Ministry of the Interior Had to Be Involved

Since right after the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933, Reich Ministry of the Interior was fighting a bitter turf war with the SS… which the former ultimately (and quite predictably) lost.

However, in the meantime, it became (though temporarily) one of the most powerful entities in Nazi Germany. It was also heavily involved in the persecution of Jews prior to the Holocaust as it drafted the anti-Jewish legislation.

When Reich president Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on January 1933, Ministry of the Interior was the only one given to NSDAP (G;ring served as minister without portfolio until May 5).

Wilhelm Frick, former minister of the Interior and Education in Thuringia, was appointed Reichsminister of the Interior. Though Frick held a key position, especially in organizing the federal elections of March 1933, he initially had far less power than his counterparts in the rest of Europe.

Notably, he had no authority over the police; prior to Nazis taking power, in Germany law enforcement has traditionally been a state and local matter. Indeed, the main reason that Hindenburg and Franz von Papen agreed to give the Interior Ministry to the Nazis was that it was almost powerless at the time. Big mistake.

Frick’s power dramatically increased as a result of the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933. The provision of the Reichstag Fire Decree giving the cabinet the power to take over state governments on its own authority was actually his idea; he saw the fire as a chance to increase his power and begin the process of Nazifying the country.

Ministry was responsible for drafting many of the Gleichschaltung laws that consolidated the Nazi regime. In April of 1933 Interior Minister Frick helped draft the law appointing Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governors) to take over the state governments. It also initiated and drafted the Law Against the Formation of Parties (enacted on July 14, 1933) that made the NSDAP the only legal party in Germany.

Under the 30 January 1934 “Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich”, which converted Germany into a highly centralized state, state parliaments were dissolved and the newly implemented Reichsstatthalter were made directly responsible to Frick. He also drafted the Law on the Abolition of the Reichsrat (February 14, 1934) that abolished the upper chamber of the parliament.

On May 1, 1934, Frick replaced Minister-President G;ring as Prussian Minister of the Interior, which gave him control over the police in Prussia (not for long). By 1935, Interior Ministry had near-total control over local government.

It had the sole power to appoint the mayors of all municipalities with populations greater than 100,000 (except for the city states of Berlin and Hamburg, where Hitler reserved the right to appoint the mayors himself if he deemed it necessary).

The Ministry had considerable influence over smaller towns as well; while their mayors were appointed by the state governors, as mentioned earlier the governors were responsible to Frick.

Interior Ministry was instrumental in the racial policy of Nazi Germany by drafting laws against Jews, like the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” in April of 1933 and the notorious Nuremberg Laws in September 1935.

In July 1933, Frick implemented the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring including forced sterilizations, which later culminated in the killings of the Action T4 (Interior Ministry was heavily involved in this operation).

However, in 1936 Frick (predictably) fell from grace losing (no less predictably) the power struggle to Heinrich Himmler (the former was no match for the latter both politically and bureaucratically).

His power was greatly reduced in June 1936 when Hitler named Himmler the Chief of German Police, which effectively united the police with the SS. On paper, Frick was Himmler’s immediate superior… in reality, the police were now independent of Frick’s control (as it was prior to 1933), since the SS answered only to Hitler.

A long-running power struggle between the two culminated in Frick’s being replaced by Himmler as Reichsminister of the Interior in August 1943. However, in January of 1942, the Interior Ministry and Frick personally were still powerful – so Heydrich had to invite Frick’s representative to Wannsee Conference.