Ordinance Reich Minister of the Interior, under § 25 of the decree of 4 February 1933

First Ordinance for the Implementation of the Decree for the Protection of the German People

Erste Verordnung zur Durchführung der Verordnung zum Schutze des deutschen Volkes

Signed by Frick on the same day as the President’s decree and printed in the same issue of the gazette, this ordinance defined the ‘leading officials’ whose insult could justify dissolving a meeting or banning a newspaper: the Reich Chancellor, the Reich ministers and the state secretaries. It also told the authorities to consider, before banning a periodical, whether a warning or a statement printed by the publisher or editors would do, and to use one of these in lighter cases.

Dated: Saturday 4 February 1933
Published in: Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I, no. 8, Monday 6 February 1933, p. 41
Citation: RGBl. I S. 41

On the day pages

Signed Day 6, Saturday 4 February 1933

RGBl. I S. 41. Commons record

The text

Erste Verordnung zur Durchführung der Verordnung zum Schutze des deutschen Volkes.

First Ordinance for the Implementation of the Decree for the Protection of the German People.

Vom 4. Februar 1933.

Of 4 February 1933.

Auf Grund des § 25 der Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutze des deutschen Volkes vom 4. Februar 1933 (Reichsgesetzbl. I S. 35/40) wird hiermit verordnet:

On the basis of § 25 of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the German People of 4 February 1933 (Reich Law Gazette I pp. 35–40), it is hereby decreed:

§ 1 Als leitende Beamte im Sinne des § 2 Nr. 2, § 9 Abs. 1 Nr. 5 der Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutze des deutschen Volkes werden der Reichskanzler, die Reichsminister und die Staatssekretäre des Reichs bestimmt.

§ 1 The Reich Chancellor, the Reich ministers and the state secretaries of the Reich are designated as leading officials within the meaning of § 2, no. 2, and § 9, para. 1, no. 5, of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the German People.

§ 2 Vor Erlaß des Verbots einer periodischen Druckschrift ist zu prüfen, ob an seiner Stelle eine Verwarnung oder eine von dem Verlag oder der Schriftleitung in der Druckschrift abzugebende Erklärung ausreicht. In leichteren Fällen ist von einer dieser Möglichkeiten Gebrauch zu machen.

§ 2 Before a ban on a periodical is issued, it is to be considered whether a warning, or a statement to be made in the publication by the publisher or the editorial staff, would suffice in its place. In lighter cases one of these possibilities is to be used.

Berlin, den 4. Februar 1933.

Berlin, 4 February 1933.

Der Reichsminister des Innern Frick

The Reich Minister of the Interior Frick

About this text

The full text is given. Transcribed from the RGBl. scan (issue 8, p. 41); compared word by word with documentArchiv.de, which prints ‘zum Schutzes’ twice and ‘an seine Stelle’ where the gazette has ‘zum Schutze’ and ‘an seiner Stelle’; the gazette’s readings are kept.

The English translation was made for this site and is not an official translation. The gazette cites the decree as ‘S. 35/40’, meaning pp. 35 to 40.

German laws and decrees are official works and not protected by copyright (§ 5 UrhG).

Terms

leitende Beamte: ‘Leading officials’. Under the decree of 4 February a meeting could be dissolved, or a periodical banned, if ‘organs, institutions, authorities or leading officials of the state’ were insulted or maliciously disparaged in it. This ordinance named those at Reich level; the third implementing ordinance of 7 February added the commissioners running the Prussian ministries.
Staatssekretäre: State secretaries: the senior civil servants heading each Reich ministry under the minister, and the head of the Reich Chancellery.
Verwarnung, Erklärung: A formal warning to a newspaper, or a statement (in practice a correction or retraction) that the publisher or editors had to print in it, as milder alternatives to a ban.

Sources

Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 Teil I, Nr. 8 (6. Februar 1933), S. 41 (Reichsministerium des Innern; scan on Wikimedia Commons)
Erste Verordnung zur Durchführung der Verordnung zum Schutze des deutschen Volkes (transcription) (documentArchiv.de)

Gazette scans: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.