Index/Organizations/Reichstag

Reichstag

Seat of the German Bundestag and, before 1945, the eponymous parliament of the Weimar Republic

Fact-Checks

15 results
Nov 30, 2025
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Did Hitler ever publicly acknowledge the Holocaust during his reign?

Hitler did make repeated public statements promising the “extermination” or “annihilation” of Jews long before and during World War II—most famously a 30 January 1939 Reichstag prophecy and later wart...

Nov 15, 2025
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hitler changing the german constitution

Adolf Hitler did not formally “rewrite” the Weimar Constitution into a new constitution; instead he used legal mechanisms—most importantly the Reichstag Fire Decree invoking Article 48 and the Enablin...

Jan 18, 2026
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What do historians identify as early warning signs of democratic backsliding based on Weimar Germany?

Historians reading the collapse of Weimar Germany identify a set of early warning signs that recur in democratic backsliding: the politicization and manipulation of emergencies, erosion of democratic ...

Jan 27, 2026

What concrete legal steps did the Nazis use in 1933 to consolidate power, and how do they compare to recent U.S. executive actions?

in 1933 used a sequence of emergency decrees, legislative transfers of power, legal bans on parties and unions, and a campaign of intimidation and policing to erase checks on executive authority and c...

Jan 14, 2026

What specific legal and institutional safeguards prevented a U.S. presidential consolidation of power similar to the Enabling Act?

The United States avoided an Enabling‑Act style legal seizure of power largely because of the constitutional architecture—separation of powers, federalism and a written charter that dispersed authorit...

Jan 4, 2026

What specific legal steps enabled Hitler’s Enabling Act and how do they differ from U.S. law?

The Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 legally transferred core legislative powers from Germany’s Reichstag to Hitler’s cabinet, allowing laws — even constitutional amendments — to be made by decree and e...

Feb 7, 2026

Did the Weimar Republic have laws on child prostitution before 1933?

did have a regulatory and reforming legal framework for prostitution—culminating in a that effectively shifted policy away from punitive, registry-based policing toward medico‑social controls and part...

Feb 5, 2026

hitler closed national opera

did not issue a blanket, single decree "" across and ; instead, the regime exercised cultural control by purging personnel, censoring repertory, repurposing buildings, and allowing and administrative ...

Feb 5, 2026

Did hitler close opera

did not “close” opera as a blanket policy; instead, from 1933 onward the state co-opted, censored, repurposed and spectacularly promoted opera as a pillar of while purging Jewish and politically undes...

Feb 1, 2026

The Enabling Act of 1933 was intended to be in force indefinitely.

The was not written as an open-ended, perpetual statute: its text and contemporaneous reporting specified a time limit (four years) and tied its force to the sitting Reich government . Nonetheless, th...

Jan 31, 2026

"The Council of the People's Deputies immediately removed some of the Empire's harsh restrictions, such as on freedom of expression". can you list exactly what these restrictions were

The phrase that “The Council of the People’s Deputies some of the Empire’s harsh restrictions, such as on freedom of expression” conflates actions by different bodies in different moments; contemporar...

Jan 22, 2026

How did the Enabling Act passage procedurally occur in the Reichstag on March 23, 1933 and who voted for it?

The passed the on 23 March 1933 in a tightly staged session at the that combined legal procedure with concerted political intimidation and the exclusion of deputies, producing a supermajority that tra...

Jan 22, 2026

How did German civil servants and judges respond to or resist Nazi Gleichschaltung in the first months after January 1933?

In the immediate months after became chancellor in January 1933, civil servants and judges largely accommodated and enabled by implementing new laws, purging targeted colleagues, and reframing loyalty...

Jan 20, 2026

How did Article 48 function in practice during the Weimar Republic and which decrees mattered most?

Article 48 was a constitutional emergency clause that allowed the Reich President to suspend civil liberties and issue binding decrees to restore public order; in practice it became a routine tool use...

Nov 15, 2025

hitler patsey that started wwii

Adolf Hitler ordered the German invasion of Poland that began on 1 September 1939, an act that prompted Britain and France to declare war and is conventionally marked as the start of World War II in E...