Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945

by Julia Boyd

When, even after his July election success, Hitler had still not been offered the chancellorship, Hindenburg famously remarked, ‘That man for Chancellor? I’ll make him a postmaster and he can lick the stamps with my head on them.’30 But after six months of political twists and turns, Hindenburg, against his better instincts, was persuaded to change his mind. Shortly after noon on 30 January 1933, the new Reich chancellor, Adolf Hitler, and his cabinet assembled in the president’s rooms. Standing before Hindenburg, Hitler swore to uphold the Constitution, to respect the rights of the president and to maintain parliamentary rule. In fact, exactly fifty-two days later, on 23 March, the Enabling Act was passed marking the end of the Weimar Republic. The Act gave Hitler the right to rule without the Reichstag, thus in effect handing him complete power.