In 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag, although they did not have a majority. Goring was elected president of the Reichstag, equivalent to the American Speaker of the House of Representatives. This gave him a great deal of power, and he used it to suppress opposition to Nazi legislation.
It also allowed him to use his influence on
His most important contact, President Paul von Hindenburg.
Hindenburg had been the commander in chief of the German army during World War I and was beloved as the country’s greatest war hero. Although aged and increasingly senile— he was eighty-four and had less than three years to live—his presence as president had held Germany together as its elected government became more and more ineffective. Only he could approve a new chancellor; this was very important because for several years the chancellor had been running the entire government, ruling by virtue of presidential decree. For the Nazis to assume total power, Hindenburg’s support was vital.
At first, the elderly president would have nothing to do with the Nazis. He despised Hitler—who in 1932 was still not a German citizen—as that ‘Austrian corporal,” and he disliked the strong-arm tactics of the SA. But he admired Goring, the decorated war hero; now that the former air ace was the president
Goring at a Nazi rally during the January state election campaign, 1955
Of the Reichstag, he brought an air of respectability to the entire Nazi cause.
On January 20, 1933, after weeks of wrangling, Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor of Germany. The Nazis were now in full command of the German state, although many at the time thought that Hitler had in fact been “tamed,” forced to accept a cabinet made up mostly of non-Nazis. It was hoped that Hindenburg and the less radical German
Conservatives would be able to use the Nazi leader to further their own aims. Instead, the Nazis ruthlessly exploited them and created a police state, with Hitler as dictator.
Goring was rewarded for his hard work with the position of minister of the interior of Prussia, the largest German state, comprising about two-thirds of Germany. This would turn out to be a crucial position, for it gave him command of the Prussian police force, which he soon turned on the enemies of the Nazis. The SA were made auxiliary police.
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