Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)
Article 48 of the constitution of the Weimar Republic of Germany (1919–1933) allowed the Reich president, under certain circumstances, to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag. This power came to be understood to include the promulgation of emergency decrees. It was used frequently by Reich President Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democratic Party to deal with both political unrest and economic emergencies. Later, under President Paul von Hindenburg and the presidential cabinets, Article 48 was called on more and more often to bypass a politically fractured parliament and to rule without its consent. After the Nazi Party's rise to power in the early 1930s, the law allowed Chancellor Adolf Hitler, with decrees issued by Hindenburg, to create a totalitarian dictatorship by seemingly legal means.
Friedrich Ebert, the first president of the Weimar Republic. His 136 invocations of Article 48 were by agreement with Parliament.
Paul von Hindenburg, the second president of the Weimar Republic. He used Article 48 109 times in three years, largely as a way to bypass parliament.
The burning Reichstag building, 27 February 1933. The event gave Hitler an excuse to invoke Article 48, which in turn led to him gaining dictatorial powers by seemingly legal means.
The Constitution of the German Reich, usually known as the Weimar Constitution, was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era (1919–1933). The constitution declared Germany to be a democratic parliamentary republic with a legislature elected under proportional representation. Universal suffrage was established, with a minimum voting age of 20. The constitution technically remained in effect throughout the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945 as well as during the Allied occupation of Germany from 1945 to 1949, though practically it had been repealed by the Enabling Act of 1933 and thus its various provisions and protections went unenforced for the duration of Nazi rule, and after World War II, the power of the Allied Control Council and four occupying powers once again stood above the provisions of the constitution.
The Weimar Constitution in booklet form. Article 148 of the Constitution required that each school student receive a copy of the Constitution at the time of their graduation.