30 January 1933. Hitler is appointed chancellor by an old field marshal, President Hindenburg, on the advice of men who think they can manage him. Four weeks later the Reichstag burns, and a decree suspends civil rights. In March an Enabling Act lets the cabinet make laws on its own.
Why then
The Depression has six million Germans out of work and the republic governed by emergency decree. The Nazis never won a majority in a free election: their best was 37 percent, in July 1932, and by November they were losing votes. Papen and the conservatives around Hindenburg fear the left more than the street, and need Hitler's crowds.
What they wanted
Hitler wants the state without sharing it. Papen expects to cage him inside a cabinet of conservatives. Many Germans are looking for work, pride and someone to blame, and in April they are told to boycott Jewish shops.
What changed
The first concentration camp, Dachau, opens in March for political opponents; Jewish civil servants are dismissed in April; by July Germany is a one-party state. No single night announced it. Each step came with a law.
Still argued
Was 1933 written in 1918, or could the backroom deal of January have gone another way? Historians who stress the long road and those who stress the last weeks agree on one thing: he was let in.