Enabling Act of 1933: Hitler As Dictator, Rule By Decree

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Last edited Tue Jul 21, 2020, 01:05 PM - Edit history (4)

- THE LAW THAT 'ENABLED' HITLER'S DICTATORSHIP. 80 years ago on March 23, 1933 Germany's parliament passed the "Enabling Act." From that point on, Adolf Hitler could enact laws without the need of parliamentary approval. Only one party valiantly resisted. DW, March 23, *2013.

On March 23, 1933, Adolf Hitler stepped inside the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. Dressed in the brown uniform of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the chancellor of Germany made his way past the enthusiastic parliamentarians of his National Socialist party. It was there that members of Germany's parliament found refuge in late February after the Reichstag, or parliamentary building, was set aflame under mysterious circumstances. The opera house was quickly outfitted as the new meeting chambers for Germany's parliament.

For opposition parties, however - chiefly the Social Democrats - the halls of the Kroll Opera were nothing less than a gauntlet. Manning every entry and exit were members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), or Storm Troopers, who, alongside the "brown shirts," insulted and intimidated opposition members. Members of the Communist Party were not represented. They had either been stripped of political authority and removed, arrested or had fled to prevent their arrest.

- Foundation of a dictatorship: Just weeks earlier, Hitler's initial goal of obtaining an absolute majority of National Socialists in Germany's parliament had failed. As a result, on March 23, he placed before parliament a "Law to Remedy the Distress of People and the Reich" - also called the "Enabling Act."

The decisive sentence in the five-paragraph law read: "In addition to procedures prescribed by the constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich." That second clause had drastic implications. With no need for parliamentary approval, Hitler's government could enact laws and enter into agreements or alliances with other countries. Practically speaking, Germany's parliament was being asked to render itself impotent.

Beyond that, fundamental laws written into the Weimar constitution were now to be done away with.
For citizens, constitutional guarantees would be rendered void.

Granting these emergency powers to the German chancellor would endow his office with unassailable legal authority. The only thing between the chancellor and that power was the consent of two-thirds of parliament...

Read More, https://www.dw.com/en/the-law-that-enabled-hitlers-dictatorship/a-16689839
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- USHMM. THE ENABLING ACT: The Enabling Act allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany’s parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society. The law was passed on March 23, 1933, and published the following day. The full name was the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich” and it became the cornerstone of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship. The act allowed him to enact laws, including ones that violated the Weimar Constitution, without approval of either parliament or Reich President von Hindenburg..

*The Supreme Court did nothing to challenge the legitimacy of this measure. Instead, it accepted the majority vote, overlooking the absence of the Communist delegates and the Social Democrats who were under arrest. In fact, most judges were convinced of the legitimacy of the process and did not understand why the Nazis proclaimed a “Nazi Revolution.”.. In the end, German judges—who were among the few who might have challenged Nazi objectives—viewed Hitler's government as legitimate and continued to regard themselves as state servants who owed him their allegiance and support...Read More, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-enabling-act

- Reichstag Fire Decree, Feb. 27, 1933.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/reichstag-fire-decree

- Arrests Without Warrant or Judicial Review Decree, Feb. 28, 1933. Background: Preventive Police Action in Nazi Germany, as of February 28, 1933.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/arrests-without-warrant-or-judicial-review

- Nuremberg Race Laws, Sept.15, 1935. The Nuremberg Race Laws were two in a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law in the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership moved Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws

- Segment from Rick Steve's "The Story of Fascism: Hitler’s Rise to Power" (2018). Hitler delivered simplistic messages and promised to create jobs after the Financial Crash of 1929 came to Germany, the 2nd hardest hit country after the U.S. The 'Story of Fascism' full series aired on PBS. - “He promised jobs, jobs, jobs to everybody...and that was exactly what they wanted to hear.” Hitler was a mesmerizing speaker. He offered simple solutions to complicated problems, and he repeated lies over and over until everything he said seemed true. By 1932, his political base was convinced that he would bring Germany “above all the world.”

- How Hitler Turned Germany Into A Dictatorship | Hitler's Propaganda & Terror Machine | Full Documentary, 2020.
The decade of propaganda, impassioned speeches, newspaper articles, posters and campaigning that led to one moment, Hitler being made Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

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1. 'Brownshirts,' SA, paramilitary organ. assoc. with the Nazi Party.

- Nazis on the Rise. 'Nazis wanted chaos in the streets, chaos showed the failure of democracy. It made their solution more attractive.' SA, Sturmabteilung, Brownshirts, Stormtroopers.

USHMM. Founded in 1921, the Sturmabteilung, or SA, was a paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party. The SA was integral to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, violently enforcing party norms and attempting to influence elections. After Hitler purged the SA during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, the SA lost most of its power to the Schutzstaffel, or SS, although the SA did not disband until the war ended in 1945.

In the aftermath of the First World War that ended in 1918, Freikorps, or independent paramilitary units, proliferated across Germany. Composed primarily of World War I veterans returning from the war, the Freikorps fought against communists and other groups the Freikorps believed were responsible for German defeat. By 1921, approximately 400,000 men were involved in paramilitary groups. One of these groups was the Turn-und Sportabteilung (Gymnastics and Sports Division) in Bavaria, which was later renamed the Sturmabteilung, or SA.

The SA was associated with the German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), which in turn was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), better known as the Nazis. The SA was to provide military protection for the party, while also advancing Nazi ideology. In August 1921, the party’s newspaper, Der Völkische Beobachter, published an open call for young men to join the SA, imploring men to join the fight against “foreign races” bent on destroying Germany..https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-sa

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2. The Gestapo, Hitler's Secret police, The Real Life Stormtroopers

USHMM. The Gestapo (German secret state police) was a vital component both in Nazi repression and the Holocaust. It was a police force unlike others in that it did not answer to any judicial or legal oversight. Without fear of civilian repercussions, the Gestapo used ruthless methods to identify and arrest political opponents and others who refused to conform to the policies of the Nazi regime. The Gestapo had relatively few officers, and relied heavily on denunciations and cooperation from members of the public. The Gestapo was the secret police of the Nazi state. The term “Gestapo” is an acronym which derives from the German Geheime Staatspolizei, or Secret State Police. Along with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), Kriminalpolizei (Kripo), and Ordnungspolizei (Orpo), the Gestapo formed an important part of the extensive Nazi police organization. It was responsible for combatting counter-espionage and criminal actions against both the State and the Nazi Party.
As such it was a vital component both in Nazi repression and the Holocaust. This police force was unlike others in that it answered to no judicial or legal oversight. It could carry out particularly ruthless actions without fear of any civilian repercussions.

- Establishment of the Gestapo: The Gestapo was officially established on April 27, 1933, by Hermann Göring, who combined the state and political police in the largest and most powerful German state of Prussia. The law establishing it there described its mission: “to assure the effective battle against all endeavours directed at the existence and security of the state.” As part of the Nazi consolidation of power, all German police forces were combined. By 1934, the Gestapo was headed by SS chief Heinrich Himmler; it became a national agency as a result of the Gestapo Laws of 1936, with Himmler named Chief of the German Police.
- Operations of the Gestapo: The Gestapo distinguished itself from other police in that it functioned not just as a police force but as a force inseparable from the Nazi Party. It had a mandate to operate outside the law or judicial review to combat legal activity deemed unacceptable by the Party. Eliminating any potential resistance to Hitler's assumption of power in 1933 was one of the Gestapo's first tasks. Gestapo officers targeted mainly political enemies of the Nazis, such as communists, social democrats, liberals, and others targets, but not initially Jews.

- "Protective Custody": One of the most effective weapons of the Gestapo was Schutzhaft or “protective custody.” Unlike its use in democratic countries, where a witness or other individual is taken into custody to protect them from a real threat, the Nazis used the concept very differently. Because enemies of the state were so hated, the Nazis argued, it was necessary to confine them in protective custody to protect them from the righteous anger of good German citizens. This twisted logic allowed the Gestapo full power to arrest individuals and hold them in concentration camps like Dachau indefinitely without ever charging them or giving them a judicial hearing. By the end of the summer of 1933, an estimated 100,000 Germans had been imprisoned at some point and 500–600 killed. Domestically, the Gestapo focused on eliminating organizations which opposed the regime, those accused of resistance, “morals charges” dealing with unauthorized relationships with racial “inferiors,” and all manner of “non-conformity.”

- The Gestapo during the Holocaust: With its incorporation into the Reich Security Main Office of the SS (RSHA), the Gestapo became known as Department IV and was an official part of the apparatus that carried out the Holocaust. Gestapo offices were established across Nazi-occupied Europe. From these offices, Gestapo officials helped the SS, military occupation authorities, and Nazi civilian administrators round up and deport Jews and neutralize resisters. In addition, the Gestapo maintained offices in the concentration camps.
Lower-level Gestapo men were assigned to the infamous Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) which murdered over 1.5 million Jews in the occupied Soviet Union. SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for coordinating the mass deportation of European Jews to the killing centers, headed section IVb4 of the Gestapo. In almost all circumstances, the Gestapo worked closely with the Security Police, SD, as well as local SS & military leaders to both destroy resistance to the regime and to facilitate anti-Jewish policy. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gestapo