Hitler was able to stay in power after 1933?

After Hitler was made chancellor in 1933 and Fuhrer after Hindenburgs death, there were a number of
factors that secured his status as Fuhrer with many legal and violent methods. His use of the Gestapo and the
SS was certainly important to his ability to stay in power after 1933. This was not the only reason why he
stayed in power, propaganda, his use of the state and party and social benefits all contributed to him staying
as Fuhrer. Of course being leader, Hitler himself was a reason with his personal skills as the leader. Fear of
the Gestapo and the SS was a important factor of this but their were certainly other reasons for Hitlers status
to be secured.

Fear of the Gestapo and the SS was a reason why Hitler stayed in power after 1933 as both organisations
techniques of spreading terror over Germany. This fear would have significantly reduced the number of
people and groups standing against the Nazis as everyone knew the consequences for their actions could be
severe. There is no doubt that the two organisations had a bad reputation for being very violent towards
opposition and people that upset Hitler but it is debatable whether they actually had a huge impact on
Hitlers ability to stay in power. The traditional view was that terror was a part of everyday life in Nazi
Germany but recent historians have challenged this view. An action of the SS was their slaughter of the
thuggish SA in the Night of the Long Knives which helped Hitler greatly as the SA appeared as a threat to
Hitler at the time and Hitler was not scared to use violent means to get rid of this threat. After this the SS
gained their reputation and became extremely powerful, emerging as the chief political arm of the Nazi party
and it was also found later by Sax, and American Historian that the SS was not just a police organisation, it
also was used to create the racially pure Volkmeingeschaft.

The Gestapo on the other hand had a traditional image of a Totalitarian police state shown in propaganda
and films but historians have recently questioned this view as the Gestapo had been found to only have
around 40,000 men for the whole of Germany and most of their work was prompted by public informers. So
the Gestapo was certainly not as important to Hitlers success as the SS.

The Nazi Propaganda was a reason why Hitler kept his power after 1933.Hitler and Goebbels knew how
important propaganda was from the very beginning of the Nazis and they had considerable resources put
towards the Nazi propaganda machine. They wanted to glorify the Nazi Regime, spread Nazi Ideology and
to win over the people. They made good use of technology such as bringing in the radio, making it cheap so
as many Germans could hear the Nazi messages as possible. Their control of the printing press was not as
easy as the radio, there were 4700 newspapers in Germany at the time and Goebbels struggled to gain
complete control of all of them but when they did control the majority of them, there was a decline in
newspaper sales. The creation of Nazi rituals was a part of the Nazi propaganda machine. These rituals
included the salute, the anthem and new public holidays to celebrate anniversaries of significant events such
as Hitlers birthday or the day he became chancellor. It is difficult to see how important the propaganda was
to Hitler and most historians agree that it strengthened Hitlers reputation and German nationalism. The
propaganda had actually failed in some areas such as denouncing the Christian Church or develop a
distinctive Nazi culture so the propaganda had not been entirely successful in Nazi Germany.

The use of the state and party was a factor that contributed to Hitlers success as well, Germany had been
made a one-party state with all other parties banned. Even thought Hitler did have this power now, he didnt
seem to have complete control over the state. He had definite control over the civil service, legal system and
the local government. There had been few changes to the civil service and it had become less important as
was the local government which as long the Gauleiters were taking Hitlers ideas then the local government
didnt pose any threat to the Nazis. The SS and Gestapo had been used to bring the courts and legal system
in order as they dealt with enemies to the party and this secured control for the Nazis. The party and the state
clashed, which was called dualism and confusion was created as their was often two different views on how
to run the country The party strengthened the Nazi regime by being turned into more than just an
organisation and competing for influence over the established state institutions.

The Nazis used social benefits as another method of persuading Germans to support their regime. It was a
plan called Volkmeingeschaftand it was a number of plans, each specifically aimed at a social group such
as small farmers or big businesses. For Industrial workers, they abolished Trade unions which already was a
move that the workers would have been unhappy at this decision but the Nazis set up the DAF, German
Labour Front. And the Beauty of Labour, which both attempted to improve working conditions. Although
these changes were thought to be good, the workers didnt actually benefit as it took a long time for wages to
actually rise and working hours had been increased for many workers so they were far from happy with the
Nazis as their conditions were worse off. The Nazis Plans for peasants and small farmers were that they
wrote off debts for them and made the Reich Food Estate and the Reich Entailed Law which gave security to
farmers and supervised agricultural production and wages for the farmers. Wages were lower in these rural
areas and the Reich Entailed Law caused family resentment because of its one child inheritance policy but
the farmers generally seemed to benefit from the Nazi regime.

The Big businesses would have been very important to Hitler as with the Businesses in support of the
regime, the workers for those businesses would follow as well and the Nazis did well to please the big
businesses by improving management salaries and increasing the share price index. The war also provided
big opportunities to take foreign land for these businesses so the Nazis had persuaded them to support their
regime. The Nazis also used social tools to control the population, they formed a group called the Hitler
Youth for the German youth which offered good opportunities for the young people but was really political
indoctrination for Hitler which would have helped Hitler gain followers for the future. Hitler used similar
methods in the education system with the system only used as a tool for consolidation with education being
dominated by teaching of subjects relating to Nazi ideas such as German nationalism. The use of social
benefits to help the Nazi regime was not entirely successful for Hitler but some of the benefits used certainly
contributed to Hitler staying in power after 1933 as social groups like the Big Businesses only benefited
from the Nazi policies.

Hitler was the leader at the time and for his regime to work and people to support him at the time it was
obvious he needed a good image and good leadership skills. There has always been a lot of historical debate
over whether Hitler was actually a great leader. He had unlimited power over Germany as it was a one party
state and he was the undisputed leader of that party. The traditional role is that Hitler was a powerful,
charismatic leader and he certainly appeared that way but there have been many new interpretations of his
real effect on Nazi Germany. The Intentionalist view was that Hitler played a key role in the development of
the Third Reich and the confusion and division in the government was a purposeful tool of divide and rule
which let Hitler maintain his absolute control. The Structuralist view is that Hitler had very little control
over the policies of the Third Reich. They say he was a weak leader and never could control the key
institutions like the army. Recently, Historian, Ian Kershaw has said that he believe that Hitler was crucial in
the shaping of the Third Reich and created and environment which had people that agreed with him around
him in his government, with those who had other ideas were got rid of, Kershaw called this the charismatic
domination. It is clear that is not certain that he was the powerful leader he was originally thought to be but
even though many historians have had their doubts and contrasting views, he must have had a reasonably
good image and leadership skills to control the country in the way he did as he did have unlimited power.
There were many reasons why Hitler was able to stay in power after 1933, propaganda may not have had a
huge influence over this but factors such as the use of the state and party and the use of social benefits
helped Hitler. Hitler himself is a debatable factor as many historians such the structuralists have said he was
a weak factor but the traditional view was that he was a strong leader with a good image which would have
undoubtedly helped him. Fear of the SS and Gestapo was an important factor as both organisations,
particularly the SS made an impact on everyday lives of the German people making sure they knew the
consequences of actions that opposed or upset Hitler, in Pastor Niemollers famous poem he had said that
most Germans were grateful that they were not being targeted like the many scapegoats in the country at the
time so were accepting of the Nazi regime.