Why it took just 18 months for Hitler to become supreme dictator of Germany

The Nazi Party grew out of Germany’s defeat in World War I and the national humiliation caused by the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed harsh territorial losses and military restrictions and demanded crushing reparations totalling 132 billion gold marks.

As a result, many Germans viewed the Weimar government, which had signed the treaty in 1919, as weak and illegitimate.

Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers' Party that same year, and by 1921, he had taken full control of its leadership, renaming it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), and he changed its purpose into a vehicle promoting nationalism and antisemitism, while also opposing communism. 

In the early 1920s, the party struggled to reach mainstream voters, particularly after the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, which resulted in Hitler’s imprisonment.

During his time in prison, he had written Mein Kampf, which was a political manifesto that had outlined his vision for Germany’s future and had blamed communists, Jews, and the democratic system for the country’s collapse.

After his release, Hitler had reorganised the party, had built up local branches, and had formed the SA (Sturmabteilung) to intimidate opponents and maintain control at rallies.

The SA's street presence gave the party an appearance of strength and allowed it to stop opposition through violence. 

Once the Great Depression had devastated Germany’s economy after 1929, the Nazis won new support.

With over six million unemployed by 1932 and widespread suffering, voters turned to parties promising radical change.

Through orchestrated propaganda campaigns led by Joseph Goebbels that combined street-level agitation with promises to restore German pride, the Nazis attracted support from workers, business owners, rural communities, and war veterans.

In the July 1932 Reichstag elections, the Nazis had won 230 seats, which made them the largest party in parliament, though they still lacked a majority.

Political chaos followed as other parties refused to cooperate, and government after government collapsed in rapid succession. 

President Paul von Hindenburg initially refused to appoint Hitler as Chancellor.

Several short-lived chancellors came and went, including Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, and Kurt von Schleicher, none of whom could stabilise the Reichstag or secure lasting support.

Conservative elites, particularly von Papen, believed they could use Hitler’s popularity with the masses to restore national unity while keeping him in check through a controlled cabinet. 

So, on 30 January 1933, Hitler received the Chancellorship in a cabinet composed mostly of conservatives and non-Nazis.

Just three out of eleven ministers came from the Nazi Party, yet the position gave Hitler command over the police and access to the parts of government.

From the outset, he exploited this authority to advance party objectives, silence political opponents, and orchestrate national propaganda efforts through Goebbels’ newly established Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. 

Within days of taking office, Hitler pushed for new elections scheduled for 5 March 1933.

In the lead-up, he used the president's emergency powers under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permitted rule by decree without parliamentary consent, to restrict civil liberties, and he authorised mass arrests of communist leaders and shut down newspapers, actions that also permitted the SA to use violence against rival parties.

Through both legal tools and street-level intimidation, the Nazis tilted the political playing field in their favour. 

On the night of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building caught fire. Police arrested Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, at the scene, and Nazi leaders immediately claimed that this was the start of a wider communist uprising.

Within hours, Hitler used the event to crush remaining opposition and expand state control. 

The next morning, President Hindenburg, under Hitler’s influence, signed the Decree for the Protection of People and State, which suspended key constitutional rights by removing freedom of speech and assembly and which eroded protection from arbitrary arrest.

The regime used this decree to arrest over 4,000 communists within days and shut down leftist organisations and newspapers, cutting off their ability to participate in the election.

The Gestapo, founded by Hermann Göring in April 1933 as the Prussian secret police, became a national force under Heinrich Himmler after it came under SS control in April 1934 to hunt down enemies of the state. 

In the March 1933 election, the Nazi Party failed to win an outright majority, securing 288 out of 647 seats, though the arrests and exclusions of communist and some Social Democratic deputies made it easier for the Nazis to reach the two-thirds majority required to pass legislation.

However, their alliance with the DNVP gave them a working majority, and with the communists either arrested or in hiding, the Nazis held the momentum required to pass sweeping laws.

Hitler had cleared the political field and now moved to make his powers permanent. 

On 23 March 1933, Hitler brought the Enabling Act before the Reichstag, proposing a law that would allow his cabinet to enact legislation without parliamentary consent for four years.

Officially titled The Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich, the bill required a two-thirds majority to pass, which meant that Hitler needed support from parties beyond the Nazi-DNVP coalition. 

Through promises to protect Catholic institutions and the independence of the Church, Hitler secured the support of the Centre Party, led by Ludwig Kaas, a Catholic priest with strong ties to the Vatican.

Meanwhile, SA guards surrounded the Kroll Opera House, where the Reichstag met, and created an atmosphere of fear.

Communist deputies had already been arrested or excluded, and Social Democrats who opposed the bill were shouted down or intimidated. 

Once the act had passed by 444 votes to 94, Hitler possessed near-total authority to pass laws without parliamentary oversight.

Using this power, the Nazis outlawed all other political parties by July 1933 and dissolved labour unions, replacing them with the Nazi-controlled German Labour Front.

State governments were removed or brought under Nazi control, and the courts lost their independence.

These steps were part of a wider process known as Gleichschaltung, in which Nazi control was imposed across all aspects of society. 

By 1934, Hitler’s regime appeared stable on the surface, but threats inside the party remained.

Ernst Röhm, the SA’s leader, planned to merge the SA with the army and take over Germany’s military command.

With over three million members, the SA had become a state within a state, and Röhm’s behaviour alarmed conservative politicians, the army, and other senior Nazi figures.

The army, limited by Versailles to 100,000 men, viewed the SA as a dangerous rival. 

To keep the loyalty of the Reichswehr, Hitler made a decision to eliminate Röhm and other SA leaders. Between 30 June and 2 July 1934, in an event known as the Night of the Long Knives, SS units under Heinrich Himmler arrested and executed dozens of SA commanders.

Hitler also used the purge to remove political rivals and former allies, including General Schleicher and Gregor Strasser.

Historians estimate that between 85 and 200 people were killed, although the official Nazi count listed only 74 executions. 

The army's reaction secured its support for Hitler. By removing the SA as a threat and publicly aligning himself with traditional military values, Hitler secured the army’s trust.

Publicly, he said that his actions had protected Germany from civil war. Parliament passed a law, which made the killings legal after the fact.

The success of the purge confirmed Hitler’s control over both the Nazi Party and the state. 

On 2 August 1934, President Hindenburg died of natural causes at his estate in Neudeck.

Instead of holding new elections as required by the Weimar Constitution, Hitler merged the offices of Chancellor and President into one new position: Führer and Reich Chancellor.

This gave him full control over the state’s executive and legislative roles, completing the transformation of Germany into a dictatorship. 

Immediately after Hindenburg’s death, the army took a loyalty oath to Hitler as an individual rather than to the constitution or to the German state.

This oath showed the final transfer of loyalty and made the military personally tied to the Nazi regime.

In a national referendum held on 19 August 1934, the regime claimed that 88.1% of voters approved Hitler’s new role, though the vote occurred under conditions of state censorship and propaganda that the regime used alongside widespread intimidation.

From that point forward, no institution or individual in Germany held the legal or practical power to challenge Hitler’s authority. 

By August 1934, the Weimar Republic had ceased to exist, Hitler’s word had become law.