“As far as I know, the officials for the new territories were selected by the Personnel Office [of the Ministry of the Interior] according to their qualifications, their physical condition and maybe also their knowledge of the language.” (3570-PS)
In the full use of these broad powers, Frick made his essential contribution to the advancement of the conspiracy.
(2) Nazi seizure of power of German States. His first act after the Conspirators’ accession to power was to install Nazi governments and administrations in all German States where they were not already in power. The State governments which refused to hand over their constitutional authority to the Nazi successors designated by Frick were removed on Frick’s orders. This was the case in Bavaria, Hamburg, Bremen, Luebeck, Hesse, Baden, Wuerttemberg, and Saxony.
The manner and purpose of this program was clearly stated in the book, “Dr. Frick and his Ministry,” which was published by his Under-Secretary Wilhelm Pfundner for Frick’s 60th birthday in order to establish the full scope of his contribution to the creation of the Nazis’ “Thousand-Year Reich”:
“While Marxism in Prussia was crushed by the hard fist of the Prussian Prime Minister, Hermann Goering, and a gigantic wave of propaganda was initiated for the Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933, Dr. Frick prepared the complete seizure of power in all states of the Reich. All at once the political opposition disappeared. All at once the Main [River] line was eliminated. From this time on only one will and one leadership reigned in the German Reich.” (3119-PS; 3132-PS)
(3) Abolition of political opposition. Frick then proceeded to destroy all opposition parties in order to establish the political monopoly of the Nazi Party over Germany. Here again he acted by legislative fiat against all parties which did not dissolve voluntarily. Among the laws which he initiated for this purpose were the law of 26 May 1933 confiscating Communists’ property (1396-PS); the law of 14 July 1933 confiscating property inimical to nation and state (1388-PS); the law of 7 July 1933 voiding the mandates of all Social Democrat candidates elected to Reich state and local diets (2058-PS); and the law of 14 July 1933 outlawing all political parties other than the Nazi Party (1388-A-PS; see 2403-PS).
Frick drafted and administered the laws which assured the control of the Nazi Party over the State and “placed the government machinery * * * at the disposal of the Party.” Chief among these enactments were the Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State, of 1 December 1933, which provided that all government agencies should “lend legal and administrative aid to the Party agencies” (1395-PS), and the law of 1 August 1934 consolidating the positions of Chief of State and Leader of the Party (2003-PS; see 3119-PS).
The success of this series of measures was accurately described by Frick himself in the following terms:
“In National Socialist Germany, leadership is in the hands of an organized community, the National Socialist Party; and as the latter represents the will of the nation, the policy adopted by it in harmony with the vital interests of the nation is, at the same time, the policy adopted by the country * * *.” (3258-PS)
(4) Consolidation of power in Reich Cabinet. Frick’s next task was to consolidate the executive and legislative control thus achieved. First he drafted the law of 24 March 1933, which gave the Reich Cabinet the power to legislate by decree. This law marked the end of parliamentary government in Germany (2001-PS).