Enforced Conformity
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich, the Reichstag was dissolved on 1 February 1933 in order to make new elections possible. Hitler intended to decide the elections for himself with the help of the tightly organised propaganda apparatus of the NSDAP and the terrorist violence of the SA and SS. The burning of the Reichstag on 27/28 February provided the pretext for the inception of the «Emergency Decree» allowing the state authorities the greatest power and possibilities of intervention (arrest without proofs, intensification of criminal policy, suspension of the integrity of flat and property, suspension of secrecy of the post and telephone as well as freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association).
In the Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933, the NSDAP won the absolute majority together with its coalition partner. The Enabling Act, resolved by the Reichstag on 23 March 1933 with a two-thirds majority supported by one of the bourgeois parties, made it possible for the Reich government to decree laws without adhering to the course of legislature in accordance with the constitution.
The Weimar Reich Constitution thus became practically ineffective. The setting up of the «total state» forged rapidly ahead. All parties were prohibited, the labour unions were dissolved and reorganised in the German Labour Front. The provincial governments were replaced by National Socialist Reich Governors; the federalist system was completely abolished in January 1934. With the death of Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, the rights of the Reich President were transferred to Hitler, who now called himself «Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor.»