Danger on Danger (Chapter 5) The best political weapon is the weapon of terror - Himmler
Berlin March 1933
Theo had been busy, a new federal election was upon the nazi party, set to cement it's success and position to rule the state with an iron fist. His fuhrer Adolf Hitler had been chancellor for two months, and those precious weeks had been used to full effect.
Hitler had banned the newspapers of the center party and other organizations and a sustained campaign to destroy the KPD was managed by Theo, Goring and Rohm (Rohm sicking the SA on them with savage beatings and murders, Goring setting up a clandestine burning to the Reichstag to be blamed on them and Theo organizing the police to look the other way whilst blood flowed in the streets)
Hitler in turn turned up the pressure on president Hindenberg to ban the communists from the next election under his emergency decree powers which was done, taking effect just three days before the election. With the communists effectively neutralized, Theo and Rohm lead the SA on a massive intimidation and murder campaign against the social democrats, breaking up meetings, busting up unions, arresting leadership and lining up leadership against walls for shooting with only the smallest pretense of cleaning up the mess they left.
The election was a farce, but still held up as legitmate with the Nazis securing 18 million votes in the reduced turnout environment; this gave them 50.2 percent of the seats in the reichstag. A staccato of new laws were passed (the Nazi's coalition with the nationlists allowing them to reach the 2/3 vote required) which resulted in the out and out banning of the leftist and centerist parties; the SPD and KPD couldn't even vote against these measures as their parliament members had either run away, been arrested or if Theo had found them, shot on the spot. Enabling acts worked their way through parliament over the next several months granting absolute power to Hitler and the Nazi party which he further consolidated after the death of President Hindenberg leaving him as Germany's supreme ruler.
Whilst all of this went on Theo continued to act as Hitler's personal left hand (as Hitler called it, since Hess always sat to his right at dinner) nominally he was a member of the Reichstag from Baden on the naval affairs committee, but behind the scenes he lead detachments of SA on search and destroy missions against the left and remaining opponents of the Nazi's with Hitlers total blessing. He ended up being so effective at this that he was given command of Hitler's splinter group of bodyguards known as the SS on a temporary basis... the role would eventually fall to another of Goering's friends Heinrich Himmler after Theo gave up the position to concentrate on his other duties completely in 1935. His most important position; unknown to much of the public and the entente was chief of naval aviation... Hitler had created a number of secret positions in this way including making Goering head of the yet to be revealed Luftwaffe. In theory Osterkamp was subordinate to Goering, but in practice this only went so far as to when they disagreed on something in which case Theo could and often did go to Hitler directly... this forced him to rely on his coddeling skills to play Hitler and Goering off each other, but these skills had a decade of refinement to them and if anything both appreciated and liked Theo and these events stayed unremarkable
That Theo could receive directives such as his first without drawing Goering's anger was THE evident example of his standing
Order to General of Naval Aviation Number 1
The fuhrer does hereby create the office of General of Naval Aviation and name Generalmajor (appointed General Major effective 1/1/34) Theodor Osterkamp to be her chief. The fuhrer directs Generalmajor Osterkamp to form a division of the Luftwaffe for naval operations including but not limited to scouting, spotting, mine laying, bombing, general support to the Kriegsmarine and is to maintain all aircraft possible in a dual use configuration should his forces be called on to participate in land battles. The fuhrer hereby orders Generalmajor Osterkamp to form 10 squadrons for the proposed duties and he is to have all access and contacts to any members of the araments industries and procurement departments of the Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine as he sees fit
Signed
Adolf Hitler
General Order 1
1/1/34