Video: 'The Enabling Act gives Hitler total power : 24 March 1933'

(Thursday, March 23, 1933) — By a 441-94 vote, Germany’s Reichstag today passed the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz), entitled “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation,” which gave Chancellor Adolf Hitler the power to enact new laws by decree, without the need of legislative approval.

The majority was obtained by the exclusion of 81 Communist party members, the reluctance of the Centrist Party to oppose the legislation, and the posting of Stormtroopers to observe the debate.

The act rested upon Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution which gave the government emergency powers during periods of unrest. Among these powers was the ability to create and enforce laws that could explicitly violate individual rights prescribed in the constitution.

Opening a session of the Reichstag, Hitler threatened to “destroy all those seeking to damage our people,” while at the same time stressing “we are sincere friends of peace and shall heal the wounds from which all are suffering.”