by Roger Crain

Created on: March 10, 2009   Last Updated: April 14, 2009

When Adolf Hitler came to power in January of 1933, the economy of Germany was in shambles. Mein Kampfe, a book penned by the fierced head of state himself, became the bible of Nazi Germany and further inculcated the Nazi way of life to the German people. Hitler was aided in this bully approach to leadership by none other than Heinrich Himmler, a secret service leader in Hitler's Gestapo. Together, they were able to advance the Nazi's cause and catapult Germany out of the doldrums of economic depression to being one of the premier powers at the Yalta Conference. Thus, this article will show how Hitler used his Gestapo (bully) tactics to advance his agenda of world domination.

When Hitler became the chancellor of Germany on that fateful day, he knew he needed to aligned himself with a vanguard of able and astute men who would be competent enough to see his policies into action. Thus, his sights were sets on Herman Goring, the minister of the interior, who would preside over Hitler's secret service network of police called "The Gestapo." Goring was based in Prussia, a vital power seat for the German empire; and a key base of operation for Hitler to weld his considerable influence over the lives of the German masses.

Another important figure in Hitler's cabinet was Rudolf Diels who was appointed by Goring to be the Gestapo chief (In a social democracy, individual leaders could exercise their power to appoint their own officials which wasn't the exclusive domain of the chancellor or head of state). Diels first order of business as the Gestapo chief was to purge Germany of its' "Un-German ideas-he ordered the burning of books in May of 1933 which didn't line up with Hitler's worldview. Now the road was paved for Hitler to take his agenda to a new level.

Thus Hitler sought the expertise of the brilliant lawyer, Wilhelm Frick, and a key player in Hitler's plans to dominate all of Europe. Initially, Frick started out with far less power than the rest of his counterparts in Europe; yet, his power dramatically increased as a result of drafting the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act of 1933, two definitive laws which meted out more clout to Frick. He also wrote a series of laws designed to consolidate the Nazi regime. These laws were called the "Gleichschaltung" laws which made state governors responsible to Frick. By 1935, Frick began to weld considerable influence by being the sole authority figure in appointing "The mayors of all the municipalities with populations greater than 100,000."

With this growing clout, Frick succeeded in "passing laws against the Jewish people." The Nuremberg laws, for example, condemned the Jews to those infamous concentration camps where they would be systematically stripped of their dignity and senselessly slaughtered to the tune of six million. Furthermore, Berlin would become the host city of the world games in 1936. Consequently, the olympics would put Hitler in the spotlight to prove to the world that his aryan philosophy was indeed ephemeral to his intended aims. However, Jesse Owens would blast those aims by dominating the olympics and becoming a gold medalist.

Still, Dr. Wilhelm Frick's clout would last for ten grueling years (1933-43); and at the end of those years, he would be replaced by Himmler as the Minister of the Interior. He would assumed other posts such as the protector of Bohemia and Moravia. It would be in the Prague where Frick would preside over his responsibilities with such ruthlessness that he would be charged with war crimes and executed in 1946. Hitler would go into seclusion and conveniently drift off the world scene yet his bully politics at advancing his agenda of world domination would inevitably be thrawt.

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