Hitler's “Legal” Ascension 1933
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Discrimination and Law in Nazi Germany
Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Name:_______________________________ at Keene State College __________________________________________________________________________________________________ “To Remember…and to Teach.” www.keene.edu/cchgs Student Outline: Destroying Democracy From Within (1933-1938) 1. In the November 1932 elections the Nazis received _______ (%) of the vote. 2. Hitler was named Chancellor of a right-wing coalition government on _________________ _____, __________. 3. Hitler’s greatest fear is that he could be dismissed by President ____________________________. 4. Hitler’s greatest unifier of the many conservatives was fear of the _____________. 5. The Reichstag Fire Decree of February 1933 allowed Hitler to use article _______ to suspend the Reichstag and suspend ________________ ____________ for all Germans. 6. In March 5, 1933 election, the Nazi Party had _________ % of the vote. 7. Concentration camps (KL) emerged from below as camps for “__________________ ________________” prisoners. 8. On March 24, 1933, the _______________ Act gave Hitler power to rule as dictator during the declared “state of emergency.” It was the __________________ Center Party that swayed the vote in Hitler’s favor. 9. Franz Schlegelberger became the State Secretary in the German Ministry of ___________________. He believed that the courts role was to maintain ________________ __________________. He based his rulings on the principle of the ____________________ ___________________ order. He endorsed the Enabling Act because the government, in his view, could act with _______________, ________________, and _____________________. 10. One week after the failed April 1, 1933 Boycott, the Nazis passed the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional _________________ ______________________. The April 11 supplement attempted to legally define “non-Aryan” as someone with a non-Aryan ____________________ or ________________________. -
Paper 3 Weimar and Nazi Germany Revision Guide and Student Activity Book
Paper 3 Weimar and Nazi Germany Revision Guide and Student Activity Book Section 1 – Weimar Republic 1919-1929 What was Germany like before and after the First World War? Before the war After the war The Germans were a proud people. The proud German army was defeated. Their Kaiser, a virtual dictator, was celebrated for his achievements. The Kaiser had abdicated (stood down). The army was probably the finest in the world German people were surviving on turnips and bread (mixed with sawdust). They had a strong economy with prospering businesses and a well-educated, well-fed A flu epidemic was sweeping the country, killing workforce. thousands of people already weakened by rations. Germany was a superpower, being ruled by a Germany declared a republic, a new government dictatorship. based around the idea of democracy. The first leader of this republic was Ebert. His job was to lead a temporary government to create a new CONSTITUTION (SET OF RULES ON HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY) Exam Practice - Give two things you can infer from Source A about how well Germany was being governed in November 1918. (4 marks) From the papers of Jan Smuts, a South African politician who visited Germany in 1918 “… mother-land of our civilisation (Germany) lies in ruins, exhausted by the most terrible struggle in history, with its peoples broke, starving, despairing, from sheer nervous exhaustion, mechanically struggling forward along the paths of anarchy (disorder with no strong authority) and war.” Inference 1: Details in the source that back this up: Inference 2: Details in the source that back this up: On the 11th November, Ebert and the new republic signed the armistice. -
Introduction to the Weimar Republic
Handout Introduction to the Weimar Republic Directions: Write a D next to information about the Weimar Republic that represents characteristics of a democracy and an X next to information that describes problems or challenges for a democracy. From Monarchy to Democracy D X After World War I, Germany’s political leaders sought to transform Germany from a monarchy to a democracy, called the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). The Weimar Constitution divided power into three branches of government. Elections were held for the president and the Reichstag (the legislature), while the judicial branch was appointed. The Weimar Constitution D X Adopted on August 11, 1919, the new Weimar Constitution spelled out the “basic rights and ob- ligations” of government officials and the citizens they served. Most of those rights and obliga- tions had not existed in Germany under the kaiser, including equality before the law, freedom of religion, and privacy. Despite the inclusion of these rights in the Weimar Constitution, individual freedom was not fully protected. Old laws that denied freedoms continued, including laws that discriminated against homosexual men and “Gypsies” (the name, considered derogatory today, used to describe two groups of people called the Sinti and Roma). The Reichstag D X Germans voted for a party, rather than a candidate, to fill the Reichstag (the German legisla- ture). The elections determined the percentage of seats each party received in the Reichstag, but the parties themselves selected the individuals who filled each allotted seat. For example, if a party received 36% of the vote, they would get 36% of the seats in the Reichstag. -
Weimar Constitution
Weimar Why was the new government called the “Weimar Republic”? Weimar Constitution LO: To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution Political Spectrum • Despite the unrest, the Provisional Government moved towards establishing a permanent institutions in Germany, and elections for the Constituent Assembly were scheduled for 19th Jan 1919. • There were many political parties that cover the range of ideologies. KPD USPD SPD ZP DDP DVP DNVP (NSDAP) • Copy and complete the table below, showing the main beliefs of these political parties (pg 5+7) Name Foundations Aims Support Lesson 1.1.2 To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution 1919 elections • Women were allowed to Party Number of seats vote for the first time. SPD 163 • SPD secured the largest ZP 91 share of the votes (38%) DDP 75 the largest number of DNVP 44 seats (163) in the USPD 22 Assembly. DVP 19 • However, they failed to Others 7 reach an overall majority so had to compromise • Ebert was elected the first with other parties to President govern and establish a • Scheidermann was new constitution. appointed Chancellor Lesson 1.1.2 To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution Weimar Constitution Create your own diagram for the Weimar Constitution. Must include explanations of: President, Chancellor, Reichstag, Landtag/Lander and the voting system. (Pg 7) Strengths and Weaknesses of the Constitution • Create a table showing the strengths and the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution. Lesson 1.1.2 To evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution Plenary essay question – conclusion • ‘The Weimar constitution was not democratic nor did it provide the basis for stable government.’ • Assess the validity of this view. -
On the Commander-In-Chief Power
Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2008 On the Commander-In-Chief Power David Luban Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] Georgetown Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 1026302 This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/598 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1026302 81 S. Cal. L. Rev. 477-571 (2008) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Constitutional Law Commons ON THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF POWER ∗ DAVID LUBAN BRADBURY: Obviously, the Hamdan decision, Senator, does implicitly recognize that we’re in a war, that the President’s war powers were triggered by the attacks on the country, and that [the] law of war paradigm applies. That’s what the whole case was about. LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong? BRADBURY: It’s under the law of war that we . LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong? BRADBURY: . hold the President is always right, Senator. —exchange between a U.S. Senator and a Justice Department 1 lawyer ∗ University Professor and Professor of Law and Philosophy, Georgetown University. I owe thanks to John Partridge and Sebastian Kaplan-Sears for excellent research assistance; to Greg Reichberg, Bill Mengel, and Tim Sellers for clarifying several points of American, Roman, and military history; to Marty Lederman for innumerable helpful and critical conversations; and to Vicki Jackson, Paul Kahn, Larry Solum, and Amy Sepinwall for helpful comments on an earlier draft. -
The Weimar Constitution
The Weimar Constitution Was the Weimar Constitution a source of strength or weakness for a successful democratic Germany? What is a constitution? A constitution is a set of unchangeable rules about how a country is to be governed and what rights the people should have. The President ● Elected every 7 years by everyone in the country. ● In charge of the German Army and Navy ● Appointed the Chancellor ● Had special powers in an emergency (Article 48). What was Article 48? Article 48 gave the President the power to pass laws - called decrees - without the support of the Reichstag in an emergency. This was good because…. …it meant that laws could be passed and actions could be taken even if the Reichstag couldn’t reach an agreement in an emergency situation. This was bad because… …a President could abuse this power because the Constitution didn’t specify what an emergency was or how long it could last. The Chancellor ● The equivalent of our Prime Minister. ● He was appointed and dismissed by the President. ● Without the support of the Reichstag, he would be unable to pass laws. ● He was usually a member of the Reichstag. The Reichstag ● It was voted for by all men and women over the age of 20 by a system called Proportional Representation ● It had the power to vote for or against laws put forward by the Chancellor Proportional Representation ● This was Germany’s voting system between 1919 and 1933 ● The number of seats in the Reichstag a party was given would match the proportion of votes they recieved in elections. -
Brief Amici Curiae of 37 Appellate
Nos. 16-1436 and 16-1540 ================================================================ In The Supreme Court of the United States --------------------------------- --------------------------------- DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL., Petitioners, v. INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE ASSISTANCE PROJECT, ET AL. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL., Petitioners, v. STATE OF HAWAII, ET AL. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- On Writs Of Certiorari To The United States Courts Of Appeals For The Fourth And Ninth Circuits --------------------------------- --------------------------------- BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE 37 APPELLATE LAWYERS SUPPORTING RESPONDENTS --------------------------------- --------------------------------- CHARLES A. BIRD Counsel of Record 4182 Ingalls Street San Diego, CA 92103 (619) 699-2406 [email protected] Counsel for Amici Curiae [Additional Counsel Listed At End Of Brief] ================================================================ COCKLE LEGAL BRIEFS (800) 225-6964 WWW.COCKLELEGALBRIEFS.COM i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................... i TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................. iii BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE 37 APPELLATE LAWYERS SUPPORTING RESPONDENTS ... 1 INTEREST OF THE AMICI CURIAE ................. 1 SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT .............................. 2 ARGUMENT ........................................................ 4 I. How a Society -
4. the Nazis Take Power
4. The Nazis Take Power Anyone who interprets National Socialism as merely a political movement knows almost nothing about it. It is more than a religion. It is the determination to create the new man. ADOLF HITLER OVERVIEW Within weeks of taking office, Adolf Hitler was altering German life. Within a year, Joseph Goebbels, one of his top aides, could boast: The revolution that we have made is a total revolution. It encompasses every aspect of public life from the bottom up… We have replaced individuality with collective racial consciousness and the individual with the community… We must develop the organizations in which every individual’s entire life will be regulated by the Volk community, as represented by the Party. There is no longer arbitrary will. There are no longer any free realms in which the individual belongs to himself… The time of personal happiness is over.1 How did Hitler do it? How did he destroy the Weimar Republic and replace it with a totalitarian government – one that controls every part of a person’s life? Many people have pointed out that he did not destroy democracy all at once. Instead, he moved gradually, with one seemingly small compromise leading to another and yet another. By the time many were aware of the danger, they were isolated and alone. This chapter details those steps. It also explores why few Germans protested the loss of their freedom and many even applauded the changes the Nazis brought to the nation. Historian Fritz Stern offers one answer. “The great appeal of National Socialism – and perhaps of every totalitarian dictatorship in this century – was the promise of absolute authority. -
The Enabling Act of 23 March 1933 the Political Situation in the Final Stages of the Weimar Republic Was Confusing and Unstable
HISTORICAL EXHIBITION PRESENTED BY THE GERMAN BUNDESTAG ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Enabling Act of 23 March 1933 The political situation in the final stages of the Weimar Republic was confusing and unstable. Changing cabinets and coalitions and political, social and economic crises were the order of the day. Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Reich, was resorting more and more frequently to emergency decrees and dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932. The prevailing political conditions facilitated the transition of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) from a radical splinter group to a party of government. In the two elections to the Reichstag in 1932 and in the election of 1933, which was free only on paper, the NSDAP won the largest share of the vote by far. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich by President Hindenburg. Hitler was thus placed at the head of a cabinet comprising non-attached Conservative ministers, members of the NSDAP and representatives of the German National People’s Party (DNVP). The direction in which the political situation would develop under Hitler became clear only shortly after he took office. The Reichstag Fire Decree (Reichstagsbrandverordnung), enacted only one day after the fire in the Reichstag building on 27 February 1933, severely curtailed fundamental rights, subjected the police largely to the control of the national government and thereby created all sorts of opportunities for the persecution and elimination of political opponents, which the police and the so- called auxiliary police forces formed by SA and SS troops exploited to the full. The next step towards the ‘Führer state’ was the abolition of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. -
9. the Concept of Party Government in the Constitutional System of Germany
R. L. R. The Concept of Party Government in the Constitutional System of Germany 313 9. The Concept of Party Government in the Constitutional System of Germany Foroud SHIRVANI* I. Historic Foundation The German party history, particularly in the 19th century, shows that, from the beginning, German political parties were social associations representing different political streams. Generally, parties were seen as a part of society but not as a part of government.1) Nevertheless, political parties played an active role in the constitutional reality of the German state and, finally, were able to fight their way into the centre of political power. As laid out below, the constitutional history of the German Empire (1871 – 1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919 – 1933) serve as proof for this development. 1. The Constitution of the German Empire The Constitution of the German Empire enacted in 1871 was the legal foundation for several important constitutional bodies.2) Among them were the German Emperor (‘Kaiser’) representing the Empire in foreign relations and acting as commander-in-chief of the army and the navy3), the Chancellor of the Empire (‘Reichskanzler’) directing government affairs4) and the Imperial Diet (‘Reichstag’) constituting the parliament of the Empire elected in universal and direct polls.5) However, there was no specific provision concerning political parties in the Constitution. One of the main reasons for the absence of such a provision was that the theory of government at that time defined the state as a political entity forming its opinion and executing it, whereas it defined society as separate private sphere with a distance * Dr. -
Anti-Fascism in a Global Perspective
ANTI-FASCISM IN A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Transnational Networks, Exile Communities, and Radical Internationalism Edited by Kasper Braskén, Nigel Copsey and David Featherstone First published 2021 ISBN: 978-1-138-35218-6 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-35219-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-05835-6 (ebk) Chapter 10 ‘Aid the victims of German fascism!’: Transatlantic networks and the rise of anti-Nazism in the USA, 1933–1935 Kasper Braskén (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) This OA chapter is funded by the Academy of Finland (project number 309624) 10 ‘AID THE VICTIMS OF GERMAN FASCISM!’ Transatlantic networks and the rise of anti-Nazism in the USA, 1933–1935 Kasper Braskén Anti-fascism became one of the main causes of the American left-liberal milieu during the mid-1930s.1 However, when looking back at the early 1930s, it seems unclear as to how this general awareness initially came about, and what kind of transatlantic exchanges of information and experiences formed the basis of a rising anti-fascist consensus in the US. Research has tended to focus on the latter half of the 1930s, which is mainly concerned with the Communist International’s (Comintern) so-called popular front period. Major themes have included anti- fascist responses to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the strongly felt soli- darity with the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), or the slow turn from an ‘anti-interventionist’ to an ‘interventionist/internationalist’ position during the Second World War.2 The aim of this chapter is to investigate two communist-led, international organisations that enabled the creation of new transatlantic, anti-fascist solidarity networks only months after Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933. -
Carl Schmitt's Constitutional Textbook
Carl Schmitt. Constitutional Theory. Translated by Jeffrey Seitzer. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. xix + 468 pp. $29.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8223-4070-6. Reviewed by Robert D. Rachlin Published on H-German (October, 2009) Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher This frst English translation of Carl Schmitt's The trajectory of his legal-political thought Verfassungslehre (1928), prepared by Jeffrey tended toward justification of strong executive Seitzer and published under the title Constitution‐ government. His Die Diktatur (1922) distinguished al Theory, makes a welcome contribution to the between what he called "commissarial dictator‐ growing corpus of Schmitt's writings available in ship" and "sovereign dictatorship." The former, English. His scholarly works span several eras of characteristic of the dictators appointed for limit‐ German history, beginning in the Wilhelmine Em‐ ed terms during the Roman republic, functioned pire of 1910, traversing the First World War years, in times of emergency, not to abrogate, but to pre‐ the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and World serve the constitutional footing of the nation. A War II, and postwar Germany. The last work pub‐ sovereign dictator, on the other hand, replaced lished in his lifetime appeared in 1970.[1] Schmitt the constitutional foundation of the state and be‐ (1888-1985), the so-called Crown Jurist of the came a tyrant with unlimited tenure. In Die geis‐ Third Reich, published his Verfassungslehre dur‐ tesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen Parlamen‐ ing the only sustained period of calm that the tarismus (1923), translated as The Crisis of Parlia‐ Weimar Republic enjoyed. Schmitt's reputation mentary Democracy (1988), Schmitt doubted the suffered from his membership in the NSDAP and viability of parliamentary government, predicting his many publications in support of the Third Re‐ that factionalism would doom it to stalemate.