- Date:
- 1933
- Location:
- Germany
- Participants:
- Centre Party
- German National People’s Party
- Nazi Party
- Context:
- Third Reich
- Key People:
- Adolf Hitler
Enabling Act
-
What was the Enabling Act in Germany?
The Enabling Act, passed by the German Reichstag on March 23, 1933, enabled Adolf Hitler to assume dictatorial powers. With support from the Nazi Party, the German National People’s Party, and the Centre Party, the act allowed Hitler's government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency, giving him the power to carry out his National Socialist revolution. The Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, was a key event that led to the passage of the Enabling Act. The day after the fire, Hitler's dictatorship began with a decree that dispensed constitutional protection of rights. Though the Nazis didn't win an outright majority in the ensuing elections, they were able to pass the Enabling Act, transferring legislative powers to the Reich Cabinet.
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When was the Enabling Act passed in Germany?
The Enabling Act was passed by the German Reichstag on March 23, 1933, enabling Adolf Hitler to assume dictatorial powers. It allowed Hitler's government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency, forming the legal foundation of his dictatorship and enabling the Nazi revolution. The passage of the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag. The 81 Communist deputies were excluded, and the support of the Nationalists and of the Centre Party was obtained by assurances and promises. The Social Democrats alone opposed the bill but were outvoted 441 to 94.
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Which political leader pushed for the Enabling Act to be passed?
Adolf Hitler pushed for the Enabling Act to be passed. This law, passed by the German Reichstag on March 23, 1933, enabled Hitler to assume dictatorial powers. It allowed his government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the president, forming the legal foundation of his dictatorship and enabling the Nazi revolution. The Nazi Party, along with the German National People’s Party and the Centre Party, voted in favor of the act. With this, Hitler carried out the first steps of his National Socialist revolution.
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How did the Enabling Act change the German government?
The Enabling Act, passed on March 23, 1933, enabled Adolf Hitler to establish a dictatorship in Germany. It allowed the government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and president.
With the passage of the Enabling Act, the constitutional rights to individual liberty were suspended, and the sovereign powers of the states were transferred to the Reich. Trade unions were suppressed, and other political parties were either dissolved or suppressed, so that the Nazi Party was the only political party in Germany. The Reichstag became obsolete, as all decisions were taken by Nazi leaders.
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Why was the Enabling Act significant in Hitler's rise to power?
The Enabling Act, passed on March 23, 1933, was pivotal in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, as it enabled his government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency. This act provided the legal foundation for his dictatorship and facilitated the Nazi revolution.
To secure its passage, Hitler exploited the Reichstag fire to suspend constitutional liberties, creating an atmosphere of fear. Although the Nazis lacked an outright majority in the Reichstag, they gained support from Nationalist partners and the Centre Party through assurances. The Enabling Act became the basis for the Third Reich, as it allowed for the abolishment of state diets, suppression of trade unions, and the declaration of the Nazi Party as the sole political party in Germany.
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How did the Enabling Act contribute to the creation of a dictatorship in Germany?
The Enabling Act, passed on March 23, 1933, was critical in establishing Adolf Hitler's dictatorship. It allowed Hitler's government to issue decrees independent of the Reichstag and the presidency, effectively bypassing constitutional checks and balances.
The passage of the Enabling Act followed the Reichstag fire, which created an atmosphere of fear that the Nazis exploited. While the Nazis didn't initially secure an outright majority in the Reichstag, they gained the support of Nationalist partners. By arresting or excluding Communist deputies and gaining the support of the Centre Party through assurances, Hitler was able to secure the two-thirds majority needed to pass the Act.
With the Enabling Act in place, Hitler carried out a revolution, abolishing state diets, suppressing trade unions, and eventually declaring the Nazi Party as the sole political party in Germany.
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Enabling Act, law passed by the German Reichstag on March 23, 1933, that enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler to assume dictatorial powers. Deputies from the Nazi Party, the German National People’s Party, and the Centre Party voted in favor of the act, which “enabled” Hitler’s government to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and the presidency. It gave Hitler a base from which to carry out the first steps of his National Socialist revolution.
The legal groundwork for the Nazi revolution
The waning days of Germany’s Weimar Republic were characterized by political deadlock, and in December 1932 Pres. Paul von Hindenburg set aside Chancellor Franz von Papen and replaced him with Gen. Kurt von Schleicher. Papen, who retained some power and influence as a vice-chancellor, persuaded Hindenburg to bring Hitler into the government, thereby creating a coalition with a majority in the Reichstag. Having thus attained his goal of reaching the chancellorship legally, Hitler took office on January 30, 1933. The democratic interlude of interwar Germany was effectively at an end.
In the coalition cabinet, the Nazis held only 3 out of 11 seats. They had Hitler as chancellor, Wilhelm Frick as Reichsminister of the interior, and Hermann Göring as a Reichsminister without portfolio. Göring also became the minister of the interior for Prussia, a position he used to Nazify the largest police force in Germany and establish the Gestapo. The ministry of economy and that of food and agriculture, both in the Reich and in Prussia, were held by Alfred Hugenberg, the leader of the Nationalists; the foreign ministry was held by Konstantin von Neurath, a career diplomat of conservative views; and the ministry of defense was held by Gen. Werner von Blomberg. As vice-chancellor, Papen claimed the right to be present on all occasions when the chancellor saw the president, and, as Reich commissioner for Prussia, he controlled the principal administrative machine in Germany. In this way Papen believed that he had effectively blocked any threat of extremist action by the Nazis. He was wrong.
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Hitler’s first step was to persuade the cabinet to agree to hold new elections in order to provide a majority in the Reichstag. He overcame their doubts by a categorical promise that, whatever the results, no change would be made in the composition of the coalition. The elections were fixed for March 5, 1933, and the Nazis made full use of the power that they now possessed over the apparatus of the state, including the radio, to launch a whirlwind campaign. Although the other parties were still allowed to function, their meetings were broken up, their speakers assaulted, and their newspapers continually suppressed. Göring, in control of the Prussian police force, displayed great energy in carrying out a purge of the police, which placed the force under Nazi control; in addition, he called up 50,000 auxiliary police, the majority of them SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS (Schutzstaffel). The police were forbidden to interfere with the many acts of intimidation carried out by the SA, who were given the “freedom of the streets.”
The Reichstag fire and the Enabling Act
On the night of February 27 the Reichstag building was destroyed by fire. On the pretext of a Communist plot to seize power, the constitutional guarantees of individual liberty were suspended and the Reich government was given emergency powers. It was in this atmosphere of fear and insecurity that the elections were held a week later. Nevertheless, the Nazis failed to secure an outright majority, capturing 288 of 647 seats, and both the Centre Party and the Social Democratic Party held firm. It was only with the help of his Nationalist partners, who won 52 seats, that Hitler was able to secure a bare majority.
Hitler’s next step was to secure the passage of an Enabling Act, which would give the government the power to issue decrees independently of the Reichstag and of the president. For this he required a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag. The 81 Communist deputies were either arrested or excluded; the support of the Nationalists and of the Centre Party (73 seats) was obtained by assurances and promises; and the Social Democrats, who alone opposed the bill (March 23), were outvoted 441 to 94. The Enabling Act remained the constitutional basis of Hitler’s dictatorship. No new constitution was ever introduced to replace that of the Weimar Republic; fresh laws were promulgated as they were required. Thus, the Third Reich (“empire”) was created. (The Second Reich was formed by Otto von Bismarck in 1871 and lasted until 1918; the term First Reich denotes the Holy Roman Empire of 800–1806.)
Armed with overriding powers, which he had been careful to obtain without formally infringing on the principle of legality, Hitler proceeded to carry out a revolution with the authority of the state on his side. A series of decrees culminating in the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich (January 30, 1934) abolished the Land (state) diets and transferred the sovereign powers of the Länder to the Reich. In May 1933 the trade unions organization was suppressed and the unions merged into a German labor front under Robert Ley. This was followed in the course of the summer by the suppression or “voluntary” dissolution of the other political parties. On July 14, 1933, the Nazi Party was formally declared to be the only political party in Germany.
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Opposition to these measures in the cabinet crumpled before the wave of revolutionary violence that swept over the country. Papen was shorn of his authority as Reich commissioner for Prussia and was replaced by Göring. Hugenberg was unable to prevent the dissolution of his own party and was forced to resign from the cabinet. The Nazi group in the cabinet was strengthened by the inclusion of Joseph Goebbels as minister of public enlightenment and propaganda (March 14, 1933), but in fact the cabinet had ceased to count, and all decisions were taken by the Nazi leaders on their own authority.