30 January 1933 - the appointment, and the plan that was already on the table that afternoon
event
He was appointed, not elected — and his cabinet was discussing how to make parliament irrelevant on the same afternoon he took office.
Who they are
Hindenburg as president, who made the appointment; Schleicher, who resigned; Papen as vice-chancellor; Hermann Goering and Wilhelm Frick in the cabinet for the Nazi party.
What they do
Schleicher resigned on 28 January 1933 after the president refused to dissolve parliament for him. Two days later, on 30 January, Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor.
How it works
A date correction worth having: the research that came back put Schleicher's resignation on 30 January. The German Historical Museum's own chronicle puts it on the 28th, after 57 days in office. Two days matter when the whole question is who moved first. And the minutes of Hitler's very first cabinet meeting, on the afternoon of the 30th, already record the ministers discussing how to get parliament to hand over its power — with one of them saying it would become possible once the Communist party had been suppressed.
Why it matters
The plan was not improvised after a fire four weeks later. It is in the minutes of day one, which is a different and more uncomfortable story than a government that seized its chance.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #202] **In plain terms:** he was appointed, not elected, into an office he held with three of eleven cabinet seats - and the instrument that would make that irrelevant was discussed by his cabinet on day one.
WHAT IS CARRIED: canon's hitler record already states 'Appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by President Hindenburg'. This record adds the two dates around it, from the German Historical Museum's chronicle: Schleicher resigned on 28 JANUARY 1933 - 'Da Hindenburg es auch ablehnt, den Reichstag aufzulösen, tritt Schleicher nach 57 Tagen als Reichskanzler zurück' - and Hindenburg appointed Hitler on the 30th. **The research pass placed Schleicher's resignation on 30 January; that is wrong by two days** and the error is recorded here because the engine will otherwise inherit it. The same chronicle records Papen as vice-chancellor with Goering and Frick entering the cabinet for the NSDAP.
THE FINDING FROM SCHNEIDER 1953, which is the reason this record is more than a date. Hitler had already demanded an enabling law during the failed November 1932 negotiations. And at the very first cabinet meeting, on the afternoon of 30 January 1933 - official minutes printed as Document 351-PS, IMT Vol. XXV p. 372 - the cabinet discussed how an enabling act might be obtained from the Reichstag. Hugenberg is minuted saying that 'nach der Unterdrückung der KPD sei die Annahme eines Ermächtigungsgesetzes durch den Reichstag möglich' - after the suppression of the Communist Party, the Reichstag's adoption of an enabling act would be possible. Papen is minuted preferring to ask the Reichstag first. The sequence that runs through the rest of this ripple is in the minutes of day one.
HELD OPEN: the composition of the 30 January cabinet by party, and the three-of-eleven denominator, arrived [PRIOR] in the research pass and are not minted. Held; name no holder.
Follow the trail
negotiated
Cologne, 4 January 1933 - the private meeting that closed an engine gap canon named itselfHitler-Papen, privately, at Kurt von Schroeder's house, 4 Jan 1933 - the account is Schroeder's own, postwar
the-office-taken
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)canon at that node: 'Appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by President Hindenburg'
planned-on-day-one
The Enabling Act, 23 March 1933 - the vote, the arithmetic, and the two numbers in the recordthe first cabinet meeting, afternoon of 30 Jan 1933 (351-PS, IMT XXV 372), already discussed obtaining an enabling act
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