Enabling Act — Legal Seizure of Power
On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) by 441 votes to 94, with only the Social Democrats voting against — their leader Otto Wels delivering a dignified speech of resistance that Hitler answered with contemptuous fury. The Act gave the Hitler cabinet the power to enact laws without Reichstag approval for four years, bypassing the constitution. It required a two-thirds majority, which the Nazis achieved by excluding communist deputies (arrested under the Reichstag Fire Decree), intimidating wavering delegates with SA stormtroopers in the galleries, and securing Centre Party support with false promises of church protections. The Enabling Act completed the 'legal revolution': within months, all other political parties were banned, the federal states were brought under central control, the trade unions dissolved, and the press brought under Goebbels's propaganda ministry. Germany had become a one-party state using the forms of parliamentary procedure to abolish parliamentary government.
- Year: 1933 CE
- Category: Political
