Germany WW2



The Riechstag The day that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany he immediately began forming his armies and began manipulating the German President, Hindenburg, into holding re-elections for Riechstag. This was all part of his plan to take over Germany. The Riechstag was basically Germany’s form of congress. After agreeing to hold the re-elections, President Hindenburg signed an emergency decree that put the German state of Prussia into the hands of Hitler confidant, Vice Chancellor Papen. Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia took control of the police. Prussia was Germany's biggest and most important state and included the capital of Berlin. Hitler could get Hindenburg to sign about anything that he put infront of him. The first thing that Göring did was replace a lot of the police with Nazi Loyal people, and people who won’t go against Hitler or any of his men. These new police were told not to interfere with the SA and SS under any circumstances. This meant that anyone who was being hurt in any way by a Nazi were screwed. The Nazi’s were practically allowed to go and kill a non-Nazi and nothing would happen to them at all. Göring also told his new head of police, not to show any mercy in anyway to communists or other people going against Hitler or the state. Göring and Goebbels, with Hitler's approval, thought of burning the Reichstag building and blaming the Communists. The Reichstag was the building in Berlin where the elected members of the republic met to conduct the daily business of government. The exact sequence of events will never be known, but Nazi storm troopers under the direction of Göring were also involved in torching the place. The storm troopers, led by SA leader Karl Ernst, used the underground tunnel that connected Göring's residence with the cellar in the Reichstag. They entered the building, scattered gasoline and incendiaries, then hurried back through the tunnel. After the fire, 51 anti-Nazi’s were murdered and many were picked up and arrested. So Hitler burned his Riechstag just to make Germany mad at the communists. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm