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Enabling Act of 1933

Updated: Wikipedia source

Enabling Act of 1933

The Enabling Act of 1933 (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz, officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich lit. 'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich') was a law that gave the German Cabinet—most importantly, the chancellor, Adolf Hitler—the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or President Paul von Hindenburg. By allowing the chancellor to override the checks and balances in the constitution, the Enabling Act of 1933 was a pivotal step in the transition from the democratic Weimar Republic to the totalitarian dictatorship of Nazi Germany.

Infobox

Territorial extent
Weimar Republic → Nazi Germany
Enacted by
Reichsrat
Signed by
President Paul von Hindenburg
Signed
23 March 1933
Commenced
23 March 1933
Repealed
20 September 1945
Introduced by
Hitler cabinet
Passed
23 March 1933
Voting summary
66 voted for None voted against

Tables

Voting on the Enabling Act · Passage › Results
Total
Total
Party
Total
Party
647
Party
444 (68 %)
Deputies
94 (14 %)
For
109 (16 %)
Party
Deputies
For
Against
Absent
Nazi Party
NSDAP
288
288
—N/a
—N/a
Social Democratic Party
SPD
120
—N/a
94
26
Communist Party
KPD
81
—N/a
—N/a
81
Centre
73
72
—N/a
1
National People's Party
DNVP
52
52
—N/a
—N/a
Bavarian People's Party
BVP
19
19
—N/a
—N/a
State Party
DStP
5
5
—N/a
—N/a
Christian Social People's Service
CSVD
4
4
—N/a
—N/a
People's Party
DVP
2
1
—N/a
1
Farmers' Party
DBP
2
2
—N/a
—N/a
Landbund
1
1
—N/a
—N/a
Total
647
444 (68 %)
94 (14 %)
109 (16 %)

References

  1. see the following:
  2. ALEX – Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte Online
    https://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1933&page=266
  3. The Third Reich Sourcebook
  4. German Bundestag
    https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/189778/d0f948962723d454c536d24d43965f87/enabling_act-data.pdf
  5. BBC Bitesize
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpknb9q/revision/4
  6. Nazi Germany
    https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/the-reichstag-fire-decree-1933/
  7. The Reichstag Fire: The Case Against the Nazi Conspiracy
  8. "Reichstag Fire Decree"
    https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1933-1938/reichstag-fire-decree
  9. A/AS Level History for AQA Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945 Student Book
  10. Journal of Modern History
    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/659103
  11. Die Steuerung der Wirtschaft durch Recht im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland. Das Beispiel der Reichsgruppe Industrie
  12. Die Quandts. Ihr leiser Aufstieg zur mächtigsten Wirtschaftsdynastie Deutschlands
    https://archive.org/details/diequandtsihrlei0000jung
  13. BBC Bitesize
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3kqrwx/revision/3
  14. The Coming of the Third Reich
  15. Klaus Scholder The Churches and the Third Reich volume 1 pp. 160–61
  16. Letter from Kaas to von Bergen, German ambassador to the Vatican, translation quoted in Scholder, p. 247
  17. Uwe Brodersen, Gesetze des NS-Staates, p. 22
  18. The word government, as used here, means just the chancellor and the cabinet, not the entire national government as it i
  19. Article 85 outlined the process by which the Reichstag and Reichsrat approved the Reich budget. Article 87 restricted go
  20. Articles 68 to 77 stipulated the procedures for enacting legislation in the Reichstag.
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