As Hitler aimed to convert German to a dictatorship from a democracy, one key issue always undermined his efforts – his opposition. For Hitler to effectively gain power, he realised that he had to remove his opposition, for it was the other political parties and those who opposed his political aims that meant that he couldn’t get a majority of votes in the Reichstag and so couldn’t legitimately gain power. However, Hitler was able to tackle this task effectively through the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act and the Emergency Decree as well as the Night of the Long Knives, all of which quickly enabled to convert Germany to a one party state between 1933 and 1934.
The catalyst for Hitler’s removal of opposition, notably the communists, began on the 27th February 1933, during which the Reichstag Building, (the political centre for the affairs of Germany) was found burning heavily and a Dutch communist, Van der Lubbe, was caught red handed inside the building. The fact that the Reichstag building had been attacked so soon after Hitler had been made Chancellor, gave him reason accuse the Communists of plotting against his government and so he ordered Goering Prussian Police to imprison over 4000 Communist opponents. This effectively meant that within the space of one night, Hitler was effectively been able to rid the communist party of authoritative roles, leaving them without guidance and support, and enabling Hitler to exploit their weaknesses further. Furthermore, the fact that the Communist party had been so closely linked with the offence meant that it caused a decrease in support for the Communists, enabling the Nazis to get further votes and support for their own party; in fact, evidence that the Nazis were becoming increasing popular did exist, since during the next election Nazi votes went up from 196 to 288 seats. Not only this, but the idea that the Reichstag Fire had been such an important political symbol in Germany yet was now burnt to the ground, created sense of panic between Germans, that Hitler was able to exploit by presenting himself as having an answer to their problems, thereby enabling him to look like a strong leader, a ‘saviour for the Germans’, and allowing him to improve his political profile to the rest of the country. This would effectively mean that people’s trust in the Nazi party would increase as a result of the fact that Hitler showed such strong leadership skills in effectively dealing with a crisis. Although the Reichstag Fire enabled Hitler to effectively remove his main opposition (i.e. the Communist Party), he also used it to exploit this power over others further during the Emergency Decree, which was later extended into the Enabling Act.
