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military dictatorship. Accordingly, as early as in April 1934, Hitler began to lay plans for altering the rules of succession yet again, after he had learned that
Hindenburg would likely die before the year was out. To that end, Hitler sought to persuade the top military commanders to support him as Hindenburg's successor. According to the emergency powers granted to it by the
404:
registered voters. In any case, the referendum, along with all attempts to make Hitler head of state and head of government, was illegal and unconstitutional, as it violated
Article 2 of the Enabling Act. Nevertheless, this went unchallenged both legally and by the public. Official figures showed the law was approved with 89.93% of the vote on a turnout of 95.7%.
374:. This document was found by the president's son and, through Vice Chancellor Papen, was turned over to Hitler to whom it was addressed. Hitler told Papen he would decide at a later time if and when it would be published; it never was. The fact that it was never found among the thousands of captured secret government documents at the end of
348:
President
Hindenburg died on 2 August, the day after enactment of the law. Hitler immediately assumed the powers and duties of the presidency in accordance with the law and was styled "Führer und Reichskanzler" (Leader and Reich Chancellor). As justification for these changes, Hitler claimed that the
249:
The passage of the
Enabling Act and the banning of all other parties left the president's power to dismiss the chancellor as the only remedy by which Hitler could be legally removed from office, and thus the only check on his power. This fact was made clear to Hitler in July 1934, when Hindenburg was
245:
or the Reich
President. In certain circumstances, these laws could deviate from the constitution. However, one such exception was in Article 2 of the Act, which stipulated that "the rights of the President remain unaffected." This provision has long been interpreted to forbid Hitler from attempting
265:
On 1 August 1934, Hindenburg's physicians told Hitler that the president had less than twenty-four hours to live. Hitler convened the cabinet that very evening. It immediately enacted the "Law
Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich" that formally combined the positions of Reich President
403:
The referendum took place in an atmosphere of voter intimidation and outright electoral fraud. In some polling stations, ballots were pre-marked as "yes" votes; in others, spoiled ballots were counted as favorable votes; and votes tallied in some constituencies actually exceeded the number of
236:
Hitler, who had been appointed Reich
Chancellor on 30 January 1933, now saw this arrangement as a potential threat, since the new president would have the authority to dismiss him. For some time he had been apprehensive of the president and conservative forces in the army replacing him with a
214:
The constitution had originally decreed that in the event of a presidential vacancy, the chancellor was to temporarily execute the duties of the office until a new presidential election could be arranged. This was the procedure that was followed when the first Reich
President
357:
My father had himself seen in Adolf Hitler his own direct successor as head of the German state, and I am acting in accordance with my father's intention when I call on all German men and women to vote for the handing over of my father's office to the Führer and Reich
349:
presidency had become so linked with
Hindenburg that the title Reich President was "inseparably united" with him and should not be used again. In addition, he called for a referendum on 19 August to ratify these actions. The day before the balloting,
311:
The office of Reich
President will be combined with that of Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. He will select his deputy.
424:
so that all members of the armed forces swore unconditional allegiance, not to the Republic or to the constitution, but to Hitler personally. The oath was administered to all members of the armed forces on 2 August 1934.
233:. Ironically, the Nazis had proposed this change ahead of Hitler's assumption of power, in order to allay fears of the presidency also falling under Hitler's control were he to become chancellor.
250:
so outraged by escalating Nazi excesses that he threatened to sack Hitler and declare martial law unless Hitler acted immediately to defuse the tension. Hitler responded by ordering the
353:, the late president's son, delivered a nationwide radio speech in favor of the referendum in which he claimed that his father had endorsed Hitler as his successor:
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By merging the two offices in his person, Hitler ensured that he could never be dismissed as chancellor by the head of state. By becoming Supreme Commander of the
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died in 1925. However, according to a constitutional amendment passed in December 1932 regarding any future presidential succession, the President of the
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argues for the fact that it most likely was destroyed. Also noteworthy was the promotion of Oskar von Hindenburg, a career
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as Reich President, thereby resurrecting the office he had effectively usurped nearly 11 years earlier.
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225:(Supreme Court) replaced the chancellor as the interim Reich President. In 1934, this would have been
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This was a misrepresentation of the former president's true wishes. According to historian
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This law is effective as of the time of the death of Reich President von Hindenburg.
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The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated:
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Hitler remained head of state until his suicide on 30 April 1945. In his
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of the Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich in the
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was the Reich President, established by Part I, Section 3 of the
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Nazism 1919-1945, Volume 1: The Rise to Power 1919-1934
827:"Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich"
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Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich
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on 1 August 1934 that consolidated the positions of
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Gesetz über das Staatsoberhaupt des Deutschen Reichs
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Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich
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Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich
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187:In the summer of 1934, the presidency was held by
781:Noakes, Jeremy; Pridham, Geoffrey, eds. (1998) .
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180:and call new elections and held the power of
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484:"GERMANY: 'Something More Important"
400:shortly following the referendum.
203:to his country estate in Neudeck,
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804:. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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728:. New York: Harper Torchbooks.
246:to tamper with the presidency.
785:. University of Exeter Press.
231:German National People's Party
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327:The Reich Deputy Chancellor
882:Repealed German legislation
747:. New York: Penguin Books.
505:. 3 August 1934. p. 1.
269:Führer and Reich Chancellor
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872:Government of Nazi Germany
743:Evans, Richard J. (2005).
726:Hitler: A Study in Tyranny
501:"Nazi Chief Now Supreme".
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862:Constitutional amendments
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430:final political testament
195:to a seven-year term and
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800:Shirer, William (1960).
766:. W.W. Norton & Co.
745:The Third Reich in Power
663:, pp. 181, 227–229.
252:Night of the Long Knives
16:1934 law of Nazi Germany
372:constitutional monarchy
229:, then a member of the
40:of the Weimar Republic,
724:Bullock, Alan (1962).
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368:House of Hohenzollern
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877:Law of Nazi Germany
764:Hitler: A Biography
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518:, pp. 301–302.
490:. 19 December 1932.
418:Werner von Blomberg
254:, in which several
189:Paul von Hindenburg
162:Weimar Constitution
867:August 1934 events
577:. pp. 31–36.
530:, p. 214–215.
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37:Reichsadler
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637:Evans 2005
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315:Section 2
308:Section 1
260:Ernst Röhm
171:Reichswehr
148:Background
338:Aftermath
331:von Papen
243:Reichstag
177:Reichstag
97:Commenced
833:24 March
567:(2006).
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109:Repealed
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