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The early months of 1933, while culminating in a long national nightmare for Germany, probably seemed like a fairy-tale ride to destiny for Adolf Hitler. As January ended, a tired and ailing President Paul von Hindenburg had named Hitler Chancellor of Germany.
And then the wheels began to turn. First, the new Chancellor dissolved the Reichstag (Germany’s governing body) and called for new elections (to be held the first week in March). Then, in a complete and utter coincidence, the Reichstag building caught fire just a week after Hitler’s appointment. Hitler conveniently blamed the fire on the Communists, suspended habeas corpus, and began arresting Communist Party officials, removing them from play in the upcoming elections.
When the March 5th election counts were tallied, Hitler was still unable to win a clear majority (though a coalition with the Nationalist Party gave him a slim “on-paper” majority). But Hitler was smart enough to know that reliance on a second party for passing legislation gave that weaker party tremendous power…power he wanted.
So he had his cabinet draw up what became the Enabling Act, an incredibly powerful tool which allowed Hitler (and his cabinet) to create and pass legislation, including changing Germany’s constitution, without the Reichstag’s consent. But how to get this little gem of a law past the Reichstag? Out came those wheels again.
The Catholic-led Centre Party agreed to support the measure when Chancellor Hitler made promises to them…promises he, of course, never kept. Which left two other groups. Most Social Democrats (the SPD Party) and Communists were expected to vote against the deal. As mentioned, many of the Communists were now out of the picture and the Social Democrats didn’t have the votes to carry the day. But the SPD had another weapon. If they refused to show up for the vote, the Reichstag wouldn’t have the quorum required to even vote in the first place. So can we see those wheels a third time?
The Reichstag President, some guy named Hermann Goering, changed the rules, giving himself the power to declare any deputy “absent without excuse” as present. You know, this is a lot like Calvinball…just make the rules up as you go. Anyways, the SPD Party was now cornered, and with the SA (Hitler’s merry band of enforcers, commonly referred to as “thugs”) standing outside the chambers, and the outcome was inevitable.
On March 23, 1933, the votes were cast, and the Enabling Act squeaked through by a 441-to-94 margin. The Reichstag had just voted itself out of relevance in Germany and, in 2 months, the German Republic had become a totalitarian state under the man destined to become one of history’s greatest tyrants.
Recommended Reading: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – A History of Nazi Germany
Today's History Lesson 