Third Reich Day by Day: July 1933

The Nazis gained power via the ballot box, and some political dealings. But once in power Hitler quickly consolidated his control over the German state. New laws were introduced giving him dictatorial power, their passage made easier by the Reichstag fire in February. From then on, Nazi Germany became a centrally controlled totalitarian regime.

4 July

Germany, Legal

Decrees dissolving political parties: DVP and Bavarian Party.

5 July

Germany, Legal

Decrees dissolving political parties: the Centre Party.

8 July

Germany, Treaties

Dr Robert Ley (seated in the front of the car next to the driver), the head of the German Labour Front.
Dr Robert Ley (seated in the front of the car next to the driver), the head of the German Labour Front.
The reality of Nazi power: an SA man stands outside a Jewish shop in Berlin as the boycott of Jewish businesses begins.
The reality of Nazi power: an SA man stands outside a Jewish shop in Berlin as the boycott of Jewish businesses begins.

Concordat between Germany and the Vatican. Negotiated by the Catholic Franz von Papen, it conferred a certain legitimacy on the Nazi regime. Hitler sought to end Vatican support for the Catholic Centre Party while he proceeded to subordinate the churches and to corrupt Christianity into a state-centred form of neo-paganism. Pope Pius XI, like every other European statesmen after him, thought that he could appease and moderate the Nazis.

The Concordat gives Germans the right to practise religion and allows the church to administer itself. In return, Catholic priests are not to take part in politics. Some have charged that the Vatican, lured by guarantees for its schools and other institutions, has secured the Concordat by sacrificing the Centre Party, which had fought the Kulturkampf (Culture Battle). In fact, Pius XI does not believe that Catholic political action anywhere should serve as the primary means of defending church interests. Furthermore, it is clear from the beginning of July that Hitler does not need the Concordat to remove the clergy from German politics.

14 July

Germany, Legal

Law against the Establishment of Parties is introduced.

15 July

Germany, Legal

Reich Regulations for the Corporate Reorganization of Agriculture. German agriculture is in dire straits, and under Minister of Agriculture Walter Darré the Nazis are making genuine efforts to improve the lot of German farmers.