22 Nov. 45
was the subordination of the Land
government to the Reich Government and the Land ministers to the
corresponding Reich ministers. On 30 January, 1934 the German Reich
became one state."
Another step taken by the Nazi conspirators in
consolidating their political power was the purge of civil servants
on racial and political grounds and their replacement by Party
members and supporters. This purge was accomplished through a series
of Nazi laws and decrees. The first was on 7 April 1933, entitled:
"Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil
Service." Article 3 of the law applied the Nazi blood and master
race theories in providing that officials who were not of Aryan
descent were to be retired. The political purge provision of the law
is contained in Article 4, and I quote:
"Officials who, because of their
previous political activities, do not offer security that they will
assert themselves for the National State without reservations may be
dismissed."
The effect of this law and the decrees and
regulations issued thereunder was to fill every responsible position
in the Government with a Nazi and to prevent the appointment of any
applicant opposed or suspected of being opposed, to the Nazi program
and policy.
Even the judiciary did not escape the purge of
the Nazi conspirators. All judges who failed to fulfill the racial
and political requirements of the conspirators were quickly removed.
In addition, the Nazis set up a new system of special criminal courts
independent of the regular judiciary and directly subservient to the
Party program. Moreover, the Nazis controlled all judges through
special directives and orders from the central Government, their aim
being, as expressed by one Gerland, one of the leading Nazi lawyers
of that time: ". . . to make the word 'terrorization' in the
penal law respectable again."
As their control was consolidated, the
conspirators greatly enlarged existing State and Party organizations
and established an elaborate network of new formations and agencies.
The Party spread] octopus-like throughout all of Germany. This
process of growth was summed up late in 1937 in an official statement
of the Party Chancellery, as follows:
"In order to control the whole
German nation in all spheres of life"-and I repeat, in order to
control the whole German nation in all spheres of life-"the
NSDAP, after assuming power, set up under its leadership, the new
Party formations and affiliated organizations."