January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler Is Appointed Chancellor of Germany

Hitler and Hindenburg, at Potsdam, March 21, 1933

January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler, Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers' Party -- in German, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated to NSDAP, or "Nazi" -- is appointed Chancellor of Germany, head of the country's government, by its head of state, President Paul von Hindenburg.

Hitler blamed Germany's loss in World War I on Communists and Jews, and often equated them. He did this to boost Germany's self-esteem, so that the people wouldn't think they lost on merit, or that the country's army -- led by Hindenburg -- had let them down. He allowed them to believe that Communists and Jews had "stabbed them in the back," betraying them.

Hindenburg, Germany's top military commander in that war, knew better. Within a year of the Armistice, he had told American journalist George Seldes that the reason Germany lost that war was because America got into it with fresh troops and supplies for the Allies.

As the country suffered through the economic disaster of hyperinflation in 1923, Hitler, by now leading the Nazi Party, led a coup that meant to take over the State of Bavaria, as a stepping-stone to a challenge to the national government in Berlin. His "Beer Hall Putsch" didn't work, and he was imprisoned.

But only for a little over a year, and, in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), both memoir and declaration of intentions. It's been said that the Holocaust began with one book, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler; and ended with another book, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

In the 1928 German federal election, the Nazi Party won only 3 percent of the seats in the national legislature, the Reichstag. In 1930, they won 18 percent, becoming the 2nd-ranking party. On July 31, 1932, another election was held, and they won 37 percent, becoming the leading party -- but not a majority party. So the minority government of Chancellor Franz von Papen held on, but another election was forced for November 6.

Again, the Nazis finished first -- but still not with a majority, and actually lost seats, down to 33 percent. von Papen urged Hindenburg to continue to govern by emergency decree. Negotiations continued, until, on January 30, 1933, Hindenburg knew that the only way to have a stable government was to let the leader of the largest party be Chancellor. And that was Hitler.

Hitler assumed dictatorial powers, and banned all other parties. There would not be another free election in western Germany until August 14, 1949; and not another in eastern Germany until December 2, 1990. When Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, Hitler assumed his office as President -- and replaced it with that of Führer, and its "cult of personality," which made him not just all-powerful in the government, but his country's secular god.

In the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger, Stanley Tucci played Dr. Abraham Erskine, the German scientist who, horrified at what the Nazis were doing, created a "super-soldier" serum to give to the United States, telling the volunteer for the serum, Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, "The first country the Nazis invaded was their own."

Hitler took office in his country 89 days after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States, and 33 days before FDR was sworn in as his country's head of state and head of government. No one knew it in the Winter of 1932-33, but the two men were on a collision course. In the end, neither man survived it, but one's philosophy did. And, as late as June 1944, it wasn't clear which one's it would be.

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January 30, 1933 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled for that day. So there were no scores.