Historical context

The film shows Hermann Göring giving a speech as Reichstag President in 1932. At the end of August 1932, Göring was elected Reichstag President by a broad coalition of parties with the Nazis, against the votes of SPD and KPD MPs. This marked the beginning of the Nazis’ march through the institutions. When Hitler was elected Reich Chancellor of the same party coalition in January 1933, Göring also took over the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and thus the management of the police in most of Germany. Now numerous police chiefs were dismissed and replaced by Nazis, the SA became auxiliary police, the Gestapo was founded and finally the first concentration camps were set up to eliminate political opponents. In this way, the seemingly completely legal establishment of the dictatorship and utilisation of the democratic state’s positions of power took place.