Day 36 of 100
The morning after: Reich commissioners and swastikas in Bremen, Lübeck and Hesse
On the day after the election the Reich began taking over the states that the Nazis did not yet control. Frick used the Reichstag Fire Decree to seize police powers in Bremen and Hesse, where SA men occupied ministries and the homes of the Social Democratic state president and interior minister overnight; in Lübeck the Social Democratic senators were pushed out, and Thuringia banned the Central Association of German Jews. In Altona a 20-year-old bystander was shot dead during an SA torchlight parade. In Hamburg Karl Muck conducted Also sprach Zarathustra, and in Washington Roosevelt closed every bank in the country.
The election result gave the Nazi leadership the pretext it wanted against the states still governed by others. Göring declared that the ‘overwhelming superiority of the national front’ left the south German governments no right to go on governing in the people’s name. Between Sunday evening and Monday night the Reich, invoking paragraph 2 of the Reichstag Fire Decree, took over police powers in Hamburg, Bremen and Hesse; in Lübeck the city’s conservative senators forced out their Social Democratic and liberal colleagues. In each place the change was marked by the hoisting of the swastika and the black-white-red flag on town halls and police buildings, often by the SA before any order had been given.
Politics and power
Government, terror and persecution
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The states 23:30, Darmstadt
Hesse: an SA night in Darmstadt
Frick appointed Dr Müller, a senior civil servant (Regierungsrat) from the tax office at Alsfeld, as Reich police commissioner for Hesse. After a first meeting with the Social Democratic state president Adelung, Müller announced that he had taken over all police power in Hesse at 23:30 and named the Nazi deputy Dr Werner Best as his special commissioner. Accompanied by the Nazi Gauleiter Sprenger, SA Standarte 115, reinforced from the Odenwald, occupied the interior ministry, the Social Democratic trade union building, the offices of the Social Democratic paper Volksfreund and the homes of Adelung and of the interior minister, Leuschner. The police in the ministry handed their weapons to the SA without resistance.2
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The states Bremen; Lübeck
Bremen and Lübeck brought into line
In Bremen the Reich government took over the powers of the state authority ‘to maintain public order’ and put Dr Markert, deputy director of the labour office, in charge of the police; the Social Democratic senators Kaisen, Klemann and Sommer resigned when the Senate decided to fly the black-white-red flag on the city hall. In Lübeck the three conservative senators demanded the resignation of their six Social Democratic and Democratic colleagues; after a two-hour session Mayor Löwigt and Senators Mehrlein, Haut, Henze and Eckholdt left, and the remaining senators appointed the Nazi Walter Schröder chief of police. At about 16:00 the swastika was raised on Lübeck’s city hall before tens of thousands of people.1,3
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Persecution Weimar
Thuringia bans the Central Association of German Jews
The Nazi-led government of Thuringia banned the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Centralverein), alleging that its activity was to blame for the disparagement of ‘national Germany’ and its leaders, especially in the foreign press. It also stripped all Social Democratic mayors of their police powers and banned the Social Democratic papers in Thuringia until 19 March.4
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Terror evening, Altona
A bystander killed during an SA torchlight parade in Altona
After the swastika was hoisted on Altona’s town hall, SA and SS columns marched through the city by torchlight. Shots were fired at them from rooftops, and police with sub-machine guns and armoured cars swept the streets. Hans Burmeister, a 20-year-old apprentice pastry cook who was not involved, was killed by a shot to the head. The NSDAP Gauleiter of Schleswig-Holstein, Lohse, telegraphed the Prussian interior ministry claiming three dead and demanding that a Communist leader be hanged for each.1,2,3
Sources disagree. Reports of the number injured differ: one paper gave 18, another 11.
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Propaganda Berlin; Karlsruhe
Göring: the southern states have lost the right to govern
Commenting on the election, Göring said the ‘national front’ had won along the whole line and broken the Centre party’s key position for the first time since Bismarck, and that its superiority in the south German states meant their governments no longer had the right to govern in the people’s name. In Karlsruhe the SA hoisted the swastika on the palace and a district office; Baden’s state president, Dr Schmitt, protested by telegram to Hitler and Frick.1,5
Everyday life
What else was happening in Germany
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Music Hamburg
Karl Muck conducts Zarathustra in Hamburg
The Hamburg Philharmonic under Karl Muck played Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, which the critic called a model performance. The baritone Heinrich Schlusnus sang arias by Durante, Gluck and Handel and three Schubert songs in orchestral arrangements by Mottl and Reger.2
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Music evening, Altona
Helge Rosvaenge as Lyonel
The tenor Helge Rosvaenge made a second guest appearance at the Schiller-Theater in Altona, singing Lyonel in Flotow’s Martha. The critic thought the lyrical part suited a heroic tenor less well than his Manrico, but praised the beauty of his voice.2
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Weather Cologne
A spring-like Monday
The day brought a marked warming in western Germany: Cologne recorded a maximum of about 14 degrees, followed by cloud and light rain.3
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Economy Leipzig
Business picks up at the Leipzig fair
After a slow opening day overshadowed by the election, traders at the Leipzig spring fair reported a slight revival of business on the second day, as buyers in many branches could no longer put off their orders.2
Voices
The population of Altona expects the sharpest intervention by the state government, and we ask that for every dead man a Communist leader be hanged.
Elsewhere in the world
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United States
Roosevelt proclaims a national bank holiday
At 1 a.m. Roosevelt proclaimed a bank holiday from Monday 6 March to Thursday 9 March for every bank in the United States, suspending all banking business and forbidding the export, hoarding or earmarking of gold and silver, in order to stop the run on the banks and the drain on the nation’s gold.6
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Free City of Danzig
Poland reinforces the Westerplatte
Poland reinforced its guard detachment on the Westerplatte in Danzig beyond the strength fixed by treaty. The Danzig government protested at once to the League of Nations High Commissioner, who had been informed by Poland in advance.1
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Greece
A one-day dictatorship
After the defeat of the Venizelos bloc at the polls, General Plastiras seized power in a military coup that lasted a single day, after which a government under Othonaios took over.2
More pictures
Sources
- Hamburgischer Correspondent, Morgenausgabe, 7 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1: Lübeck, 'Das Reich greift in Bremen ein', 'Rücktritt des Senats', Baden protest telegrams; p. 2: Westerplatte
- Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Reichsausgabe, Nr. 66, 7 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1 ('Umschwung in Hessen', 'Tagesschau'); p. 2 (concert review); p. 3 (Altona, Lohse telegram; Schiller-Theater); p. 7 (Leipzig fair)
- Kölnische Zeitung, 7 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1, 'Umschwung in Lübeck'; p. 9, weather observations for Cologne
- Hamburgischer Correspondent, Abendausgabe, 6 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 4, 'Weimar, 6. März' (ban of the Centralverein)
- Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Reichsausgabe, Abend-Ausgabe Nr. 65, 6 March 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 3, 'Göring über Süddeutschland'
- Proclamation 2039—Bank Holiday, March 6-9, 1933, Inclusive The American Presidency Project (Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley)
- Gleichschaltung der Länder LeMO, Deutsches Historisches Museum
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