Western Civilization

1) Hitler’s consolidation of power:

Enabling Act of March, 1933- goal or context

-extended the extraordinary powers he had been granted

- was passed by Germany’s Reichstag

-through this Act, Hitler established his dictatorship

- this act gave the Cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag

Sequence including dates: unitary state; political purges; trade unions; education; churches; media-censorship; purges of civil servants; associates; Jews; use of terror.

-Hitler wanted to make all aspects of German life revolve around his NAZI party

- before Hitler, Germany was a federal state in terms of structure- but now Germany was completely centralized- a federal state was now replaced by a unitary state

-outlaw any opposition group:

even the very moderate parties were dissolved- by July 1933, the Nazi party was recognized legally as the only political party in Germany

-bring unions/organizations under control

-fear of conversion/conspiracy brought them to arrest these trade unions, seize funds, etc.- subversion

-Hitler replaced these trade unions with Nazi controlled trade fronts

-close to 30% of civil servants were replaced

-German churches had enormous sway on the public and had the potential to change their minds- Hitler realized this

- he was most afraid of the catholics

- shut down catholic schools

-catholic youth organizations were also brought under attack

- the focus of all citizens was to be entirely, 100% on Hitler

- wanted to create a state-dominated state

-October 1933- the Press Law is issued by the Nazi government- many newspapers are shut down- to control the flow of information- radio was turned only to Nazi radio- Joseph Goebbels

-cirriculem of schools was now determined by the Nazi government

-1933-Nazis excluded Jews from Civil Service

- very early on, tried to stop people from shopping at Jewish stores, etc.

-1935- Nuremberg laws took campaign a step further

-persecution increased in...