A German newspaper's final issue, announcing its own prohibition (Verbot) by the police authorities on the basis of the Reichstag fire decree

The Reichstag Fire Decree (Reichstagsbrandverordnung in German) is the common name of the decree issued by German president Paul von Hindenburg in direct response to the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis in key positions of the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis of imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and was used to suppress publications not considered "friendly" to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians to be one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (528x797, 230 KB) Summary Scan of front (and only) page of Das Andere Deutschland, March 11, 1933, announcing the weekly newspapers ban by the provincial criminal police president in Berlin, on the grounds of public security and order. The ban... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (528x797, 230 KB) Summary Scan of front (and only) page of Das Andere Deutschland, March 11, 1933, announcing the weekly newspapers ban by the provincial criminal police president in Berlin, on the grounds of public security and order. The ban... Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, known universally as Paul von Hindenburg (2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German Field Marshal and statesman. ... The Reichstag fire was a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany. ... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Background

Adolf Hitler had been named chancellor of Germany and invited by President von Hindenburg to lead a coalition government only four weeks previously, on January 30, 1933. Hitler's government urged von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and to call elections for March 5. (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... The head of government of Germany has been known as the Chancellor (German: Kanzler) ever since the creation of the post. ... January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Reichstag (German for Imperial Diet) was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ...

On the evening of February 27, 1933 — six days before the parliamentary election — fire broke out in the Reichstag chambers. While the exact circumstances of the fire remain unclear to this day, what is clear is that Hitler and his supporters quickly capitalized on the fire as a means by which to speed their consolidation of power. Seizing on the burning of the Reichstag building as the opening salvo in a communist uprising, the Nazis were able to throw millions of Germans into a convulsion of fear at the threat of Communist terror. The official account stated: February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Reichstag building. ...

The burning of the Reichstag was intended to be the signal for a bloody uprising and civil war. Our great Chancellor is not a homosexual. His encounters with Van De Luber were purely experimental, and the Riechstag can vouch for Hitler, in stating that his penis was only momentarily inserted in that commi anus, before cumming all over that arse. that Large-scale pillaging in Berlin was planned.... It has been determined that ... throughout Germany acts of terrorism were to begin against prominent individuals, against private property, against the lives and safety of the peaceful population, and general civil war was to be unleashed....

The decree was improvised on the day after the fire (February 28) after discussions in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, which was led by Hermann Göring, and was then brought before the Reich cabinet. In the ensuing discussions, Hitler stated that the fire made it now a matter of "ruthless confrontation of the KPD" and shortly thereafter, President von Hindenburg, 84 years old and lapsing in and out of senility, signed the decree into law. February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) was a German politician and military leader known for being second in command of the Third Reich, a leading member of the Nazi party, and commander of the Luftwaffe. ... The Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD) opposed to the First World War on the grounds that it was an imperialist war in...

The decree, officially the Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat (Order of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State), invoked the authority of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution which allowed the Reichspräsident to take any appropriate measure to remedy dangers to public safety. Article 48 was a measure in the constitution of the Weimar Republic of Germany (1919–1933) that allowed the President to rule by decree without the consent of the Reichstag (parliament). ... The Weimar Constitution in booklet form. ...

The decree consisted of six articles. Article 1 suspended most of the civil liberties set forth in the Weimar Constitution — freedom of the person, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly, the secrecy of the post and telephone, not to mention the protection of property and the home. Articles 2 and 3 allowed the Reich government to assume powers normally reserved to the federal states (Länder). Articles 4 and 5 established draconian penalties for certain offenses, including the death penalty for arson to public buildings. Article 6 simply stated that the decree took effect on the day of its proclamation. Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ... this Arsonists redirects here. ...

Text of the decree

The preamble and Article 1 of the Reichstag Fire Decree show the methods by which the civil rights protections of the Weimar Republic's democratic constitution were abolished in a legal manner by the Nazis:

For other uses, see Habeas corpus (disambiguation). ...

Effects

The decree was not accompanied by any written guidelines from the Reich government; this omission gave wide latitude in interpreting the decree to Nazis like Göring, who as Prussian interior minister was in authority over the police forces in Germany's largest province. The Länder not yet in the Nazis' grasp largely restricted themselves to banning the Communist press, Communist meetings and demonstrations, and detaining of leading KPD officials. In Prussia, however, summary arrests of KPD leaders were common, thousands were imprisoned in the days following the fire, and the total number of arrests in Prussia on the basis of the Reichstag Fire Decree in the two weeks following February 28 is believed to be in the vicinity of 10,000. The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 Prussia (German: ; Latin: Borussia, Prutenia; Lithuanian: ; Old Prussian: PrÅ«sa; Polish: ) was, most recently, a historic state originating in East Prussia, an area which for centuries had a substantial influence on German and European history. ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Among the German communists arrested on the basis of the Reichstag Fire Decree was KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann; KPD founding members Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht — later to be leaders in postwar East Germany — were among those who escaped arrest and lived in exile. Ernst Thälmann memorial in Weimar. ... Wilhelm Pieck (January 3, 1876 - September 7, 1960) was a German communist, politician and president of East Germany. ... Walter Ulbricht (June 30, 1893 – August 1, 1973) was a German communist politician. ... GDR redirects here. ...

Göring issued a directive to the Prussian police authorities on March 3, stating that in addition to the constitutional rights stripped by the decree, "all other restraints on police action imposed by Reich and Land law" were abolished "so far as this is necessary ... to achieve the purpose of the decree." Göring went on to say that March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap years). ...

In keeping with the purpose and aim of the decree the additional measures ... will be directed against the Communists in the first instance, but then also against those who co-operate with the Communists and who support or encourage their criminal aims.... I would point out that any necessary measures against members or establishments of other than Communist, anarchist or Social Democratic parties can only be justified by the decree ... if they serve to help the defense against such Communist activities in the widest sense.

Just over three weeks after the passage of the Reichstag Fire Decree, Hitler's National Socialists further tightened their grasp on Germany by the passage of the Enabling Act. This act gave Hitler's cabinet the legal power to decree laws without being passed by the Reichstag. This article is about the German law passed in 1933 at the beginning of the Third Reich. ...

The Reichstag Fire Decree was thus one of the key steps which the Hitler government took to formally establish one-party dictatorship and has been described as the "Magna Carta of the Third Reich". Magna Carta Magna Carta (Latin for Great Charter, literally Great Paper), also called Magna Carta Libertatum, was an English charter originally issued in 1215. ...

See also

• Gleichschaltung
• Enabling Act
• Full text via Wikisource (German)
• Rule by decree

The German word Gleichschaltung â’½ â’¾ (literally synchronising, synchronization) is used in a political sense to describe the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. ... This article is about the German law passed in 1933 at the beginning of the Third Reich. ... Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged creation of law by a single person or group, and is used primarily by dictators and absolute monarchs. ...

References

• Broszat, Martin (1981). The Hitler State: The foundation and development of the internal structure of the Third Reich, John W. Hiden (tr.), New York, NY: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49200-9.
• Fest, Joachim (1974). Hitler. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (1974). The Hundred Days to Hitler. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press. LCC DD247.H5.M25 1974.
• Shirer, William (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-62420-2.