MAGAZINE OF THE ACADEMY FOR GERMAN LAW [Zeitschrift der Akademie fuer Deutsches Recht]
Edited by Reichminister, Dr. Frank, President of the Academy for German
Law.
4th Year, 1937
Published by C. H. Beck, Muenchen and Berlin, issue No. 3, 1 February 1937.
* * *
Four Years of Building of the Third Reich by Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Wilhelm Frick, member of the Academy for German Law [Page 67-68],
The first constitutional foundation of the New Order in the Third Reich was brought about by the law to remove the distress of people and Reich of 24 March 1983, the so-called Enabling Act [Ermaechtigungsgesetz], The law creates a new procedure in legislation by authorizing the Reich Government to issue Reich laws. This reform has a double significance in regard to constitutional law. On one hand this measure means a turning away from the liberal principle, of division of powers in reuniting the legislation with the government authority and on the other hand a turning away from parliamentarianism, since the self-responsibility of leading personalities has taken the place of anonymous resolutions in the legislation. Since the passing of the Enabling Act almost all the laws of the Reich have been issued in this simplified manner of the Government legislation. Only the Reconstruction Law [Neuaufbaugesetz] of 30 January, 1934 and the three Nürnberg laws from September 15, 1935 have been resolved by the Reichstag. One week after the Enabling Act the law relating to the preliminary political coordination of 31 March 1933 was issued by which the parliaments of the provinces [Laender] (with the exception of the Prussian Diet newly elected on March 12, 1933) were coordinated to the German Par-
231
248I-PS
liament after the results of the election of March 5th. A similar procedure which the Enabling Act [Ermaechtigungsgesetz] had introduced for the legislation in the Reich was created for the legislation in the provinces. In order to issue laws for the provinces no more parliamentary legislative precedures were needed. On the contrary the provincial governments had the power to resolve upon laws independently. This decree is obsolete, though since the. Reconstruction Law of 30 January 1934 the provinces [Laender] are exercising their legislative power not on fheir own authority but on the orders and in the name of the Reich only.
After having overcome the disunity within the party the law for the protection of the unity of Party and State was passed on December 1, 1,933. It safeguards by special constitutional protective measures the permanent unison and the accordance of party and state in all their functions, by declaring the NSDAP the bearer of the German conception of a state and the sole political organization of the German people, by appointing the deputy of the Fuehrer a member of the government of the Reich, and by giving the party official legal power to punish and jurisdiction over their members and over the S.A.
The reconstruction law [Neuaufbaugesetz] abolished the rights of sovereignty and the executive power of the provinces and made the Reich the sole bearer of sovereign rights. Since this day the provinces hold no more an executive power. Necessarily, this resulted in the' subordination of the Provincial Government to the Reich Government and the subordination of the Provincial Ministers to the respective Ministers of the Reich. On January 30, 1934 the German Reich has become a unified Reich. The immediate result was that the previous 17fold citizenship of provinces was now replaced by a common citizenship of the Reich.
The merger carried out in the unified central offices between the Reich and Prussia, was also extended to the provincial offices, whereby the Prussian "Oberpraesidents" (i.e. administrative head of a Prussian Province) were appointed as functionaries of the Government of the Reich and were equipped with authoritative power over all civilian provincial authorities. Herewith the foundation has been laid for the extension of the Prussian Oberpraesidents to a unified intermediary authority of the whole public provincial administration.
The settlement arranged for Prussia led to a parallel establishment of the position of the Reich Commissioner [Reichsstatthalter] in the Provinces outside of Prussia. The law relating to
232
248I-PS
Reich Commissioners of January 30, 1935, which was passed on the second anniversary of the Nationalist Socialist assumption of power on January 30, 1935, established the Reich-commissioner as administrative head of the Intermediary authority of the Reich [Reichsmittelinstanz] by giving him executive power over all civilian offices of the Reich and the Provinces of the communities and other self-administrative bodies of public law in his district and also provides for the possibility to appoint him with the leadership of the provincial government.
Extracts from an article, on the Enabling Act (granting legislative power to the executive) and the centralization of provincial governments under the Reich
Authors
Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior; chief of Nazi delegation, Reichstag; admin. Plenipotentiary)
Wilhelm Frick
German Nazi official (1877-1946)
- Born: 1877-03-12 (Alsenz)
- Died: 1946-10-16 (Nuremberg)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: diplomat; lawyer; politician
- Member of political party: German Völkisch Freedom Party; National Socialist Freedom Movement; Nazi Party
- Member of: AGV München; Thule Society
- Participant in: Aryanization; Beer Hall Putsch; International Military Tribunal (role: defendant)
- Position held: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (period: 1943-08-24 through 1945-05-04; replaces: Konstantin von Neurath); Reichsminister des Innern (period: 1933-01-30 through 1943-08-20; replaced by: Heinrich Himmler; replaces: Franz Bracht); member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany; member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
Date: 1937
Literal Title: Magazine of the Academy for German Law . . . Four Years of Building of the Third Reich
Defendant: Wilhelm Frick
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2481
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450245