Decree Reich President, under Article 25 of the Reich Constitution

Decree of the Reich President on the Dissolution of the Reichstag

Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten über die Auflösung des Reichstags

Two days after Hitler’s appointment, Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag elected on 6 November 1932, the third dissolution in eight months. The decree gave as its reason that no working majority could be formed, and as its purpose that the people should give its verdict on the new government by electing a new Reichstag. The election was set for 5 March by a separate decree of the same day, and the campaign that followed was fought under the new government’s emergency decrees.

Dated: Wednesday 1 February 1933
Published in: Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I, no. 10, Tuesday 7 February 1933, p. 45
Citation: RGBl. I S. 45

On the day pages

Signed Day 3, Wednesday 1 February 1933

RGBl. I S. 45. Commons record

The text

Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten über die Auflösung des Reichstags.

Decree of the Reich President on the Dissolution of the Reichstag.

Vom 1. Februar 1933.

Of 1 February 1933.

Nachdem sich die Bildung einer arbeitsfähigen Mehrheit als nicht möglich herausgestellt hat, löse ich auf Grund des Artikels 25 der Reichsverfassung den Reichstag auf, damit das deutsche Volk durch Wahl eines neuen Reichstags zu der neugebildeten Regierung des nationalen Zusammenschlusses Stellung nimmt.

Since the formation of a working majority has proved not to be possible, I dissolve the Reichstag on the basis of Article 25 of the Reich Constitution, so that the German people may, by electing a new Reichstag, state its position on the newly formed Government of National Union.

Berlin, den 1. Februar 1933.

Berlin, 1 February 1933.

Der Reichspräsident von Hindenburg

The Reich President von Hindenburg

Der Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler

The Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler

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 10, p. 45); compared word by word with documentArchiv.de, which agrees with the gazette.

The English translation was made for this site and is not an official translation. The decree is a single sentence in the President’s first person, and the translation keeps it so. It was printed in the Reichsgesetzblatt of 7 February, six days after it was signed.

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

Terms

Artikel 25: The article of the Weimar constitution allowing the Reich President to dissolve the Reichstag, but only once for the same reason; new elections had to be held within sixty days.
Regierung des nationalen Zusammenschlusses: The cabinet’s description of itself: a coalition of the NSDAP, the German National People’s Party (DNVP) and non-party conservatives, presented as a ‘national’ rallying of the right.
arbeitsfähige Mehrheit: A working majority: a majority in the Reichstag able to support a government. The NSDAP and DNVP together held fewer than half the seats.

Sources

Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 Teil I, Nr. 10 (7. Februar 1933), S. 45 (Reichsministerium des Innern; scan on Wikimedia Commons)
Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten über die Auflösung des Reichstags (transcription) (documentArchiv.de)

Gazette scans: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.