Dictatorship

A public vote on 19 August recorded approximately 90% approval for the merger. This took place under a dictatorship in which independent political opposition had already been destroyed; it should not be treated as equivalent to a free democratic election.

By August 1934, Hitler had removed parliamentary checks, organised political opposition, rivals within the Nazi movement and the independent presidency. His dictatorship emerged through a connected sequence of emergency powers, legislation, intimidation and murder.

Rome was still a republic, not an empire ruled by an emperor, even though Caesar’s dictatorship had concentrated enormous power in his hands.

Hitler did not establish dictatorship simply because most Germans had voted for the Nazi Party. He still needed to remove parliamentary restrictions, using intimidation and cooperation from other parties.