In November, von Papen resigned and Schleicher was appointed Chancellor. Without any sound parliamentary base, Schleicher’s regime of crisis was to last only 57 days. On 30 January, 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of a coalition cabinet.
Leon Trotsky and his supporters called for armed resistance and the mobilization of the full resources of the German labour movement in a life and death struggle with fascism. Mass demonstrations took place throughout all the main cities in Germany, and expectations were high that the labour leaders would call them into action. The workers waited impatiently as the labour leaders dithered in this critical situation.
So certain was Hitler of victory, he was prepared to use “legal means” as a stepping stone to absolute power. He was willing initially to make the compromise of heading a coalition government with the National Party, with the Nazis holding only three of the eleven cabinet posts. Yet Hitler was in a decisive position from which he prepared the ground for his next move.
The German Social Democratic leaders issued “an appeal for calm.” On 7 February, the head of the Berlin Federation of the Party gave instructions: “Above all do not let yourselves be provoked. The life and health of the Berlin workers are too dear to be jeopardized lightly; they must be preserved for the day of struggle.” The labour leaders justified their actions by explaining that Hitler’s appointment was constitutional!
Hitler then persuaded Hindenburg to declare elections on 5 March, after the failure to get sufficient parliamentary backing for the coalition government. “Now it will be easy,” wrote Goebbels in his diary on 3 February, “to carry on the fight, for we can call on all the resources of the state. Radio and press are at our disposal. We shall stage a masterpiece of propaganda. And this time, naturally, there is no lack of money.” In seeking further financial backing from the German industrialists, Hitler promised to eliminate “the Marxists”. Goering, now Minister of the Interior for Prussia, stressed the need for financial sacrifices as this election was the last “for the next hundred years!”. The Hitler government had banned all Communist meetings and closed down their press. Social Democratic rallies were either banned or broken up by SA gangs. Fifty-one anti-fascists were murdered during the election campaign.
Goering then purged hundreds of republican officials and replaced them with SA and SS officers. He issued a statement to the police to avoid at all costs hostility to the fascist military organizations but to show no mercy to those hostile to the state. He then organized an auxiliary police force of 50,000 men, of whom 40,000 were drawn from the SA and SS. On 24 February, Goering’s police raided the KPD headquarters, Karl Liebknecht Haus, which was stripped of propaganda and materials to be used as “proof” of a Communist conspiracy to launch an immediate putsch.