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How did the Nazi Party become Germany’s only legal political party in July 1933?

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Nazi SS troops march in formation carrying banners with swastikas and eagles at the 1933 Party Day rally in Nuremberg, Germany, with trees in the background. — Third Reich A Nazi Party rally at Nürnberg, Germany, in 1933.

Following his appointment as chancellor in January 1933, Adolf Hitler systematically dismantled Germany’s democratic structures to establish a dictatorship. A critical step in this process was the passage of the Enabling Act in March 1933, which granted the government the authority to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the president.12

Armed with these emergency powers, the Nazi regime initiated a process of Gleichschaltung, or "coordination," to consolidate control over all aspects of German society. In May 1933, trade unions were suppressed and merged into a state-controlled labor front. Throughout the summer, the government systematically targeted political opposition, leading to the forced dissolution or suppression of other political parties.13

By July 14, 1933, this campaign culminated in a formal decree that declared the Nazi Party to be the only legal political party in Germany, effectively ending the multi-party system and cementing the Third Reich as a one-party state.13