power of the presidency and consolidate the party's power, all without any constraint or arbitrary rule or revolutionary ambition," would do away with Hindenburg, Papen, and Hugenberg. He saw himself as a major Party leader on his way to becoming a dictator. The last thing on Hitler's mind was selecting individuals to serve in Hindenburg's cabinet! By the time Otto Meissner enters the room, Hugenberg has agreed to Hitler's plan.
Meissner, Hindenburg's chief of staff, reminds the men of the time. A quarter past eleven! Hindenburg is waiting! And time seemed to favor Hitler. As Fritzsche writes, "the conspirators walked up the stairs to Hindenburg's office, and at eleven thirty the president administered the oath of office to Adolf Hitler, who became Germany's new chancellor."
"Better Hitler than Weimar." And the rest, as they say, is history!
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
