Question

On January 30, 1933, President Hindelberg offered a patronage to ______.
1. Weimar Republic
2. US Representative
3. Hitler
4. Jewish

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Hitler

On January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, the highest position in the cabinet of minister, to Hitler. 

Background

• Germany feared revolution. As such, the Nazis’ consolidation of power relied on maintaining the illusion of a stable democracy.
• This essentially meant that the Nazis used the atmosphere of panic following the Reichstag Fire to put forward the Enabling Law.
• Once the Enabling Law was in place, the Nazis could bypass the Reichstag and rule by decree – seemingly creating laws that stabilised Germany and got rid of its ‘internal enemies’.
• In reality, the laws that the Nazi’s put forward secured their future as the sole ruling party in Germany.
• The support of respected individuals such as von Papen and Hindenburg’s son, Oskar von Hindenburg, gave the Nazis further legitimacy for these actions.
• The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. This meant, as well as removing other personal freedoms, that the Nazis could now imprison their political opposition for an indefinite period for any, or no, reason.
• The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. As such the Nazi’s justified this measure as implementing necessary security measures, rather than revealing their true motive – to remove opposition.
• The Nazis’ also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition ‘legally’.
• On the 2 May 1933 trade unions were banned. Just two months later, on 14 July 1933 the Nazis used the Enabling Act to ban all political parties except the Nazi Party.
• The Nazis also took steps to ensure they couldn’t be openly opposed in the press.
• Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. 
• These acts removed people’s ability to oppose the Nazi Party, in any form. However, it did so under the guise of legality, and ‘protecting’ the German people and their democracy.