How Hitler Became a Dictator PowerPoint: GCSE History Lesson

A complete GCSE History lesson on how Hitler turned the chancellorship into a dictatorship in just 18 months. It covers the Reichstag Fire and the emergency decree, the March 1933 election, the Enabling Act, the banning of trade unions and other parties, the Night of the Long Knives, and the death of Hindenburg and the army’s oath, finishing with exam practice.

• 35 slides
• GCSE History
• Weimar and Nazi Germany
• Exam question and mark scheme
• Teacher notes
• Fully editable

Download this PowerPoint free (.pptx)

What the lesson covers

1. Starter and key words: a recap quiz on how Hitler became Chancellor, eight key terms and the four limits on his power in January 1933.
2. The Reichstag Fire: what happened, the Reichstag Fire Decree, the debate over who started the fire and a chart of the March 1933 election.
3. The Enabling Act: how it was passed by 444 votes to 94, and why it was the legal foundation of the dictatorship.
4. Removing opposition: Gleichschaltung, the banning of trade unions and parties, and Germany becoming a one party state by July 1933.
5. The Night of the Long Knives: the threat from Röhm and the SA, the purge of June 1934 and its results.
6. Hitler becomes Führer: the death of Hindenburg, the army’s oath and the August 1934 plebiscite.
7. Tasks and exam practice: quizzes with answers, an ordering task, legal methods versus terror, a 12 mark “explain why” question, a levelled mark scheme, a model PEEL paragraph and common mistakes.

Who it is for

GCSE History teachers and students studying Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918 to 1939. The exam question is written in the style of Edexcel, and the lesson works just as well for AQA, OCR and Eduqas courses. Every slide has teacher notes, and quiz answers are on the slides that follow each task.

Download this PowerPoint free (.pptx)