Background: This is Chapter 7 of Philipp Bouhler’s 1938 textbook on the history of the Nazi Party, intended for use in the schools.
The source: Philipp Bouhler, Kampf um Deutschland. Ein Lesebuch für die deutsche Jugend (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., Frz. Eher Nachf., 1939), pp. 93-95.
“Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor!”
The news shook Germany on 30 January 1933. Some thought of their sins against the movement and against Germany and feared the future, unless they were able to take their money across the border where they could continue to shoot their poisoned arrows at Germany under foreign protection. Those who had suffered over the past years thanked Providence for finally transforming things.
But one cannot put in words the feelings of the Führer and his followers who had sacrificed and suffered during the years of struggle. Everything passed before their eyes once again: the tough, apparently hopeless beginnings at building the movement, the struggle against all the other political forces in Germany, the battle with fate that opposed them, elections, marches, meetings, fights in meeting halls and on the streets, trials, prison terms, hospitals, the faces of murdered comrades who would never see the promised land...
Need, battle, sacrifice, pain, desperation, but also the beauty of an irresistible rise crowned with success, the joy in one’s own strength, in personal challenge and accomplishment, the inexpressible joy of a time of struggle and idealism, all this lived again in their thoughts and hearts.
As the Führer stood beside the old Reich President to receive the acclamation of hundreds of thousands at the Wilhelmplatz, he knew that he would master the enormous challenges that were before him. The unshakable faith that had brought him through the years of struggle gave him the strength to use the power fate had given him in a way that would serve the good of the people and the nation.
Beneath him passed his brown storm columns of freedom, drunk with the joy of long-awaited victory. The flames of their torches illuminated their bright faces, their beaming eyes. An ocean of light filled the January evening. The Swastika, the symbol of their struggle, the banner of their victory, flew above the streets...
The red mob responded with impotent rage. On the day of National Socialist victory, the Communists could add to their list of successes the murder of two more brave Germans. They made their last attempts. With deviltry that could only come from criminal minds, they attempted to organize armed resistance by subhumans in Germany. The burning of the Reichstag was supposed to be the torch that brought forth bloody insurrection.
They failed. The National Socialist government and its police were on guard. The Reichstag fire was quickly noticed, and rapid action hindered great troubles. The firmest measures were taken to restore order in Prussia. The Reichstag elections of 5 March proved that a large part of the people were behind the National Socialist revolution. The NSDAP had nearly half of all votes, and along with its allies held an absolute majority in the Reichstag. That provided the parliamentary foundation for the new course, though Adolf Hitler was firmly resolved to follow his path regardless, for it was the only way to give Germany its freedom.
The opponents, who still ruled several provinces, slowly and quietly had to surrender. The National Socialist movement took power everywhere. The People’s Party in Bavaria held out the longest. It had to give way on 16 March 1933.
On 21 March 1933, a German Reichstag assembled for the first time in Potsdam’s Garnison Church. At this historic place where the great Prussian kings are buried, a state ceremony ushered in a new epoch in German history.
Germany belonged once more to the Germans!
The way to a better future was open!
Adolf Hitler could begin building the Third Reich!
[Page copyright © 1998 by Randall L. Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]
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