In January 1933 Adolf Hitler became chancellor of the Weimar Republic in Germany, six months later he consolidated power and became dictator. The following is an account of the steps Hitler took to consolidate power. On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag, the parliamentary building in Germany, was razed to the ground by arson. A Dutch communist named van der Lubbe is caught red-handed. Apart from these, two other suspects with communist links are also suspected. Finally, one of the arrested arsonists admitted to having links to the Social Democratic Party. “This confession clearly demonstrates that the Communists and Social Democrats have obviously built a united front. In response to this, Hitler and the German parliament took drastic action, passing the so-called Reichstag fire decree, which among other things suspended civil liberties. 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. Subsequently, in the March 1933 elections, the Nazi Party won 43% of the popular vote. This is a 10% increase compared to the November election. This large increase in Nazi support was due to the fact that support for the Communist Party declined rapidly, due to the claims of the Reichstag fire. With this increase in Nazi support, the Nazi side was able to pass the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act was an amendment to the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the German government to pass laws directly without the approval of the Reichstag. This allowed Hitler to assume the position of chief of staff without any legislative approval. The vote for the law took place without the communists, because of the Reichstag fire De...... middle of paper ......and why Hitler would be a bad chancellor. Schleicher becomes chancellor. However there are many objections and fearing a state of civil war Hindenburg fires Schleicher and tells Hitler that if he finds a majority he can become Chancellor. Hitler goes to the Center party and they give their support to the Nazis and Hitler becomes Chancellor. Within a few years Hindenburg dies and Hitler takes power. It can be argued that Weimar was doomed from the start, however there was a period of peace from 1923 to 1929, demonstrating the success of this government. It should rather be argued that Weimar failed due to a mix of bad luck, namely the Depression and the abuse of emergency powers by people like Brüning and Schleicher. If the Depression had not occurred it could be argued that we might still have had the Weimar Republic and there would not have been a Second World War.