Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 44, Tuesday 14 March 1933: The Weltbühne banned for six months as Goebbels is sworn in

Day 44 of 100

The Weltbühne banned for six months as Goebbels is sworn in

Berlin’s police president banned the left-wing weekly Die Weltbühne for half a year, Munich banned Das Tage-Buch, and the ban on the Social Democratic press in Prussia was extended overnight. Hindenburg swore in Goebbels as Propaganda Minister, while the Berlin papers reported that Theodor Wolff and Rudolf Olden had left for Paris. The Reichsbahn announced spring track work for some 90,000 men, and in London the Hamburg-born operetta star Anny Ahlers died after a fall.

Five men in long coats standing in a row on cobblestones in front of a brick gatehouse.
Carl von Ossietzky, editor of Die Weltbühne, outside Tegel prison on 10 May 1932 as he began a prison sentence, with (left to right) Kurt Grossmann, Rudolf Olden, Ossietzky, the lawyer Alfred Apfel and Kurt Rosenfeld. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-B0527-0001-861 / Unknown author Unknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Six weeks after Hitler’s appointment, the independent and left-wing press was being closed down title by title under the decree ‘for the protection of people and state’ of 28 February, the Reichstag Fire Decree. The ban on Die Weltbühne, the weekly associated with Carl von Ossietzky, ran ‘until 13 September inclusive’, and the whole Social Democratic periodical press in Prussia remained silenced for another fortnight. On the same day the papers noted that the editor of the Berliner Tageblatt, Theodor Wolff, and its leader-writer Rudolf Olden were in Paris, where the critic Alfred Kerr had already gone.

Laws and decrees

Signed Decree, Reich President (countersigned by the Reich Chancellor and Reich Defence Minister) RGBl. I S. 133 (Nr. 24, issued 22 March 1933)

Verordnung über die Hoheitszeichen der Wehrmacht

Decree on the national emblems of the armed forces

Restored the black-white-red imperial colours to the armed forces: a new war ensign without the black-red-gold canton, and the black-white-red cockade on caps and steel helmets in place of the Republic’s emblems.1,2

Read the full text in German and English

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Government midday, Berlin

    Hindenburg swears in Goebbels

    At midday the Reich President administered the oath required by the Reich Ministers Act to Joseph Goebbels, the new Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.3

  2. Propaganda Berlin; Munich

    Die Weltbühne and Das Tage-Buch banned; SPD press ban extended

    Citing the decree ‘for the protection of people and state’, the Berlin police president banned the political weekly Die Weltbühne for half a year, until 13 September. Munich police banned the weekly Das Tage-Buch for six months. The Prussian ban on the Social Democrats’ periodicals, due to expire on 14 March, was extended by fourteen days by a police radio message sent to all district governments during the night.4,5

  3. Opposition Berlin; Paris

    Theodor Wolff and Rudolf Olden in Paris

    Berlin papers reported that Theodor Wolff, editor-in-chief of the Berliner Tageblatt and a founder of the German Democratic Party, and the paper’s leader-writer Rudolf Olden, known for his work for human rights, were in Paris, where the critic Alfred Kerr had already moved. The Republican Judges’ League (Republikanischer Richterbund) announced that it had dissolved itself.5

  4. The states evening, Berlin

    Lippert promises a purge of Berlin’s administration

    Julius Lippert, leader of the Nazi group in the Berlin city council and newly made state commissioner for special duties in the capital, spoke on the radio about ‘Berlin before and after 12 March’, the day of the municipal elections. He said the result must have deep consequences for the city administration and that forces which had brought ‘shame’ on the capital must be kept out of it.4

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Births and deaths late evening, London

    Operetta star Anny Ahlers dies in London

    The singer and actress Anny Ahlers, aged 27, died in a London clinic shortly after 10 p.m. Central European Time from the effects of a fall from the window of her flat two days earlier. Born in Hamburg, she had made her name in Berlin from 1928, in Charell’s Casanova and in Viktoria und ihr Husar, and had spent the past year as the star of Madame Dubarry in London.7

  2. Economy

    Reichsbahn hires for spring track work

    With the start of spring the Reichsbahn resumed its track renewal and maintenance work in full and ordered the hiring of about 70,000 temporary workers until the autumn. Private contractors working for the railway were to take on more than 20,000 further men, about 90,000 jobs in all.3

  3. Society

    Lottery’s 500,000-mark premium goes to Bavaria

    In the Prussian-South German Class Lottery the premium of 500,000 marks fell to winners who all lived in Bavaria.6

  4. Crime Berlin

    Uproar on the second day of the Hintze trial

    The Bindernagel manslaughter trial was interrupted when the presiding judge, Dr Truppner, questioned two journalists about a conversation with defence counsel Bahn, suspecting improper contact. Bahn protested and demanded a formal apology for what he called an insult.8

  5. Radio Berlin

    Reich Radio Company dismisses its chief engineer

    The Reich Radio Company (Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft) gave notice to its chief engineer, Schäffer; no successor was named.10

Elsewhere in the world

  • France

    French protest over SA men in Kehl

    The French ambassador François-Poncet called on Foreign Minister von Neurath to protest, citing the Treaty of Versailles, against events in Kehl and the use of auxiliary police in the demilitarised Rhineland zone. Neurath rejected the complaint as unfounded, claiming that the SA men had been quartered in the Kehl police barracks for only a few hours and were mostly unarmed.9

More pictures

A smiling young woman with dark bobbed hair, surrounded by bouquets of flowers.
Anny Ahlers in April 1932, a year before her death in London. For context Agence de presse Mondial Photo-Presse. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A dark bronze plaque with raised capital letters naming Carl von Ossietzky and the Weltbühne, with a laurel sprig at the bottom.
The plaque at Kantstraße 152 in Berlin-Charlottenburg recording that the Nobel Peace Prize winner Carl von Ossietzky worked in this building as editor of Die Weltbühne from 1927 to 1933, photographed in 2009. For context OTFW , Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Verordnung über die Hoheitszeichen der Wehrmacht (14.03.1933) documentArchiv.de, Full text; source given as RGBl. 1933 I S. 133
  2. Deutscher Reichsanzeiger und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger, 23 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 1, Reichsverlagsamt notice: contents of RGBl. I Nr. 24, issued 22 March 1933
  3. Marbacher Zeitung, 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, reports datelined 'Berlin, 14. März': swearing-in of Goebbels; Reichsbahn spring works
  4. General-Anzeiger (Bonn), 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 1: bans on 'Das Tage-Buch' and 'Die Weltbühne'; SPD press ban; Lippert's radio talk
  5. Erzgebirgischer Volksfreund, 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, 'Berlin, 14. März': Wolff, Olden and Kerr in Paris; Republican Judges' League; SPD press ban extended
  6. Erzgebirgischer Volksfreund, 14 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, 'Berlin, 14. März': Prussian-South German Class Lottery premium
  7. Badische Presse (Morgenausgabe), 16 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 2, 'Anni Ahlers in London gestorben' (London, 15 March); see also Buersche Volkszeitung 17 March 1933, p. 9
  8. Durlacher Tagblatt, 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 3, Hintze trial, Tuesday's session
  9. Riesaer Tageblatt und Anzeiger, 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 5, official statement on the French ambassador's complaint about Kehl
  10. Dortmunder Zeitung, 15 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Deutsches Zeitungsportal, p. 1, notice of the dismissal of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft's chief engineer

Spotted a mistake? Send a correction.

Tip: use the left and right arrow keys to move between days.