Government of Nazi Germany
The government of Nazi Germany was a totalitarian dictatorship governed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party according to the Führerprinzip. Nazi Germany was established in January 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, followed by suspension of basic rights with the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act which gave Hitler's regime the power to pass and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or German president, and de facto ended with Germany's surrender in World War II on 8 May 1945 and de jure ended with the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945.
30 January 1933
5 June 1945
Adolf Hitler (from August 1934 to April 1945)
Großdeutscher Reichstag
(until 1934, then used for meeting purposes)
• March 1933 (8th Reichstag)
• November 1933 (9th Reichstag)
• 1934 referendum (merger of the positions of Chancellor and President)
• March 1936 (10th Reichstag)
• April 1938 (11th Reichstag)
Government of the Weimar Republic
As the successor to the government of the Weimar Republic, it inherited the governmental structure and institutions of the previous state. Although the Weimar Constitution technically remained in effect until the German surrender, there were no actual restraints on the exercise of state power. In addition to the already extant Weimar government, the Nazi leadership created a large number of different organizations for the purpose of helping them govern and remain in power. They pursued a policy of rearmament and strengthened the Wehrmacht, established an extensive national security apparatus and created the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS).
It has to be considered that there is little use talking about a legislative branch in a totalitarian state, where there is no separation of powers. Since passage of the Enabling Act the Reichsregierung (Reich cabinet) was empowered to enact Reichsgesetze (statute law) without respect to the 1919 constitution.
Judicial system[edit]
Most of the judicial structures and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in use during the Nazi era, but significant changes within the judicial codes occurred, as well as significant changes in court rulings. Most human rights of the constitution of the Weimar Republic were disabled by several Reichsgesetze (Reich's laws). Several minorities, opposition politicians and prisoners of war were deprived of most of their rights and responsibilities. The plan to pass a Volksstrafgesetzbuch (people's code of criminal justice) arose soon after 1933 but didn't come into reality until the end of World War II.
As a new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof (people's court) was established in 1934, only dealing with cases of political importance. In practice, it served only as a kangaroo court, conducting show trials that gave the appearance of legal process while handing down harsh sentences to political enemies. From 1934 to 1945, the court sentenced 10,980 people to prison and imposed the death penalty on 5,179 more who were convicted of high treason.[19] About 1,000 were acquitted.[20] Its most prominent members were Otto Georg Thierack, president of the court from May 1936 to August 1942, and Roland Freisler who presided from August 1942 to February 1945. After the war ended, some surviving jurists were tried, convicted, and sentenced as war criminals.