The Reichstagsbrandverordnung - The founding of the dictatorship with the instruments of the Weimar state of emergency acts (Germany, National Socialism, Adolf Hitler, Reichstag fire)

The essay shows that formal similarities between the Reichstagsbrandverordn ung and the Weimar Republics state-of-emergency acts are much greater than is generally thought. Fundamental elements and the language employed in the Reichstagsbrandverordnung can be seen to be in close agreement with a prov isional ordinance that was drawn up in 1919 to regulate a state-of-emergenc y. Identical to texts of older decrees is in particular the suspension of b asic civil rights. Even the form taken by a civil state-of-emergency, durin g the several times it was evoked between 1920 and 1921, was not new in pri nciple. In 1933, however, the first nationwide civil emergency act was decr eed and, for the first time, the Reich government was empowered to exercise direct authority over all German federal states. With only a few changes i n the existing state-of-emergency provisions, it was a simple matter for th e National Socialists to find a pseudo-legal basis for the destruction of a state under rule of law. Hence, the question arises to what extent the cre ation of far-reaching state-of-emergency provisions during the early years of the Weimar Republic was necessary and appropriate.