1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:09,920 In 1928, the fledgling Nazi Party is reeling from election disaster 2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,520 and struggling for legitimacy. 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:17,160 Any observer worth his salt would have just written off the Nazi movement. 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,800 But global events will throw them a lifeline. 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,160 There's definitely an opportunity to access power 6 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:28,720 which even in their wildest dreams wouldn't have seemed possible. 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:31,520 Propaganda man Joseph Goebbels 8 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:35,160 devotes himself to tireless electioneering, 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,320 while former war hero Hermann Göring gets a foothold in Parliament... 10 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:44,760 ...and wannabe soldier and backroom bureaucrat Heinrich Himmler 11 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:48,880 inducts a dangerous new ally into the inner circle. 12 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,000 He builds loyalty by giving people 13 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:55,480 who had had a breakdown of their careers a second chance. 14 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,080 In their fight for political and personal power, 15 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:04,680 the key players will turn on each other and one of them will be destroyed. 16 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:07,000 What takes place, of course, is one of the sort of 17 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:09,800 most infamous acts of political violence ever known. 18 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:10,920 [gunshots] 19 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,160 This is the inside story of Hitler's henchmen, 20 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,280 the jealousy, power struggles and fawning sycophants 21 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:26,120 that will create a monster and fuel the most brutal horrors of the Third Reich. 22 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,920 May 1928. 23 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:51,480 Federal elections present the Nazis... 24 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:52,520 VOTE GERMAN NATIONAL 25 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,920 ...with their first major assault on the German electorate. 26 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,040 Combining Himmler's obsessive organisation, 27 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:03,920 Göring's wooing of the establishment and Goebbels' relentless propaganda, 28 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,640 the inner circle have high hopes for political success. 29 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,440 But it's not to be. 30 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:15,760 The 1928 election for the Nazi Party was an unmitigated disaster. 31 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,000 The people didn't really buy into Hitler's policies. 32 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,640 Any observer worth his salt would have just written off, 33 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:23,640 and indeed did write off, the Nazi movement. 34 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:25,960 THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKER'S PARTY 35 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:28,880 Despite throwing everything into a professional, well-branded campaign... 36 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:30,520 VOTE FOR THE FRONT-LINE SOLDIER HITLER! 37 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,680 ...their message, one of economic doom, falls on deaf ears. 38 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,160 In Germany, the good times roll. 39 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:41,040 After years of financial crisis, 40 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:45,280 the country is riding high on American loans. 41 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:47,280 Things have never been better. 42 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,160 In 1928, the German public felt comfortable and they did not need 43 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:54,360 to be taken out of their comfort zone by Adolf Hitler. 44 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:57,640 Fringe parties at either end of the political spectrum 45 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:00,280 need a crisis to get into power. 46 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,000 The inner circle needs a miracle. 47 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,200 But then America delivers this committed group 48 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,040 the national calamity they have been predicting. 49 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:22,320 October 29th 1929 becomes known as Black Tuesday. 50 00:03:22,920 --> 00:03:26,240 The American stock exchange on Wall Street crashes. 51 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:31,800 [Richard] Germany had prospered briefly in the 1920s on American loans. 52 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:35,880 It depended on an expanding world economy for German exports. 53 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:37,560 The Wall Street crash brought 54 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,760 the international economy to a grinding halt. 55 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,200 Overnight, millions of dollars' worth of American loans are recalled. 56 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,880 Germany and its economy go into free fall. 57 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,600 The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression 58 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,400 are an enormous disaster for Germany. 59 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:57,800 Germany doesn't have the stability and structure 60 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,280 that can weather this extraordinary crash. 61 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,600 This is a major opportunity for the Nazis. 62 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,920 After seeming irrelevant, they now look like prophets. 63 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:14,880 In this chaotic climate, 64 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,120 it finally looks like the inner circle have a shot at real power. 65 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,440 When the coalition government collapses, 66 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:25,840 another national election is called for 1930. 67 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,880 For two of the Party's young guns, this is a chance to shine. 68 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:37,960 Propagandist and public speaker Joseph Goebbels 69 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,320 throws himself into the campaign. 70 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,240 This is a massive opportunity for Goebbels 71 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,360 who's now the Nazi propaganda chief. 72 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:47,840 You know, this is now a national stage 73 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,320 he can, well, not strut across, but limp across certainly. 74 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,960 And backroom boy and meticulous planner Heinrich Himmler 75 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,200 lends his organisational skills. 76 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,920 They want to make themselves visible, they want to be everywhere. 77 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,600 And top priority is paid to making sure 78 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,880 that there was a representative in every village and every small town. 79 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:14,520 Together, they run a campaign that aims to give the Party maximum exposure. 80 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,520 A political blitzkrieg. 81 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,480 [Guy] Every beer hall, every inn, every tavern, every restaurant, 82 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:24,640 every village hall, every town hall, you know, every little hut, 83 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,800 is going to have a Nazi meeting in it at some stage during this election. 84 00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:34,280 And they use innovative, new ways to get their message to the masses. 85 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,520 They will drive around in a van, in a car, they will use loud speakers, 86 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,880 they will distribute a newspaper and pamphlets. 87 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,280 But most of all, their sheer energy and passion is relentless. 88 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,000 In the last four weeks of the campaign alone, 89 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:54,280 there are 34,000 meetings called by the Nazi Party. 90 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,040 It shows in this sort of pre-mass media age, 91 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:02,560 the sheer energy that's going into propagating the message. 92 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,840 And this tactic will prove devastatingly effective. 93 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,200 On September 14th 1930, the results come in. 94 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:17,880 The vote for the Nazis is absolutely enormous. 95 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,840 It's four times greater than it was just 24 months before. 96 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:26,240 They now win 6.5 million votes 97 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:30,600 and it gives them 107 seats in the Reichstag, up from 12. 98 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,680 This is a political earthquake. 99 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:38,160 For Goebbels, it's an unbelievable triumph. 100 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:40,920 Goebbels was actually taken aback. 101 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,440 He had hoped to do well in the elections, but not that well. 102 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:50,840 This marks the moment when the Nazi Party becomes a national force 103 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,640 and clearly a force to be reckoned with,. 104 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,720 They're not in power yet and there's still a long way to go 105 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,880 but they're on the map and as the second biggest party in parliament, 106 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:04,600 people are taking notice. 107 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:10,160 For the big players, the outcome of this election changes everything. 108 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:12,600 The 1930 election is a turning point 109 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:15,400 and they can now suddenly begin to think about the possibility 110 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:17,000 that they might even get to power one day, 111 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:18,840 that they might get ministerial jobs, 112 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,320 they might have political responsibilities. 113 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:26,200 For the first time in six years, their plan of achieving power 114 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:29,400 through legitimate means looks like a real possibility. 115 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:34,880 But for one member of the inner circle, 116 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:38,040 ambitious former war hero Hermann Göring, 117 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,240 the result means more than political gain. 118 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:47,520 The election actually really sees a fundamental restoration of Göring. 119 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:49,280 He's been in parliament since '28 120 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,600 but he's got what is now a safe seat in Parliament 121 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:57,240 and also he's got the ability to start lining his pockets. 122 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,360 [Michael] He is an industrialist himself, he runs his own companies. 123 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:03,920 And he's able to use the promise of what the Nazis might do 124 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,560 to encourage support among major figures in industry, for Nazism. 125 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:15,040 But in Hitler's inner circle, it never pays to take your eye off your rivals. 126 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,040 The Nazi Party is successfully moving forward. 127 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,040 But despite political gains, there remains a lingering problem 128 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,480 from their days of violence and revolution. 129 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,040 The SA Brown Shirts, the street muscle of the Party, 130 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:38,960 is becoming a redundant embarrassment. 131 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:43,040 [Guy] The SA look like the rabble they actually are. 132 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,520 Yes, they wear uniforms but actually they're a bunch of thugs. 133 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,560 They're causing a lot of trouble, and of course, they feel emboldened 134 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:53,000 because Nazism is now this huge political force. 135 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,960 During the lead-up to the election, at times, they'd abandoned their duties, 136 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:02,440 and in some cases, even attacked Nazi Party offices. 137 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:07,040 In the early 1930s, there's no doubt that the SA is a problem for Hitler, 138 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:11,360 sometimes they actually get involved in conflicts with Party members. 139 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:15,160 They urgently need a leader to get them under control. 140 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:22,760 With his military background, Hermann Göring is the obvious choice. 141 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:27,040 Göring was the commander of the SA before the Putsch in 1923. 142 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:31,440 There is this sense perhaps that this is a job that he might actually take on. 143 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:34,400 But Göring will be disappointed. 144 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:39,080 Heinrich Himmler has other plans. 145 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:44,080 He doesn't want to lead the SA himself but he sees the threat they pose 146 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,160 as an opportunity to shore up his own position. 147 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:52,880 His well-drilled SS offer Hitler an inspiring alternative, 148 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:54,760 one that Himmler has moulded to fit 149 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:59,120 the chivalric ideals of their mythical Aryan forefathers. 150 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,200 [Guy] Himmler wants the SS to be the embodiment of an ideal. 151 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:06,880 He doesn't want it to just be a bunch of thugs, 152 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,080 he wants it to be a highly disciplined, a highly politicised 153 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:12,920 and highly elite force. 154 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:14,280 DRESDNER ROAD § 155 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:17,120 But the SA, in direct competition with his SS... 156 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:18,200 GERMANY WAKE UP 157 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:20,320 ...are a major obstacle to his plans. 158 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:25,840 Whoever takes charge of the SA needs to be sympathetic to his vision, 159 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:28,000 and he thinks he knows just the man. 160 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:33,000 A long-forgotten member of the inner circle, Ernst Röhm. 161 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:40,640 Five years ago, the World War One veteran and hardened street fighter 162 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,320 had been a leading light in the SA, 163 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:46,680 before a clash with Hitler over the militia's role 164 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:48,960 saw him excluded from the Party. 165 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,240 Soon after, he moved to Bolivia. 166 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,400 Throughout all those sort of years in almost self-imposed exile, 167 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,920 there's been a Nazi who's stayed in contact with Röhm... 168 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:06,160 ...and that is the ever-thoughtful, ever-cunning Heinrich Himmler. 169 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,520 Himmler had been recruited into the Nazi movement by Röhm. 170 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:15,560 And now he sees him as a viable alternative to Göring. 171 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:18,760 Working behind the scenes, 172 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:25,080 Himmler smooths the rift between Hitler and his old friend Röhm and it works. 173 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:31,320 [Christopher] In 1930, Hitler asks Röhm to come back from Bolivia to take command. 174 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:33,440 Hitler never entirely trusted Röhm 175 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:36,160 but he recognised his skills were necessary to the movement. 176 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:39,480 Röhm is back. 177 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:42,560 For Himmler, the arrival of Röhm 178 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,720 restores the relationship which he'd had before 1923. 179 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,960 Himmler really thinks that there's a chance of collaborating with Röhm, 180 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:53,560 maybe this will help to strengthen his position in the Party, 181 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:56,240 which at the moment is still quite weak. 182 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:59,400 The move looks like a masterstroke. 183 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,440 Röhm will strengthen Himmler's position whilst undermining Göring. 184 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,520 [Guy] Hermann Göring desperately wanted to run the SA. 185 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,040 So Göring essentially regards himself as being somewhat marginalised. 186 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:17,280 It's another example of the shape of the inner circle shifting again. 187 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:26,880 Röhm's return is initially welcomed by propaganda man Joseph Goebbels, 188 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,280 but things soon go sour. 189 00:12:29,360 --> 00:12:31,560 During the period after 1930, 190 00:12:31,640 --> 00:12:35,560 a relationship between Goebbels and Röhm is not a particularly warm one. 191 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:39,880 Goebbels didn't like, really, the military formality that Röhm brings. 192 00:12:39,960 --> 00:12:43,160 Goebbels quite liked the fact that the SA was pretty rowdy, 193 00:12:43,240 --> 00:12:45,320 that it did go out and beat up and kill Communists. 194 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:46,600 GERMANY IS FREE! 195 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,320 As Goebbels loses his influence on the SA, 196 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:53,280 Göring sees a string of powerful jobs going to Röhm. 197 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:57,120 As Röhm's rise erodes their power, 198 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,120 it creates an unlikely alliance between the two rivals. 199 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,720 Röhm was being given a position that intruded upon 200 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:07,400 the ambitions and advancement of those two individuals. 201 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,880 Röhm is dangerous to the interests of both men. 202 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:17,320 Now back in the inner circle, Röhm is making powerful enemies 203 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,440 but whilst the self-confident former street fighter has Hitler's favour, 204 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,800 they must bide their time. 205 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:32,600 Though former war hero Herman Göring may be sidelined 206 00:13:32,680 --> 00:13:37,440 from military appointments, Hitler has need of his talents elsewhere. 207 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:44,720 Göring was probably at his best, really, as a socialite, 208 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:48,920 mixing with people, making contacts, trying to find funds. 209 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:54,520 Göring's a survivor, a wheeling-dealing man about town 210 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:59,320 but he'd be nothing without his beloved wife and society hostess, Carin. 211 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:02,760 Carin is a very important figure, I think, 212 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:07,400 in trying to beef Göring up to become a political figure. 213 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:10,760 They've been through everything together, 214 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,200 but at a terrible cost to her health. 215 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:19,000 Increasingly frail, in October 1931 Carin dies. 216 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,080 Göring is grief-stricken... 217 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:32,240 ...but the inner circle will use any opportunity to improve their standing... 218 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:36,280 ...and Carin's death provides an unlikely opening for Goebbels. 219 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:39,560 Throughout this period of turmoil, 220 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:42,920 Goebbels, you know, the firebrand orator, is starting to settle down. 221 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:45,080 He is a womaniser, Goebbels, 222 00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:48,440 a very unlikely womaniser, if you look at him, but nevertheless he is. 223 00:14:48,520 --> 00:14:52,040 He has a lot of charm and he eventually settles upon Magda. 224 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,960 [Toby] Goebbels and Magda were married in the snow 225 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:00,280 with a guard of Hitler Youth and Hitler as best man, 226 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,840 and it was a very happy occasion. 227 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:11,160 With Göring's wife gone, there's an opening for an ambitious hostess. 228 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,040 [Richard] There was always a great deal of competition between the Nazi elite 229 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,880 about networking, about socialising and so on, 230 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,200 and I think that Joseph and Magda Goebbels saw themselves 231 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,520 after the death of Carin Göring as the successors. 232 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:27,720 They both make the most of this opportunity 233 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,080 to secure their place in the inner circle. 234 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:35,360 The newly married Mr and Mrs Goebbels are the most charming Nazi couple. 235 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,560 So when their beloved Hitler comes round for tea or a drink, 236 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:41,640 there's, you know, Magda baking cakes, 237 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:46,040 and Goebbels meanwhile in sort of an awful display of fawning sycophancy, 238 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,160 on the record player has 239 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,000 some of Hitler's greatest hits playing, his speeches. 240 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:55,440 But Göring will fight back. 241 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,920 He soon overcomes his grief and now with nothing 242 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,800 to check his desire for money and power, 243 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:10,280 he makes himself available to Hitler 24/7. 244 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:15,720 We tend to think of Göring as this sort of fat, somewhat jovial figure 245 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:17,680 in these big silly uniforms, you know. 246 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,040 He looks like something out of a fancy-dress shop. 247 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:23,240 And actually, that belies the fact that up there 248 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:29,200 is a very calculating, very ruthless mind that will play the game. 249 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:30,760 And now he's a widower, 250 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:35,200 he can really dedicate his life to his own personal ambitions. 251 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:42,720 Against this backdrop of constant electioneering and internal rivalry, 252 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,360 one man is quietly moving up the ranks, Heinrich Himmler. 253 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:54,360 Himmler, meanwhile, the quiet backroom boy, is busy scheming. 254 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:56,840 He is very much building up his power base. 255 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:03,200 Both the SS and the SA grow rapidly in numbers with the Great Depression. 256 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:06,160 Unemployment brings a lot of the men into the movement. 257 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,320 You start to see the SS become more and more of an internal police force. 258 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,480 But although Himmler's SS is growing in strength, 259 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,040 not everything is going the way he'd hoped. 260 00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:24,240 Himmler's plan to bring back Ernst Röhm is backfiring. 261 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:27,480 The SA are becoming even more powerful 262 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:32,120 and bully boy Röhm has no intention of following Himmler's lead. 263 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,040 Himmler feels like the junior partner, 264 00:17:34,120 --> 00:17:36,840 feels like that Röhm's the big boy, the one with all the seniority. 265 00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:46,280 Realising his error, Himmler focuses on building up his own SS force. 266 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:50,320 If he can expand their duties to cover Party security, 267 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,800 he will consolidate their role and strengthen his position. 268 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,840 Himmler's beginning to think more seriously about setting up 269 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,880 an intelligence service within the SS, 270 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:06,920 one that is independent from that of the SA and other Party organisations. 271 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,800 [Guy] He needs an apparatus within his organisation, within the SS, 272 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,040 that will spy not only on enemies of the Party 273 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,360 but also can spy on people within the Party, 274 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,600 under the pretext that they might be treacherous. 275 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:24,360 And so he forms this thing called the Sicherheitsdienst, 276 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:27,440 the Security Service, the SD. 277 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:33,800 Himmler needs someone to lead this new force, 278 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:37,880 someone he can trust, a new member of the inner circle 279 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:40,640 who will understand his vision and ambition 280 00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:43,120 without compromising his powerbase. 281 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:50,280 In June 1931, Himmler meets a young man looking for a job. 282 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:53,960 This interview will shape the destiny of millions. 283 00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:57,640 The man who comes knocking on Himmler's door 284 00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:03,160 for this job of running the SD is a young man called Reinhard Heydrich. 285 00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:09,080 With his strong Aryan looks, he makes an immediate impression on Himmler. 286 00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:12,960 He's a vision of what he thinks the SS should embody. 287 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:15,400 And Himmler, the wannabe soldier... 288 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:16,440 GERMANY IS FREE! 289 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,920 ...is also impressed by Heydrich's military background. 290 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,480 He's also very impressed by the fact that Heydrich can talk to him 291 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,320 in military language and explain his plans 292 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:31,560 for the creation of an SS intelligence service. 293 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:38,280 The well-educated Heydrich had held a highly prized commission 294 00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:40,480 in Germany's diminished post-war navy. 295 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,400 But then he became embroiled in a sordid affair. 296 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:51,240 [Robert] He was simultaneously engaged to two women, 297 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,840 and one of the women's father 298 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,200 was a very influential man with good contacts. 299 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:03,040 But when the affair came out, 300 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:06,360 Heydrich treated the father's complaints with contempt, 301 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,640 an attitude that appalled the navy. 302 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,720 He kept one of his fiancées, but lost his commission. 303 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,240 He wasn't considered to be a man of honour. 304 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,520 So he was hoofed out. Now he was engaged at the time 305 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:22,800 and so therefore, you know, we are looking at a man who is desperate. 306 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:30,920 Now keen to impress, the inventive Heydrich 307 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,000 tells Himmler everything he wants to hear. 308 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,000 All he has done is read as a boy some detective fiction 309 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:42,800 and some spy novels and he uses his knowledge of those thrillers 310 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,520 to impress Himmler as to how an intelligence service would work. 311 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:49,400 That is the limit of his experience. But it's enough. 312 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:52,000 Heydrich learns on the job like no one else. 313 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,360 The ambitious Himmler and his new right-hand man 314 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,240 now control a security service 315 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,000 authorised to spy on their own Party members. 316 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:04,040 It's a tool they'll exploit to the fullest. 317 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,800 Whilst the inner circle jockey for position in the Party, 318 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:16,920 Germany is falling deeper into political and economic crisis 319 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,320 and Hitler continues to capitalise on the discontent. 320 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,800 One of the things that Hitler managed to do 321 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:26,960 in the period after the 1930 elections is to make the Party appear 322 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:28,840 more and more as a valid political party, 323 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:30,600 as a respectable political movement. 324 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,080 A series of elections bring steady political gains, 325 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:41,480 and by 1932, the Nazis are technically the single largest party in Parliament. 326 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,760 But a string of coalition governments and political alliances 327 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:48,960 conspire to deny them power. 328 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,480 WHO STILL BELIEVES IN THÄLMANN MUST BE OUT OF HIS MIND 329 00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,200 By now, a massive 30% of Germany's workforce is unemployed. 330 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:55,480 UFA-FACTORY CELL 331 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:57,160 When yet more elections are called for November... 332 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:58,760 NATIONAL SOCIALIST FACTORY CELL ORGANIZATION 333 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:00,840 ...the inner circle fear that if they don't seize this chance... 334 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:02,840 MINISTRY OF THE REICHSWEHR FACTORY CELL - KNORR-BREMSE PLC 335 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:03,960 ...they'll miss their moment. 336 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,840 For a failed playwright and frustrated academic, 337 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:13,440 the Nazis have been good to Joseph Goebbels. 338 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:18,320 At just 35, he's in charge of a national election campaign. 339 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,560 This is his biggest opportunity to date. 340 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,160 Goebbels' approach is entirely innovative and brand new. 341 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:31,920 He is using all the theatrics at his disposal to present Hitler in a way 342 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,840 that no political leader's ever been presented before. 343 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:44,680 Goebbels devised a campaign device called Hitler Over Germany 344 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:50,240 in which Hitler flew from town to town, city to city, in a plane, filmed, 345 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:53,360 and the troops were on the ground waiting to see the Führer 346 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,440 descend from the skies like some sort of avenging angel 347 00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:58,080 falling down from the clouds. 348 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:02,840 And it made an enormous impact on people whose lives were grey and narrow. 349 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:13,080 It's inspired. Joseph Goebbels makes Hitler look like a serious statesman, 350 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,880 a real leader, a viable option. 351 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,920 Hitler looks like a genuine 20th-century politician 352 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,800 and his rivals look as though they're stuck in the last century. 353 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:24,920 [cheering] 354 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,680 But despite their efforts, the elections don't hand them victory. 355 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:36,800 Sharing 50% of the vote between them, 356 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:40,320 the Nazis and Communists are locked in political stalemate. 357 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:44,440 If the inner circle are to tip the balance, 358 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:47,520 they'll need the support of the establishment. 359 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,000 But that's easier said than done. 360 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:55,880 [Richard] The German president, Field Marshal Hindenburg, 361 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:57,600 deeply distrusted Hitler. 362 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:00,120 He couldn't understand mass politics, 363 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,600 couldn't understand where Hitler was coming from. 364 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:07,760 Hindenburg cannot believe he has to do business with this former corporal. 365 00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:13,120 Only President Hindenburg can give Hitler what he wants, 366 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,760 the Chancellorship. 367 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,760 Knowing this, a key member of the inner circle 368 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,480 seizes a chance to improve his standing. 369 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,560 Göring watches very closely what's going on late '32, early '33. 370 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,160 He's president of the Reichstag, of course, 371 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,800 he's in a good position to see what the possibilities are. 372 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:39,760 Using his reputation and contacts, 373 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:42,400 Göring's out to prove he's the only one 374 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,600 that can deliver Hitler this springboard to power. 375 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,400 Göring has a crowning moment in 1933. 376 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,360 It's Göring who effects the meeting. 377 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,040 He puts together these two men in a way perhaps no other man could have done. 378 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:03,120 Göring persuades Hindenburg to put his trust in Hitler. 379 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:08,160 And so this facilitation, if you like, is a really key moment for Göring 380 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,920 and sees him right back in the heart of the inner circle. 381 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:13,800 Göring has saved the day. 382 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,120 On January 30th 1933, 383 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:27,640 President Hindenburg finally appoints Hitler Chancellor of Germany. 384 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,360 [applause] 385 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,320 For the inner circle, it's an incredible moment. 386 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,600 Within ten years, they've gone from street-fighting terrorists 387 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,680 to politicians, part of a ruling coalition. 388 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,360 [Nigel] The day that Hitler was actually made Chancellor, 389 00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,640 the SA Storm Troopers marched through central Berlin, 390 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,200 under the Brandenburg Gate, 391 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:56,840 each carrying torches and this had a visceral power over the masses. 392 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:02,560 The celebrations, naturally orchestrated by Goebbels, are spectacular 393 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,080 and give the world a taste of what's to come. 394 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,080 But they're not there yet. Their leader may be Chancellor, 395 00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:24,920 but the Nazis only hold a few cabinet posts in a tenuous coalition government. 396 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,600 And beneath the veneer of a united Nazi Party, 397 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:34,040 the competition for those roles means inner-circle rivalries intensify. 398 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:36,920 [Robert] Once Hitler becomes Chancellor, 399 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,240 there's growing competition between individuals 400 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,320 who aspire to high political office, 401 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,160 and some of them will end up without a job... 402 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:50,720 ...whereas others will be propelled to great political importance. 403 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:57,520 Among those awaiting the trappings of success is campaign genius Goebbels. 404 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,120 He expects to be given prestige and privilege, 405 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,320 maybe even a ministerial job in the new cabinet. 406 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:06,480 [Guy] Whenever a new government comes to power, 407 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,000 all the leading lights of the successful party 408 00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:10,560 are waiting next to their telephone, 409 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,080 waiting for their leader to give them this plum job or that plum job. 410 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,200 But although thanked for his incredible efforts, 411 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,680 Goebbels' years of terror tactics and aggressive campaigning 412 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:23,800 haven't made him popular in Berlin. 413 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:25,000 GOEBBELS SETTLES THE SCORE 414 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,880 Goebbels suddenly realises as he waits by the phone that it's not ringing. 415 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,080 Hitler can't afford to be associated with anyone 416 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,760 that might wreck his tenuous grasp on legitimate power. 417 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:43,280 He realises that he hasn't got a job, that he's not one of the Nazis 418 00:27:43,360 --> 00:27:47,080 who is going to be appointed to the cabinet, 419 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,960 and he was utterly cast into depression. 420 00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:55,800 But whilst one star fades, others shine bright. 421 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:57,000 GERMANY WAKE UP 422 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,800 Göring's reward for securing Hitler the Chancellorship 423 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:09,240 is to be made Minister for the Interior of Germany's largest state, Prussia. 424 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:14,360 Göring's elevation to be Minister of the Interior, Home Secretary, 425 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,680 gives him a vast, controlling voice 426 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,720 in all the internal domestic affairs of Germany in effect. 427 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:24,800 Prussia is his base, his stronghold. 428 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:28,720 Göring now focuses the resources 429 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:32,520 of his vast new bureaucratic and administrative empire 430 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,520 on achieving Nazi goals. 431 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:40,240 It means that he can turn the Prussian police into a new type of police force. 432 00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,240 And a police force the world really hasn't seen. 433 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:48,880 Göring calls it the Secret State Police. Actually, we know that as the Gestapo. 434 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,720 And the Gestapo, as we all know, becomes 435 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,280 this absolute terrifying embodiment of state terror. 436 00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:00,480 Initially, the Gestapo are tasked with political intelligence, 437 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,200 but with their wider powers of arrest and imprisonment, 438 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:08,240 in Prussia, under Göring, they soon tear up the rule of law. 439 00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,080 [Richard] His role as the Minister of the Interior in Prussia 440 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,000 is really used to impose the Nazi revolution 441 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,480 on the whole area of northern Germany. 442 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:24,840 His police now enforce the Party's views, attacking Communists 443 00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:28,400 and turning a blind eye to any aggressive Nazi activity. 444 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,960 Göring's so attuned to that form of control. 445 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:36,520 He's naturally aggressive in politics, and as Minister of the Interior, 446 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,400 he has the means to put that aggression into genuine effect. 447 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,080 Göring's seizure of Prussia through police control 448 00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:46,600 is enthusiastically approved by Hitler. 449 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,800 But in others, it arouses serious resentment. 450 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:54,760 There are two other members of the inner circle 451 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,960 who look at Göring's success with really, really envious eyes. 452 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,720 One of them, of course, is Goebbels who just sees 453 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:05,120 the success of anybody else with huge jealousy. 454 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:08,840 His nose is really put out of joint. And the other man is Himmler. 455 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:10,920 Himmler thinks of himself as... 456 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,920 I am the security and police person. I'm the person who gathers intelligence. 457 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:19,400 I know about this stuff. Why the hell is this bloated former pilot 458 00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,600 now suddenly in charge of the Gestapo? No, no, this should be me. 459 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:31,120 But even if Göring senses a growing enmity against him, 460 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,360 he feels secure, he's got a couple of aces up his sleeve. 461 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,200 [Richard] He sets up his own research office which begins to investigate 462 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:40,360 other members of the Party 463 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:43,720 and he holds dossiers and files which he's going to use at some future date. 464 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,800 He shows a good deal of political cunning. 465 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:50,200 [Guy] What the Gestapo also has is a great head start for Göring 466 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:56,280 because it's got all Prussian police's files on Göring's fellow top Nazis. 467 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:57,880 So this gives him a lot of power. 468 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,400 Better still, within a few weeks of taking over Prussia, 469 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,120 he acquires the Holy Grail of intelligence gathering. 470 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,840 Phone tapping, which was a very modern device at the time, 471 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:14,040 becomes a very important source of information for Göring, 472 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:15,920 and he's able to surprise people at times 473 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,080 by saying something to them they'd said on the phone. 474 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,280 If Göring is attacked by the others, he'll be ready. 475 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,040 Now the Nazis prepare to make their next move. 476 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,440 They're still part of a tenuous coalition, 477 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:33,520 with just a few cabinet posts. 478 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,440 This is not absolute power. 479 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:40,200 Although the Nazis are in power, they really wanna strengthen their grip. 480 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:45,240 The inner circle decide they must raise their game. 481 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:50,880 They argue the coalition is doomed to fail and call for yet another election. 482 00:31:51,880 --> 00:31:54,600 They now have just two months to secure a majority. 483 00:31:54,680 --> 00:32:01,400 Their plan? An all-out attack on their main political rivals, the Communists. 484 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:02,520 NEVER WITH HITLER! 485 00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:09,440 The threat, or the imagined threat, posed to Germany by the Communists 486 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:12,720 was a vital part of the Nazi narrative 487 00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:18,680 and Goebbels lost no opportunity to capitalise upon this. 488 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:24,200 Goebbels campaigns hard, with his slogan, Attack on Marxism. 489 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:27,680 But they know propaganda alone won't be enough. 490 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:29,640 At this stage, there's no doubt 491 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:34,240 that what the movement needs is some crisis of some sort, 492 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:37,520 something to do down the Communists who are, after all, 493 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:39,840 the largest party still in the Reichstag. 494 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,480 But however hard the Nazis try to provoke a major outrage, 495 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,200 the Communists refuse to oblige. 496 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,840 In February 1933, Joseph and Magda Goebbels 497 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,400 are entertaining Hitler and other Party leaders at their apartment 498 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:01,800 when they are delivered a miracle. 499 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:03,560 [phone rings] 500 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:10,320 The Reichstag is on fire. 501 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:13,680 [Michael] When the fire breaks out in February, 502 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:16,360 after he's taken power a month earlier, 503 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:21,280 all the evidence circumstantially would be that it was started by the Nazis. 504 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,800 This was denied at the time and Hitler's reaction, 505 00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,840 when Himmler and Goebbels told him of the fire, 506 00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:30,800 suggests he didn't know about it. 507 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:37,600 Nazi conspiracy or not, this is a situation that can be manipulated. 508 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:44,040 A young Dutch Communist is arrested at the scene of the fire. 509 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,680 Hitler had always said that he was the force of providence. 510 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,400 He was genuinely outraged by this attack by the Communists, as he saw it, 511 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,000 on the symbol of power, the Reichstag. 512 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:00,680 Hitler seizes the moment. 513 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:05,600 Within hours, he convinces Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree. 514 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,320 Under the pretence of protecting the public, 515 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,760 civil liberties are suspended and the Nazis are effectively handed 516 00:34:12,840 --> 00:34:16,560 the legal authority to suppress any opposition. 517 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:23,560 [Toby] The Reichstag fire thus gave the Nazis precisely the ammunition they needed 518 00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:28,760 to argue that the Communists were about to stage a national uprising. 519 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,200 The Reichstag fire was the signal, the beacon that was lit 520 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:37,280 for the unleashing of unrestrained Nazi violence across Germany. 521 00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:45,600 Röhm's SA, Göring's Gestapo and Himmler's SS all leap into action 522 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:49,680 to brutally and systematically destroy all political opposition. 523 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,200 [Christopher] You have the Prussian police descend on Germany 524 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,240 with pre-prepared arrest lists of leftist activists. 525 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:02,000 At the same time, the SA and the SS are unbound. 526 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,640 The SA now enrolled as auxiliary police are able 527 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,440 to pretty much attack and kidnap their Communist opponents, 528 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,320 drag them off to torture cellars 529 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,760 and submit them to violence, terror and extortion. 530 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,440 Marxism was effectively crushed at that moment. 531 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,120 After all the Nazis' propaganda and scaremongering... 532 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:25,880 FROM NOW ON DRASTIC MEASURES WILL BE TAKEN 533 00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:27,800 ...this savage repression is generally welcomed... 534 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:28,840 DAILY EVENING PAPER 535 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,760 ...by the German public and the Party's popularity soars. 536 00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:37,360 Just two weeks later, at the elections of March 1933, 537 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:40,760 the work of Goebbels and Göring pays off. 538 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:45,000 The Nazis win almost 44% of the vote, 539 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:50,040 still not a clear majority, but they are now the dominant force in the coalition. 540 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,200 The Nazis are now in the driving seat. 541 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,240 Once again, the inner circle await their rewards. 542 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:10,320 Power-hungry Göring already holds numerous political positions 543 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:14,640 but now a new ministry is created with his talents in mind. 544 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,640 He's tasked with secretly developing 545 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:21,640 and building the world's first modern air force. 546 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:25,840 [Richard] This is the point at which Göring is no longer 547 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:27,360 just a minister in Prussia, 548 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,480 he's somebody with a national responsibility. 549 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,600 He's the natural choice to set up an air ministry 550 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:36,320 and the air ministry is going to be a veiled way 551 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:38,120 of rearming Germany in the air. 552 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,120 Independent of the established army and navy 553 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,920 and with its own substantial budget and swanky uniform, 554 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,240 Göring is in his element. 555 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:57,120 Joseph Goebbels also finally gets the recognition he craves. 556 00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,960 [Toby] It was the fulfilment of a lifetime's ambition for Goebbels 557 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:06,800 to be made Minister of Propaganda in an entirely new ministry. 558 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,920 He was very proud of the idea that he was the youngest man ever 559 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,400 in Germany appointed to ministerial rank, 560 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,280 and he was absolutely delighted 561 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:19,600 with the opportunities that this new role offered. 562 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:24,400 It is a role he relishes and rapidly expands. 563 00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:30,760 After a number of months' preparation, he brought all of Germany's artists, 564 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:37,800 writers, musicians, painters and sculptors together in one organisation. 565 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:43,040 Just ten years earlier, this young man was a bitter and frustrated journalist. 566 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:46,440 Now he's at the helm of German cultural life. 567 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:51,800 It's the first significant step on a road to absolute control of all media. 568 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:56,880 This will become his empire and make him insanely powerful. 569 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,160 With the Nazis in power, 570 00:38:03,240 --> 00:38:08,320 law and order must now reflect their vision and enforce their values. 571 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,480 The nation's police forces must be centralised 572 00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,680 and brought under the control of one of the inner circle. 573 00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,560 It will be a prized and powerful position. 574 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:21,480 [Richard] Göring thinks that he is the natural person to do that, 575 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,400 he's set up the Gestapo in Prussia, he's played a very important part 576 00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:27,520 in bringing the police over to the regime's side. 577 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,840 But Göring has an unexpected rival for the role 578 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:36,440 in rising security boss and meticulous bureaucrat Heinrich Himmler. 579 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:43,960 The relationship between Göring and Himmler in 1933-34 580 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:45,320 is a very uneven one. 581 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:49,480 Göring is at the very top of the political hierarchy 582 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:52,120 whereas Himmler is still kind of manoeuvring, 583 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,200 trying to find his feet, trying to find his role. 584 00:38:55,280 --> 00:39:01,080 He's very busy laying the foundation for his subsequent power. 585 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:04,920 This is Himmler's big chance. 586 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,440 He wants to be in charge of a unified police state, 587 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,280 run along the same lines of his established SS. 588 00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:20,280 He approaches Hitler to set out why he's the man for the job. 589 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:25,320 [Richard] He delivers, he's a can-do man and he's a very good organiser. 590 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,480 Here's somebody who, you know, is clearly going to be able 591 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,560 to deliver effectively a national police system. 592 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,440 Himmler gets his way and is handed control 593 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:40,800 of the nation's state-police forces, except for one, Göring's Prussia. 594 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:49,160 Göring retains his valuable Gestapo. 595 00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:51,960 And though he's lost out to Himmler for the bigger prize, 596 00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:56,400 he recognises the young bureaucrat as a good man to get on side. 597 00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,840 He soon recruits him as his deputy in Prussia. 598 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,880 He comes to the realisation that Himmler can be quite useful. 599 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:08,120 So they decide to work together, but, of course, 600 00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:11,160 Göring is the more senior person within this partnership. 601 00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:16,120 Once again, he's underestimating Himmler, 602 00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:20,280 his ambition and his ability to build an organisation. 603 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,040 Göring has an ulterior motive for recruiting Himmler. 604 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:29,600 He wants the combined force of his Gestapo 605 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,920 and Himmler's SS and secret police 606 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:38,920 to take down someone he sees as a major threat: Ernst Röhm and his SA. 607 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,800 [Christopher] By early 1934, the size of the Brownshirt Movement 608 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,800 had increased to three to four million. 609 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,120 This starts to go to Röhm's head. 610 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:54,160 Röhm starts to make speeches calling for the SA to become a people's army. 611 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,320 [Nigel] There was a real bid for power 612 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,320 from within the Nazi Party from the Brownshirts, 613 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,960 that with some justification, had seen themselves 614 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:09,640 as the battering ram that had opened the gates for the Nazis. 615 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:14,320 The SA remain fixated on the idea of a second revolution. 616 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,080 A military junta with them on top. 617 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,560 Although Hitler and Röhm still appear close, 618 00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,280 they are ideologically poles apart. 619 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:31,800 As Hitler starts to mature politically and as he starts to grow away from... 620 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:33,760 what is described as the drummer, you know, 621 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:36,760 summoning men to arms on street corners, 622 00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:40,800 Röhm starts to become more of an embarrassment for Hitler, 623 00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:44,720 who is this sort of corpulent homosexual attached to him. 624 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:49,520 Röhm's homosexuality has never been a secret, 625 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:52,560 but now, as clean-cut legitimate leaders, 626 00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:54,800 it's becoming an exploitable issue 627 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,880 for main rival Göring and his new recruit, Himmler. 628 00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,360 Himmler, once Röhm's closest inner-circle ally, 629 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:06,760 now finds himself in direct competition with him. 630 00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:11,960 There's a fascinating love-hate relationship between the SS and the SA 631 00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:14,560 and indeed between Himmler and Röhm. 632 00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:21,920 By 1934, Himmler wants his noble SS order independent 633 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:23,640 and not tainted by association 634 00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:27,880 with the crude thuggery and perceived depravity of the SA. 635 00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:33,560 Himmler finally decides his old comrade, Röhm, must be dealt with. 636 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:38,360 [Nigel] Himmler, the leader of the SS, was a master bureaucrat, 637 00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,560 a brilliant behind-the-scenes manipulator. 638 00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:45,160 And he got together with Göring to organise a plot against Röhm. 639 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:50,480 [Guy] They both regard Röhm as acting against their wishes 640 00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:54,320 and they also see an opportunity if Röhm is brought down, 641 00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:57,960 then there's a potential land grab for both Himmler and Göring. 642 00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,040 They need to focus all their resources, 643 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,600 so Himmler's sidekick Reinhard Heydrich is brought on board... 644 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,320 ...tasked with finding damning evidence. 645 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,160 He puts his new SD on the case. 646 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,080 [Richard] They begin an intelligence surveillance programme, 647 00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:20,440 in which they try to find out what the SA is thinking, 648 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,800 and they bring all this material together 649 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:24,440 and they're gonna feed it to Hitler. 650 00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:31,880 Despite targeting Röhm's homosexuality, Hitler isn't that receptive. 651 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,440 As old colleagues, he's fully aware and has put it aside, 652 00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:39,080 but the plotters know which buttons to press. 653 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:42,080 [Richard] No secret was made when Göring and Himmler 654 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,120 were trying to persuade Hitler to act that there was 655 00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:47,640 a decadent element in the SA. 656 00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:50,080 There's absolutely no doubt that Hitler is homophobic 657 00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:53,000 and the thought that Röhm and the SA leadership 658 00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:57,680 were all indulging in homosexual orgies is something he can't take. 659 00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:00,520 Hitler is told that Röhm's influence 660 00:44:00,600 --> 00:44:06,520 is not only corrupting the SA's hierarchy but also the wider Nazi youth. 661 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,640 A disgusted Hitler finally gives the conspirators the green light. 662 00:44:10,720 --> 00:44:14,960 Now it's open season on Röhm and his SA. 663 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:21,120 Heydrich is ordered by Himmler to start finding out information about him, 664 00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:23,640 confected information, but it's gonna be enough. 665 00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:27,240 The Nazi way is make stuff up and throw it at the person, 666 00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:29,720 find him guilty, and this is what's gonna happen to Röhm. 667 00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:37,920 In June 1934, Hitler prepares a purge of the SA. 668 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,280 He cancels their annual military exercises 669 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:43,400 and orders them to go on leave. 670 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:48,560 Dispersed across the country in small groups, they will be easier to manage. 671 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,560 One of the strange things about the purge of Röhm, 672 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:54,520 of course, is Röhm's naivety. 673 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,720 He seems to have no sense, really, that he's perceived as a threat. 674 00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:01,720 And yet I think he really thinks that he's a help to Hitler, 675 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:05,240 the SA will help to push the revolution in a way that Hitler might want. 676 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,400 [Christopher] In June 1934, Röhm, obviously, isn't particularly alarmed 677 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,520 by some rumours circulating that there was going to be some action against him 678 00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:18,600 and he went down to Bad Weissee, a lake in Bavaria, for a holiday. 679 00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:21,760 It will prove a fatal error. 680 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,880 Göring, Himmler and Heydrich 681 00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:34,840 have been working around the clock to discredit Röhm 682 00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,200 and have finally found their trump card. 683 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:41,400 By the end of June 1934, amazingly, 684 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:43,680 the evidence that Röhm is a traitor has been found. 685 00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:47,080 And there's this kind of documentation that shows 686 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:49,920 he's the recipient of millions of marks from the French government 687 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:52,200 to try and overthrow Hitler on their behalf. 688 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,280 Of course, it's completely manufactured evidence. 689 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:56,040 ERNST RÖHM COMPLICITY 690 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:57,720 Armed with their apparent proof 691 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,720 that Röhm is a traitor as well as degenerate, 692 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:04,600 the plotters move to convince Hitler he must act fast. 693 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:08,360 Röhm's fate is sealed. 694 00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:11,040 What takes place, of course, 695 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:15,040 is one of the sort of most infamous acts of political violence ever known. 696 00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:19,040 It's called the Night of the Long Knives and, boy, were those knives sharp. 697 00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:26,280 Faced with the falsified evidence, in an extraordinary move, 698 00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:30,920 Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, takes matters into his own hands. 699 00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:37,360 He drove in a convoy of cars with SS men, armed SS men escorting him, 700 00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:39,680 to the resort of Bad Wiesse. 701 00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:45,000 At 6.30 in the morning, Hitler charges into the hotel, brandishing a pistol. 702 00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:50,840 [Nigel] He makes his way to Röhm's room... 703 00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:55,840 ...opens the door and says, 704 00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,520 "Get up, you're under arrest for high treason." 705 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,400 A sleep-bedazzled and bewildered Röhm 706 00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:04,760 doesn't understand what's going on, gets up. 707 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:10,200 Hitler and his group also arrest SA men who are actually in bed together. 708 00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:14,040 This is something that the Nazis will use after the event 709 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:18,000 to show they were actually trying to get rid of the sort of moral turpitude, 710 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:22,080 they call it, of the SA to regard it as this very sort of homosexual force. 711 00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:30,280 Proving their role as pure knights of the Nazi order, 712 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:33,760 Himmler's SS round up 200 senior SA officers, 713 00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:37,320 wiping clean the decadence of the SA. 714 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,960 Over the next 24 hours, many are shot. 715 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,600 This is actually, in some ways, the opportunity 716 00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:48,840 for which Himmler has prepared the organisation for a very long time. 717 00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:50,120 [gunshot] 718 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:53,080 They are demonstrating very clearly 719 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:58,120 that they are the most loyal instrument of the Führer. 720 00:47:58,200 --> 00:47:59,320 [gunshot] 721 00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:02,520 Others, including Röhm, are imprisoned. 722 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:06,840 [Nigel] Out of sentimental regard for Röhm personally, 723 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:11,320 Hitler wants to spare his life, but he's persuaded otherwise 724 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:14,440 by Göring and Himmler who say, it's no good, mein Führer, 725 00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:18,680 if you kill all the underlings of Röhm, if you spare the chief pig himself. 726 00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:23,440 After going this far, there can be no turning back. 727 00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:33,920 The following day, Hitler holds a tea party for his cabinet ministers 728 00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:37,200 and their families in the gardens of the Chancellery in Berlin. 729 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:39,760 While this tea party is going on, 730 00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:44,440 the playing out of the Night of the Long Knives is almost pure Godfather II. 731 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:49,000 It is like a gangster film. 732 00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:53,200 There are people being massacred, 733 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:55,520 literally just butchered, shot, killed. 734 00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:02,560 But there's one death Göring and Himmler still crave. 735 00:49:02,640 --> 00:49:07,920 During the afternoon, they steadily work on Hitler and finally he relents. 736 00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:11,840 Hitler is still very reticent about having Röhm shot 737 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:15,640 so he sends word that Röhm should be made aware 738 00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:18,120 that he could take his life himself with a revolver. 739 00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,560 The SS guards give Röhm a pistol with one bullet in it. 740 00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:32,880 [Guy] He is told, you know what to do, 741 00:49:32,960 --> 00:49:35,440 if we don't hear a shot in ten minutes, we'll go and do it ourselves. 742 00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:41,000 It might be checkmate, but Röhm's no traitor. 743 00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:45,800 Ten minutes passes, not a sound. 744 00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,800 A fighter to the end, he's not going to give them the satisfaction. 745 00:49:55,720 --> 00:50:00,560 Two SS men open the door... and he says, 746 00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:03,480 "You would have to shoot me yourselves or Adolf Hitler should shoot me." 747 00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:04,840 [gun cocks] 748 00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,240 So they shoot him three times in the chest and once in the head. 749 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:19,640 Röhm's death is the bloody finale to Göring and Himmler's murderous purge. 750 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:26,760 We still don't know how many died in that bloody, long weekend of violence. 751 00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:29,520 But it was certainly in the hundreds. 752 00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:37,000 And it gave a notice, not only to Germany, but to the world, 753 00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:42,280 that you opposed the Nazis' slightest whim at the very peril of your own life. 754 00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:50,600 Within weeks, the mighty SA is nothing more than a ceremonial organisation. 755 00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:56,880 And with Röhm gone, the major players of the inner circle have one less rival. 756 00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,640 [Richard] After the Röhm purge, the entourage around Hitler 757 00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:04,200 all begin to develop their own power base, 758 00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:07,880 their own interests, but the critical thing is that Hitler is at the centre. 759 00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,440 You had to remain loyal, you couldn't be a Röhm, 760 00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:12,200 because you would suffer the consequences. 761 00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:17,040 Two weeks later, the ailing President Hindenburg dies 762 00:51:17,120 --> 00:51:20,560 and Hitler merges the posts of Chancellor and President, 763 00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:25,440 declaring himself the supreme leader of Germany: the Führer. 764 00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:30,160 The inner circle is now unstoppable.