CONSOLIDATION OF POWER-COMMUNISTS-ENABLING ACT- INTIMIDATION-ELECTION Immediately after the Fire, the Nazis started attacking their political opponents, especially the Communists. They effectively did this by convincing President Hindenburg to issue the Emergency Decree for the protection of the People and the State (28 February 1933) to give them the ability to increase their attacks on their political opponents. About 100,000 leaders were arrested following the Emergency Decree. It removed the right of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, among other rights, and allowed the police to investigate freely, without restraints. The Decree also allowed the Nazis to arrest and imprison political opponents without a specific charge. On top of it all, it allowed the central government to take over the local state government, Länder, and introduced the death penalty for certain offences. It may have been expected …show more content…
that the Nazis would win the elections, now that the communists- their main political enemies- were gotten rid of. However, this was not the case. The Nazi party failed to win the majority of the March 5 elections, polling 43.9% nationally. This was an increase of 10.8% and 5.5 million from the elections of November 1932. Tis showed that the Reichstag Fire did not fully contribute to the Nazi consolidation of power. Despite this, Hitler was able to bring up the Enabling Act on the 23rd of March, which received 441 votes for and 94 against (all of which were Social Democrats). This happened to be so as all the communist leaders were banned (Emergency Decree) and the Nazis successfully won the support of the Central party (the Church). There were a number of reasons why 74 deputies were won over to vote for the Enabling Act, the most obvious one being that they had no wish to suffer the same fate as the Communists at the hands of the Nazis. The Enabling Act’s major advantage for Hitler was that it allowed him to make laws for the next 4 years without the consent of the Reichstag. His dictatorship was also strengthened by the banning of all other political parties in July 1933 (apart from the NSDAP- the National Socialist German Workers Party), and of the Reichsrat and state parliaments in January 1934. Within a year, any opponents (or potential opponents) of the Nazis have either fled Germany or been taken to concentration camps run by the SS, Hitler’s personal army. However, Hitler was not entirely secure. The leading officers of the army were not impressed with him, and did not fully trust the SA and their leader, Ernst Röhm. The SA were a badly disciplined force and were seen as ruthless. In addition to that. Röhm talked of making the SA Germany’s second army. Hitler himself was suspicious of Röhm, fearing that his control over 4 million SA men made him a dangerous opponent. Hitler had to choose between the army and the SA. He made a choice and acted brutally. On the weekend of 29th-30th of June, SS squads broke in to the houses of Röhm and other leading people of the SA and arrested them. Hitler accused Röhm on planning to overthrow and murder him. Over that weekend, Röhm and around 400 other people were executed, including the former chancellor von Schleicher. Although the killing took place over the weekend, this elimination of SA leaders came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives. It was after this that the army was prepared to permit Hitler the office of head of state. When Hindenburg died a few weeks later, Hitler joined up the positions of Chancellor and President to one: Führer. The army took an oath of loyalty towards Hitler alone. CAUSES OF THE FIRE Hitler took advantage of the Fire and wrongly accused the Communists for planning an uprising to overthrow the state, using the evidence that a young Dutch communist, known as Marinus Van Der Lubbe, was found on the scene in possession of fire lighters. He was charged with arson and was sent on trial. Marinus claimed that he was on the act alone. Most historians accepted his confession, but some argued that the Nazis set him up to take the blame for the Fire, which they started themselves. At the time, many people either thought the fire was the work of a madman, or the Nazis themselves. FOREIGN RESPONSES TO THE REICHSTAG FIRE Foreign newspapers made it clear that the Fire was probably started by the Nazis.
Willi Frischauer, the Berlin correspondent for the Vienna newspaper, Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, commented on the night of the Fire that he was sure that the Nazis were behind the Fire – “there can scarcely be any doubt that the fire which is now destroying the Reichstag was set by henchmen of the Hitler government. By all appearances, the arsonists used the underground passage connecting the Reichstag to the palace of its president, Hermann Göring.” The British journalist, Seftan Delmer, agreed with this viewpoint – “the arson of the German Parliament building was allegedly the work of a Communist-sympathizing Dutchman, van der Lubbe. More probably, the fire was started by the Nazis, who used the incident as a pretext to outlaw political opposition and impose dictatorship… the fire broke out at 9:45 tonight in the Assembly Hall of the Reichstag. It had been laid in five different comers, and there is no doubt whatsoever that it was the handiwork of
incendiaries.” As said before, most of the German people had the same viewpoint. One Victor Klemperer wrote in his diary: “eight days before the election the clumsy business of the Reichstag Fire-cannot imagine that anyone really believes in Communist perpetrators instead of aid Nazi work. Then the wild prohibitions and acts of violence. And on top of that the never-ending propaganda in the street, on the radio etc.” TOTALITARIAN STATE The Reichstag Fire was big factor in giving Hitler the ability to turn Germany into a totalitarian state. It is because of the Reichstag Fire that Hitler was able to pass the Enabling Act, which basically gave him the ability to pass laws without the government’s consent. This was one of the many steps Hitler took to get what he wanted, which was to become a dictator.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
Before the events of 9/11 the US had been attacked before and we were aware of possible threats. However, these threats, specifically those of Al-Qaeda were not taken seriously by American foreign policy makers or regular Americans alike, so on September 11, 2001 Americans were truly shocked by the scale of devastation and loss of life that occurred. The effect these attacks had on America was incredible. In the years that followed Americans became fearful and discriminatory of religious groups; the government created the Department of Homeland Security and enacted stricter search and seizure laws, and America’s foreign policy became defined by unilateral decision making and preemptive war.
...Wolf Israelski. The use of sources like the Staatsburgerzeitung gives a unique perspective because they were reporting as soon as these events happen. They offer the direct opinion of the public and were firsthand accounts.
The ‘Night and Fog Decree’ was issued by Adolf Hitler on December 7th 1941. The ‘Night and Fog Decree’ (Nacht und Nebel Erlass) bypassed all forms of basic law and was an order from Hitler to his secret police to murder anyone in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe who was deemed to be
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
The City of Detroit, Michigan, seems to be a city on the decline in America. Job prospects some of the lowest in the country and one of the only cities to be shrinking, rather than growing. There are a lot of problems Detroit is facing, one of them is there incidence rate for fires. Detroit is the number one city in America for house fires, not to mention their high rate of fires in the many vacant buildings throughout the city. There are many socioeconomic factors with the city that make the incident rates rise, and response less effective.
Bill Gates, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, states, “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” Instead of only looking at the advancements that his business, Microsoft, has made, Gates evaluates and learns from the mistakes or failures he’s also made, and finds ways to prevent them from happening again. Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” is about all the people or events that made a large impact on the world from 1950 to 1989 and how the United States was not the main cause of all the problems going on. A majority, if not all of the topics of this song are things that had negative impacts on the world. Mary Cornish’s poem “Numbers” is about the use and power of numbers. The main idea of the poem is how even though something may be subtracted from one thing, whatever is subtracted is usually added to another thing. The lyrics of the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel incorporates
In the case, “Facing a Fire” prepared by Ann Buchholtz, there are several problems and issues to identify in determining if Herman Singer should rebuild the factory due to a fire or retire on his insurance proceeds. I believe that this case is about social reform and self-interest. I think that Singer needs to ask himself, what is in the firm’s best economic interests. There are several things to question within this case, what should Herman Singer do and why, should he rebuild the factory or begin retirement, if he rebuilds, should he relocate the firm to an area where wages are lower and what provisions, if any, should Singer make for his employees as well as for the community?
sure,on the Sunday evening of October 8, 1871 a blaze started in Mrs. O' leary's
The Nazi Party, controlled by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. In 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi government began to take over. Hitler became a very influential speaker and attracted new members to his party by blaming Jews for Germany’s problems and developed a concept of a “master race.” The Nazis believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jewish people were a threat to the German racial community and also targeted other groups because of their “perceived racial inferiority” such as Gypsies, disabled persons, Polish people and Russians as well as many others. In 1938, Jewish people were banned from public places in Germany and many were sent to concentration camps where they were either murdered or forced to work. Many individuals and groups attempted to resist Nazism in Germany, but were unsuccessful. The White Rose, The Red Orchestra and the Kreisau Circle all advocated non-violent resistance to oppose the Nazi regime and even with the high risk of getting caught and potentially killed, the courageous members of these groups went after what they believed was right despite the serious consequences.
As Hitler was rising in power, his plan all along was to “make Germany better,” as he thought he was doing. In his eyes, making Germany better was everyone being equal. He wasn’t going to hesitate to take the first chance he could to jump on the Jews. He would act on any little reason he could. A German official was assassinated in Paris and Germans were angry because it was in the hands of a Jewish teenager. It gave the Germans a chance to attack at the Jews (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). There were a lot of unnecessary laws passed that were meant to take away the Jewish peoples happiness. For example, they had a curfew of 9:00 pm and 5:00 am in the summer, and 8:00 pm and 6:00 am in the winter. Kristallnacht, or otherwise named, The Night of the Broken, was like a turning point for the Jewish people that started off the Holocaust (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise). Hitler made a lot of laws like the one stated above and continued to do so to try and get a reaction out of them.
On April 1, 1933, the Nazis started their first action against the Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish- run businesses. About five months later, the Nuremberg Laws were issued on September 15, 1935. These excluded Jews from public life and also took away their citizenship as well. On November 9-10, 1938; burning of synagogues and destroying of Jewish business took place. Jews were physically attacked and about 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. This night was also known as “Kristallnacht” or “Night of Broken Glass”. Also on November 9th Hershel Grynszpan, a 17 year old Jewish boy, shot Ernest vom Rath because he was departed from his family. Rath was the third secretary in the Ger...
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
Though they were not wanted, “Fires were not uncommon in seventeenth-century London” (Cowie, 59). Fires weren’t the only things that London residents worried about though. In 1665 a tragedy known as the Black Plague had occurred and killed many people in the city and though the plague was gone “People continued to fear another outbreak of plague for the rest of the seventeenth century” (Cowie, 56-57). The Great Fire of London was a tragedy that destroyed a whole city and scared all the people who inhabited it. Just as the city was recovering from the Great Plague, the inhabitants had to flee the city once again- this time not as a result of a disease, but the result of a human accident (“The Great Fire of London of 1666”, 1).
The Nuremberg Laws originated at a rally held by the NAZI Party in Nuremberg on September 15, 1935. The laws, which were divided into seven sections, were designed by Adolf Hitler himself (Britannica). The majority of the laws took effect in 1935, but every law was active by 1938 (USHMM). The purpose of the Nuremberg Laws was to take away the rights of the Jewish people living in NAZI Germany and to further promote the cause of the party, which was to blame Germany’s troubles on the Jews (Owlnet). Along with this, the Nuremberg Laws also were a source of propaganda for the regime.