Expert: Michel Cahier - 4/26/2009

Question
could you give me some place to start in answering the question "how did hitler's position as both Fuhrer and Chancellor, allow him to become a totalitarian dictator. i have to write an essay to answer this and i don't know where to start.  thanks...

Answer
yes  hitler  was the  indisputable master of the Reich although there are opinions to the contrary. this topic is a very large one and can not easily discussed  here but i will try to give  you some elements for your paper.
the main element that shows that he was the total master was the oath of total allegiance  given to the Fuehrer in 1933 by the German military to Hitler. By doing that the German Generals put themselves in the position of traitors if they dared only to discuss the decisions of  Hitler and it is like this that Hitler considered all form of discussion of  his views;  his orders could not even been discussed one second. Else  you were a traitor.
In the conduct of the  war it was evident that  hitler's orders and strategies  were never discussed or argumented and that his Generals even if they disagreed eventually accepted the orders and the views of  Hitler. The example of the battle of stalingrad is probably the best one : after some weeks of battle it became evident to everybody in the  military that the battle could not  be won and that hundreds of thousands of good german soldiers were going to die for no reason.
hitler refused to yield to the demands of Paulus and other generals who wanted to retreat and decided that the sacrifice of thousands of good german guys would be worth and would show to the soviets that the german people was decided to fight to the end.
as far as civil life and not military  was concerned, the laws enforced as soon as 1933 showed that  hitler was the supreme commander and was the leader deciding everything including the appointment of the judges, the police, and every important man in the nazi hierarchy. no important decision could  be taken without the imprimatur of the fuehrer.
hitler  built a fantastic tool of repression of which he was the supreme judge in as much as the tool was the SS and the Gestapo and that the SS had too sworn total allegiance to hitler and that the  
SS were devoted to the safety of the Fuehrer. Himmler was in total fear of the Fuehrer and no order of the Fuehrer could be ignored  by the  SS.
you can find more elements for  your  topic in some chapters of  my site if you go to http://schikelgruber.net
i hope this will be helpful and i can answer to follow  up questions if you wish*
michel cahier