January 30, 1933: Greed and Ignorance Usher in Adolf Hitler’s Regime

Hitler and the Nazi Party didn’t need a coup to attain power. He gained it by outsmarting Germany’s Weimar ruling class and the new business class known as the Conservative Elite. Their greed, combined with their ignorance, contributed to Hitler’s rise to power and the Third Reich. 

In 1928, President Hindenburg, an elite conservative, appointed Social Democrat Hermann Müller as Chancellor. His cabinet fell apart in March 1930 after failing to find a solution to the mass unemployment caused by the Great Depression.

Hindenburg next appointed the Centre Party’s Heinrich Brüning, who favored austerity. Under Brüning, the economy continued to spiral down, and unemployment increased. His attempt to ban the Nazi SA and SS alienated right-wing elites and Hindenburg. Hindenburg dismissed Brüning in May 1932. 

Hindenburg next appointed conservative aristocrat Franz von Papen as a figurehead Chancellor for a right-wing coalition. To get Nazi support, he lifted the ban on the SA. This caused Nazi violence to escalate. The “Cabinet of Barons” received a vote of no confidence in September 1932 from the Reichstag, forcing Papen to resign.

Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher lasted two months. Schleicher attempted to form a cross-party coalition that included trade unions and moderate Nazis, but failed. 

A few members of the Conservative Elite came up with a plan. Von Papen and the President’s Son Oskar, along with industrialists Hjalmar Schacht and Gustav Krupp, met secretly to outline their support of Hitler to Hindenburg. They believed they could control Hitler. They would use his popular support to destroy the political left and the Weimar Republic, which would remove most of their political opponents. Once Hitler did that, it would be easy to replace him with someone of their choice.

Their plan to get Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor worked. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933. However, they underestimated Hitler. Hitler used strategic manipulation of crises and legal tools to turn his limited chancellorship into a totalitarian dictatorship within months.