In January 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of the Weimar Republic in Germany, six months later he consolidated his power and became dictator. What follows is an account of the steps taken by Hitler to consolidate his power. On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag, the parliamentary building in Germany, was burned to the ground by arson. A Dutch communist named van der Lubbe is caught in the act. In addition, two other suspects with communist ties are also under suspicion. Finally, one of the arrested arsonists admitted to having links with the Social Democratic Party. “This admission clearly demonstrates that the communists and social democrats have clearly built a united front. » In response to this, Hitler and the German parliament took drastic measures, passing the so-called Reichstag Burning Decree, which suspended civil liberties among other things. This decree was used to raid the offices of Communist Party leaders and arrest much of the party, effectively eliminating them as a political force. In the following elections in March 1933, the Nazi Party obtained 43% of the votes cast. This represents a 10 percent increase from the November election. This sharp increase in Nazi support was due to the fact that support for the Communist Party fell rapidly, due to allegations of the Reichstag fire. With this increase in Nazi support, the Nazi side was able to pass the Enabling Act. The enabling law was an amendment to the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the German Cabinet to pass laws directly without the approval of the Reichstag. This allowed Hitler to become chief of staff without any legislative approval. The vote for the law took place without the communists, because of the Reichstag fire...... middle of paper ...... uh on why Hitler would make a bad chancellor. Schleicher becomes chancellor. However, there were many objections and fearing a state of civil war, Hindenburg dismissed Schleicher and told Hitler that if he found a majority he could become chancellor. Hitler joins the Center Party and supports the Nazis and Hitler becomes chancellor. A few years later, Hindenburg died and Hitler took power. It can be argued that Weimar was doomed from the start, but there was a period of peace from 1923 to 1929, demonstrating that this government was successful. Rather, it should be argued that Weimar's failure was due to a mixture of bad luck, namely depression, and an abuse of emergency powers by people like Brüning and Schleicher. If the Depression had not occurred, it can be argued that we might still have the Weimar Republic and there would have been no World War II..