Gleichschaltung

Specific measures

1. One day after the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, the increasingly senile President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg, acting at Hitler's request, issued the Reichstag Fire Decree. This decree suspended most human rights provided for by the 1919 constitution of the Weimar Republic and thus allowed for the arrest of political adversaries, mostly Communists, and for general terrorizing by the SA to intimidate the voters before the upcoming elections.
2. In this atmosphere the Reichstag general elections of March 3, 1933 took place. These yielded only a slim majority for Hitler's coalition government and no majority for Hitler's own Nazi party.
3. When the newly-elected Reichstag first convened on March 23, 1933, (not including the Communist delegates, since their party had already been banned by that time) it passed the Enabling Act (Ermchtigungsgesetz), transferring all legislative powers to the Nazi government and, in effect, abolishing the remainder of the Weimar constitution as a whole. Soon afterwards the government banned the Social Democratic party which had voted against the Act, while the other parties chose to dissolve themselves to avoid arrests and concentration camp imprisonment.
4. The "First Gleichschaltung Law" (Erstes Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (1933-03-31) gave the governments of the Lnder the same legislative powers that the Reich government had received through the Enabling Act.
5. A "Second Gleichschaltung Law" (Zweites Gleichschaltungsgesetz) (1933-04-07) deployed one Reichsstatthalter (proconsul) in each state apart from Prussia, which had already been under Nazi control since the Preuenschlag of July 20, 1932. These officers were supposed to act as local presidents in each state, appointing the governments. For Prussia, which comprised the vast majority of Germany anyway, Hitler reserved these rights for himself.
6. The trade Union association ADGB (Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) was shattered on 1933-05-02 (the day after Labor Day), when SA and NSBO (Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation) units occupied union facilities and ADGB leaders were imprisoned. Other important associations were forced to merge with the DAF (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) in the following months.
7. The Gesetz gegen die Neubildung von Parteien ("Law against the establishment of political parties") (1933-07-14) forbid any creation of new political parties.
8. The Gesetz ber den Neuaufbau des Reiches ("Law concerning the reconstruction of the Reich") (January 30, 1934) abandoned the concept of a federal republic. Instead, the political institutions of the Lnder were practically abolished altogether, passing all powers to the central government. Consequentially, another law dating February 14, 1934 dissolved the Reichsrat, the representation of the Lnder at the federal level.
9. In the summer of 1934, Hitler instructed the SS to kill Ernst Rhm and other leaders of the Nazi party's SA, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and several aides to former Chancellor Franz von Papen in the so-called Night of the Long Knives (1934-06-30/1934-07-01). These measures actually received retrospective sanction in a special one-article Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense (Gesetz ber Manahmen der Staatsnotwehr) (1934-07-03).
10. At nine o'clock in the morning of August 2, 1934, Reichsprsident Paul von Hindenburg died at the age of 86. Three hours before, the government had issued a law to take effect the day of his death; this prescribed that the office of the Reichsprsident should be united with that of the Reichskanzler and that the competencies of the former should be transferred to the "Fhrer und Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler", as the law stated. Hitler henceforth demanded the use of that title. Thus the last separation of powers were abolished.

Legislation

• Reichstag Fire Decree
• Enabling Act
• Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense

Related articles

• Nazi Germany
• Adolf Hitler
• Totalitarianism

Philology

1. A locking clutch; manual clutches on cars usually do not press the plates one against each other, so they lose about three percent of power; some race cars use locking clutches in which the driven plate travels at the same speed as that connected to the engine; hence it wears out faster.
2. A certain means of wiring an alternating current electrical generator, and AC electric motors, so that when the generator is made to turn at a given speed, or even turned a certain angle, each motor connected to it will also turn at that speed, or to the same angle. This is the meaning which is most commonly referred to to explain this word: the political party is considered the generator, and every member of a professional group or society is considered a motor wired to it.

Sources; further reading

• Karl Kroeschell, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte 3 (seit 1650), 2nd ed. 1989, ISBN 3-531-22139-6
• Karl Kroeschell, Rechtsgeschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert, 1992, ISBN 3-8252-1681-0
• Lebendiges virtuelles Museum Online: Die Errichtung des Einparteienstaats 1933, http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/nazi/innenpolitik/einparteienstaat/index.html

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