Enabling Act of 1933
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Enabling Act of 1933
Hitler's Reichstag speech promoting the
bill; Because of the
, the
meeting was held at the
Law to Remedy the Distress of People and
Reich
Citation
Territorial
extent
→
Enacted by
Enacted by
Signed by
Signed
23 March 1933
Commenced
23 March 1933
Repealed
20 September 1945
Legislative history
Initiating chamber:
Introduced
by
Passed
23 March 1933
Voting
summary
444 voted for
94 voted against
109 absent
Revising chamber:
Passed
23 March 1933
Voting
summary
66 voted for
None voted against
Repealed by
Status:
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"
"
The
Enabling Act of 1933
(
:
Ermächtigungsgesetz
, officially titled
Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich
lit.
'
Law to Remedy the Distress
of People and
'
)
was a law that gave the
—most
importantly, the
,
—the power to make and enforce laws
without the involvement of the
or President
. 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
to the
dictatorship of
.
Background
[
]
On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler, leader of the
(NSDAP), was
appointed as Chancellor, the head of the German government.
Hitler
immediately asked President von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag. A
general election was scheduled for 5 March 1933.
Reichstag fire
[
]
On 27 February 1933, the
of the German parliament
.
Acting as chancellor, Hitler immediately accused the
of
perpetrating the arson as part of a larger effort to overthrow the German
government. He persuaded Hindenburg to enact the
,
which abolished most civil liberties, including the right to speak, assemble
and protest, and the right to due process. A state of emergency was declared
on the basis of the decree, which enabled a violent crackdown against the
Nazis' political enemies, in particular the
.
Amid the ongoing repression, Hitler contended that the Reichstag Fire Decree
was nonetheless insufficient and demanded a more sweeping measure.
He
submitted to the Reichstag a proposal for an enabling law that would grant
effectively untrammeled power to his cabinet.
March 1933 election
[
]
For the
, the Nazis were allied with other
nationalist and conservative factions.
At a
on 20 February,
major German industrialists had agreed to finance the Nazis' election
campaign.
The main residual opposition was the
. On
election day Germans voted in an atmosphere of extreme
,
perpetrated mainly by the Nazi
(SA) militia.
The NSDAP emerged from the election with five million more votes than in the
previous election, but failed to gain an absolute majority in parliament.
It remained dependent on the 8% of seats won by its coalition partner, the
(DNVP), to attain a 52% majority.
In the first post-election cabinet meeting on 7 March, Hitler declared his
intention to pass an Enabling Act in the form of a constitutional amendment
that would enable the cabinet to bypass the Reichstag and the president in
order to promulgate laws on its own.
Preparations and negotiations
[
]
The Enabling Act would allow the National Ministry (essentially the cabinet)
to enact legislation, including laws deviating from or altering the
constitution, without the consent of the Reichstag, for a period of four
years. The law was thus itself considered a constitutional amendment. It
therefore required a two-thirds super-majority support from a
of at
least two-thirds of all members of the Reichstag.
Despite the elimination of the Communists and heavy pressure on the rest of
the opposition, the bill's passage was not a certainty. To pass it, the Nazis
used a strategy of coercion, bribery, and manipulation of parliamentarians.
The
and the Communists were expected to vote against. The
government had already arrested all Communist and some Social Democrat
deputies under the Reichstag Fire Decree. The conservative parties
representing the middle class, the
and business interests were
expected to vote for the law.
A two-thirds majority would therefore be in reach with the votes of the
Catholic
. Hitler negotiated with the Centre Party's chairman,
, a Catholic priest, and finalized an agreement on 22 March. Kaas
agreed to support the law in exchange for assurances of his party's continued
existence, the protection of Catholic civil liberties and Catholic schools,
and the retention of civil servants affiliated with the party.
Some historians, such as
, have maintained that Hitler also
promised to negotiate a
with the
, a treaty that
formalized the position of the Catholic Church in Germany on a national level.
Kaas was a close associate of Cardinal Pacelli, then Vatican Secretary of
State (and later
). Pacelli had been pursuing a German concordat
as a key policy for some years, but the instability of Weimar governments, as
well as the opposition of some parties to a treaty, had blocked the
project.
The day after the Enabling Act vote, Kaas went to Rome in order
to, in his own words, "investigate the possibilities for a comprehensive
understanding between church and state".
Text
[
]
Enabling act of 1933 printed in
the
As with most of the laws passed in the process of
, the
Enabling Act is quite short, especially considering its implications. The full
text, in German
and English, follows:
Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von
und
Der Reichstag hat das folgende Gesetz
beschlossen, das mit Zustimmung des
Reichsrats hiermit verkündet wird,
nachdem festgestellt ist, daß die
Erfordernisse verfassungsändernder
Gesetzgebung erfüllt sind:
Artikel 1
Reichsgesetze können außer in dem in
der Reichsverfassung vorgesehenen
Verfahren auch durch die
Reichsregierung beschlossen werden.
Dies gilt auch für die in den
Artikeln 85 Abs. 2 und 87 der
Reichsverfassung bezeichneten
Gesetze.
Artikel 2
Die von der Reichsregierung
beschlossenen Reichsgesetze können
von der Reichsverfassung abweichen,
soweit sie nicht die Einrichtung des
Reichstags und des Reichsrats als
solche zum Gegenstand haben. Die
Rechte des Reichspräsidenten bleiben
unberührt.
Artikel 3
Die von der Reichsregierung
beschlossenen Reichsgesetze werden
vom Reichskanzler ausgefertigt und
im Reichsgesetzblatt verkündet. Sie
treten, soweit sie nichts anderes
bestimmen, mit dem auf die
Verkündung folgenden Tage in Kraft.
Die
Artikel 6
8 bis 77 der
Reichsverfassung finden auf die von
der Reichsregierung beschlossenen
Gesetze keine Anwendung.
Artikel 4
Verträge des Reiches mit fremden
Staaten, die sich auf Gegenstände der
Reichsgesetzgebung beziehen, bedürfen
für die Dauer der Geltung dieser
Gesetze nicht der Zustimmung der an
der Gesetzgebung beteiligten
Körperschaften. Die Reichsregierung
erläßt die zur Durchführung dieser
Verträge erforderlichen
Vorschriften.
Artikel 5
Dieses Gesetz tritt mit dem Tage
seiner Verkündung in Kraft. Es tritt
mit dem 1. April 1937 außer Kraft;
es tritt ferner außer Kraft, wenn die
gegenwärtige Reichsregierung durch
eine andere abgelöst wird.
Law to Remedy the Distress of
the People and the Reich
The
has enacted the
following law, which is hereby
proclaimed with the assent of the
, it having been
established that the requirements
for a constitutional amendment have
been fulfilled:
Article 1
In addition to the procedure
prescribed by the constitution,
laws of the Reich may also be
enacted by the government
of
the Reich. This includes the laws
referred to by Articles 85
Paragraph 2 and Article 87 of the
constitution.
Article 2
Laws enacted by the government of
the Reich may deviate from the
constitution as long as they do not
affect the institutions of the
Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The
rights of the President remain
unaffected.
Article 3
Laws enacted by the Reich
government shall be issued by the
Chancellor and announced in the
. They shall take
effect on the day following the
announcement, unless they prescribe
a different date. Articles 68 to 77
of the Constitution do not apply to
laws enacted by the Reich
government.
Article 4
Treaties of the Reich with foreign
states, which relate to matters of
Reich legislation, shall for the
duration of the validity of these
laws not require the consent of the
legislative authorities. The Reich
government shall enact the
legislation necessary to implement
these agreements.
Article 5
This law enters into force on the
day of its proclamation. It expires
on 1 April 1937; it expires
furthermore if the present Reich
government is replaced by another.
Articles 1 and 4 gave the government the right to draw up the budget, approve
treaties, and enact almost any law without input from the Reichstag. By the
rules of pre-1933 German legal interpretation, and post-1945 if such a law
were not now unconstitutional, this would mean that such laws would henceforth
be decided by a majority vote in the Cabinet. This was not
followed.
[
]
In the years immediately preceding, the government had relied on
emergency decrees. These had to be made by the President, alongside ordinary
laws which he simply enacted. In the passing of Enabling-Act-based laws, the
President had no role to play at all. Until Hitler effectively assumed the
President's role in 1934, laws were passed without any contribution by the
head of state. This was a situation unique in German history.
Signatories
[
]
The signatories of the Enabling Act (and their fates) were:
Reich President
(died of
16 months later)
Reich Chancellor
(committed
to avoid
,
specifically
, capture)
Reich Minister of the Interior
(executed after
conviction)
Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs
(15 year
sentence)
Reich Minister of Finances
(10 year
sentence)
Passage
[
]
See also:
Page 1 of the Enabling Act
Page 2, with signatures, of the
Enabling Act
Late on 23 March, the Reichstag assembled at the
, its
temporary home since the Reichstag fire.
were positioned inside and
outside the chamber.
Party positions
[
]
The KPD had not been formally banned despite the Nazis' virulent anti-
Communist rhetoric. A violent uprising was still feared, and it was hoped that
the KPD's presence on the ballot would siphon off votes from the SPD. However,
even before the election of 5 March, the party was subject to virulent police
repression on the grounds of its purported involvement in the Reichstag fire
and it was widely understood that the KPD deputies would not be allowed to
take their seats in parliament.
The SPD's expected opposition was partly neutralized by the Reichstag Fire
Decree, which had been used to detain a number of SPD deputies. Other SPD
parliamentarians had fled into exile.
Debate within the Centre Party had continued until the day of the vote. Ludwig
Kaas advocated voting in favour of the act, touting promised written
guarantees from Hitler. Former Chancellor
wanted the bill to be
rejected. The majority sided with Kaas, and Brüning agreed to maintain party
cohesion by voting for the law.
Manoeuvring
[
]
The Reichstag, led by its president,
, changed its rules of procedure
to make it easier to pass the bill. Under the
, a
of two-
thirds of the entire Reichstag membership was required to be present in order to
call up a law amending the constitution—in this case, 432 of the Reichstag's 647
deputies. To sidestep this potential obstruction, Göring reduced this figure to 378
by not counting the 81 KPD deputies who were absent.
Speeches
[
]
Hitler spoke in favour of the proposed law.
recapitulated the supposed historical responsibility of the
Weimar Republic in Germany's crisis, and then listed grievances that would be addressed by the Enabling Act. In a
pitch to the Centre Party, Hitler emphasised the importance of Christianity in German culture and incorporated Ludwig
Kaas's requested guarantees almost verbatim. His speech concluded with reassurances about the continuity of Weimar
institutions, but an appeal to the inadequacy of parliamentary government:
"Some of the [government's] planned measures require the approval of the majority necessary for constitutional
amendments. The performance of these tasks and their completion is necessary. It would be inconsistent with
the aim of the national uprising and it would fail to suffice for the intended goal were the Government to
negotiate with and request the approval of the Reichstag for its measures in each given case."
The Centre's Ludwig Kaas spoke to voice his party's support for the bill amid "concerns put aside". He had still not
received the written guarantee he had negotiated but had been assured it was being "typed up". It was never
received.
[
]
Heinrich Brüning remained silent.
Only SPD leader
spoke against the Enabling Act. He defended the Social Democrats' record in rebuilding
Germany following the First World War, and dismissed the Nazis' claimed need for special powers. Defying direct
intimidation, Otto Wels declared his party's continued allegiance to Germany's institutions:
"The Weimar Constitution is not a socialist constitution. But we stand by the principles enshrined in, the
principles of a state based on the rule of law, of equal rights, of social justice. In this historic hour, we
German Social Democrats solemnly pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and
socialism. No Enabling Act gives you the power to destroy ideas that are eternal and indestructible."
Voting
[
]
As voting proceeded, SPD deputies were actively intimidated by the Nazi SA men, who were present throughout the
proceedings.
Results
[
]
All parties except the SPD voted in favour of the Enabling Act. With the KPD banned and 26 SPD deputies arrested or in
hiding, the final tally was 444 in favour of the Enabling Act against 94 opposed (all Social Democrats). The Reichstag
adopted the bill with the support of 83% of the deputies present. Even if all SPD deputies had been present, it would
have passed with 78.7% support.
Voting on the Enabling Act
Party
Deputies
For
Against
Absent
NSDAP
288
288
—
—
SPD
120
—
94
26
KPD
81
—
—
81
73
72
—
1
DNVP
52
52
—
—
BVP
19
19
—
—
DStP
5
5
—
—
CSVD
4
4
—
—
DVP
2
1
—
1
DBP
2
2
—
—
1
1
—
—
Total
647
444
(68.62%)
94
(14.53%)
109
(16.85%)
In the evening of the same day, the
gave its assent, unanimously and without prior debate, and the Enabling
Act was signed into law by President Paul von Hindenburg.
Unless extended by the Reichstag, the act would expire
after four years.
Consequences
[
]
The Enabling Act completed the effect of the Reichstag Fire Decree. It transformed Hitler's government into a legal
dictatorship and laid the groundwork for his totalitarian regime. Thus empowered, Hitler could begin
and achieve his aggressive foreign policy aims, which ultimately resulted in
and the death of one-tenth
of Germany's own population.
The
effectively became the
parliament that Hitler sought.
The
elite,
including the vice-chancellor
, having underestimated the determination of the Nazis to monopolize
state power, were soon marginalized by the Nazi regime.
By mid-March 1933, the government began sending
communists, trade union leaders, and other political dissidents to
, the first Nazi concentration camp.
On 14 July 1933, the
made the Nazi Party the only legally permitted party in
Germany. With that, Hitler fulfilled what he had promised in earlier campaign speeches: "I set for myself one aim ...
to sweep these thirty parties out of Germany!"
Legal fate
[
]
The Weimar Constitution of 1919, as amended by the Enabling Act, remained technically in
effect.
[
]
[
]
Consultation and deliberation
[
]
During the negotiations between the government and the political parties, it had been agreed that the government
should inform the Reichstag parties of laws passed under the Enabling Act. For that purpose, a working
was
set up
[
]
, co-chaired by Hitler and Centre Party chairman Kaas. However, the committee met only three
times, without any major impact, and had become a dead letter even before all other parties were banned.
Although the Act had formally given legislative powers to the government as a whole, those powers were, for all
intents and purposes, exercised by Hitler himself. After the passage of the Act, there were no longer serious
deliberations in Cabinet meetings. After 1934, its meetings became more and more infrequent, and it did not meet in
full after 1938.
Possible violations
[
]
The "
" (30 January 1934), passed by the Reichstag, dissolved the state
parliaments, effectively rendering irrelevant the Reichsrat, which represented the states. Two weeks later (14
February) the Reichsrat itself
by the Cabinet, in apparent contradiction of Article 2 of the Enabling
Act, which stated that laws passed under the Enabling Act must "not affect" the Reichsrat. Moreover, Article 63 of the
Weimar Constitution requires that "the states shall be represented in the Reichsrat by members of their ministries".
However, Article 4 of the Law of the Reconstruction of the Reich reads: "The Reich Government may issue new
constitutional laws." (See
.)
In August 1934, President Hindenburg died, and Hitler seized the president's powers for himself in accordance with the
, passed the previous day. The move was
later that month. But Article 2 of the Enabling Act stated that the president's powers were to remain "undisturbed" (or
"unaffected", depending on the translation). Furthermore, a 1932 amendment to the constitution had made the president
of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, first in the line of succession to the presidency—and even then on
an interim basis pending new elections.
This ostensible violation of Article 2 was never challenged in court;
either way, the law was not in violation of Article 4 of the Law of the Reconstruction of the Reich.
Renewals
[
]
The Enabling Act was renewed twice, the first coming in 1937 and the second in 1939.
: 354
Its renewal was
practically assured because all other parties were banned. Voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and Nazi-
approved candidates under far-from-secret conditions.
[
]
On 25 January 1943, Hitler extended the term of the
Reichstag
members until 30 January 1947 by enacting the Law on the Extension of the Electoral Term of the Greater
German Reichstag, effectively extending its provisions for the duration of the war.
In the Federal Republic of Germany
[
]
The Enabling Act was formally declared to be repealed by the
in
,
following the
at the end of World War II.
Germany's
(constitution) of 1949 stipulates that only bodies that are constitutionally endowed with
legislative power can enact laws. This theoretically precludes legislation such as the 1933 Enabling Act.
Article 9 of the 1949 constitution allows for social groups to be labeled
verfassungsfeindlich
("hostile to the
constitution") and to be proscribed by the federal government. Political parties can be labeled enemies to the
constitution only by the
Bundesverfassungsgericht
(
) according to Art. 21 II. This clause
makes clear that even a popular majority cannot be allowed to install a
or
regime such as with
the Enabling Act of 1933, which would violate the principles of the German constitution.
Validity
[
]
In his 2003 book,
, British historian
argued that the Enabling Act was
legally invalid. He contended that Göring had no right to arbitrarily reduce the quorum required to bring the bill up
for a vote. While the Enabling Act only required the support of two-thirds of those present and voting, two-thirds of
the entire Reichstag's membership had to be present in order for the legislature to consider a constitutional
amendment.
According to Evans, while Göring was not required to count the KPD deputies in order to get the Enabling Act passed,
he was required to "recognize their existence" by counting them for purposes of the quorum needed to call it up,
making his refusal to do so "an illegal act". Even if the Communists had been present and voting, the intimidating
atmosphere of the session was such that the Act would have still passed with at least 68.7% support.
Evans also argued that the act's passage in the Reichsrat was tainted by the overthrow of the state governments under
the Reichstag Fire Decree; as Evans put it, the states were no longer "properly constituted or represented", making
the Enabling Act's passage in the Reichsrat "irregular".
: 453
In popular culture
[
]
The 2003 film
contains a scene portraying the passage of the Enabling Act.
See also
[
]
Notes
[
]
see the following:
References
[
]
Rabinbach, Anson; Gilman, Sander L. (2013).
The Third Reich Sourcebook
. University of California Press. p. 52.
.
(PDF)
.
German Bundestag
.
.
BBC Bitesize
. Retrieved
12 July
2021
.
.
Nazi Germany
. 25 July 2012
. Retrieved
12 April
2022
.
Kellerhoff, Sven (2016).
The Reichstag Fire: The Case Against the Nazi Conspiracy
. Stroud: History Press.
. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
. Retrieved
30 August
2022
.
Pinfield, Nick (2015).
A/AS Level History for AQA Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945 Student Book
. Cambridge University
Press. p. 98.
Jones, Larry (June 2011).
.
Journal of Modern History
.
83
(2):
272–
318.
:
.
. Retrieved
12 April
2022
.
Kahn, Daniela (2006).
Die Steuerung der Wirtschaft durch Recht im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland. Das Beispiel der
Reichsgruppe Industrie
. Klostermann.
.
Rüdiger Jungbluth (2002).
. Campus Verlag.
.
.
BBC Bitesize
. Retrieved
12 April
2022
.
Evans, Richard J. (2003).
The Coming of the Third Reich
. New York: Penguin Press. p. 349.
.
Klaus Scholder
The Churches and the Third Reich
volume 1 pp. 160–61
Letter from Kaas to von Bergen, German ambassador to the Vatican, translation quoted in Scholder, p. 247
Uwe Brodersen, Gesetze des NS-Staates, p. 22
The word
government
, as used here, means just the chancellor and the cabinet, not the entire national government as it is used
in the United States.
Article 85 outlined the process by which the Reichstag and Reichsrat approved the Reich budget. Article 87 restricted
government borrowing.
Articles 68 to 77 stipulated the procedures for enacting legislation in the Reichstag.
.
German History in Documents and Images
. German History in Documents and Images
(GHDI)
. Retrieved
28 March
2025
.
^
William Shirer,
Touchstone Edition, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990
Evans, Richard J. (2003).
The Coming of the Third Reich
. New York: Penguin Press. p. 335.
.
Evans, Richard J. (2003).
The Coming of the Third Reich
. New York: Penguin Press. p. 351.
.
Domarus, M.; Hitler, A.; Gilbert, M.F. (1990).
(PDF)
.
Tauris. pp.
275–
285.
. Retrieved
4 April
2024
.
.
German History in
Documents and Images (GHDI)
.
Martin Collier, From Kaiser to Fuhrer: Germany, 1900–45, p. 131
Wheaton, Eliot Barculo (1968).
The Nazi Revolution 1933–35
. p. 269.
.
Britannica Blog
. Archived from
on 11 March 2019
.
Retrieved
30 March
2017
.
von Lüpke-Schwarz, Marc (23 March 2013).
.
. Retrieved
9 April
2020
.
Mason, K. J.
Republic to Reich: A History of Germany 1918–1945
. McGraw-Hill.
Kitson, Alison (2001).
Germany, 1858–1990: Hope, Terror, and Revival
. Oxford University Press. pp.
153–
154.
.
.
National WW2 Museum
. The National World War II Museum, New Orleans
.
Retrieved
18 February
2026
.
Edinger, Lewis J. (April 1953).
.
World Politics
.
5
(3):
330–
367.
:
.
.
.
.
. 10 April
1933
. Retrieved
12 July
2021
.
Beck, Hermann (2010).
(new ed.). Berghahn Books.
.
.
.
The Guardian
. 21 March 1933
. Retrieved
12 July
2021
.
Nationalbibliothek, Österreichische.
.
alex.onb.ac.at
(in German)
.
Retrieved
14 October
2016
.
^
(2003).
. New York:
.
.
1 June 2023 at the
website
Stanley, Alessandra (16 May 2003).
.
The New York Times
.
. Retrieved
30 October
2023
.
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