Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)

Article 48 of the constitution of the Weimar Republic of Germany (1919–1933) allowed the Reich president, under certain circumstances, to take emergency measures without the prior consent of the Reichstag.

It was used frequently by Reich President Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democratic Party to deal with both political unrest and economic emergencies.

Later, under President Paul von Hindenburg and the presidential cabinets, Article 48 was called on more and more often to bypass a politically fractured parliament and to rule without its consent.

After the Nazi Party's rise to power in the early 1930s, the law allowed Chancellor Adolf Hitler, with decrees issued by Hindenburg, to create a totalitarian dictatorship by seemingly legal means.

The Weimar Constitution's framers intended Article 48 to allow a strong executive within the parliamentary republic that could bypass the slower legislative process in times of crisis.

[2] In the early years of the Republic, following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, the combination of reparations payments, the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops between 1921 and 1923, and the resulting hyperinflation led to economic turmoil and political unrest from both the left and right.

To cope with the crises, Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat and the Republic's first president, used Article 48 on 136 occasions,[3] although he always based invoking the act on agreements between himself, the government and parliament.

[5] Ebert later granted Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno considerable latitude under Article 48 to deal with inflation and matters related to the Reichsmark.

The September 1930 election resulted in increased representation in the Reichstag for the Communists and, most dramatically the Nazis, at the expense of the moderate middle-class parties.

The excessive use of the decree power and the fact that successive chancellors were no longer responsible to the Reichstag probably played a significant part in the loss of public confidence in constitutional democracy, in turn leading to the rise of the extremist parties.

It was a major reason why Hitler never formally repealed the Weimar Constitution, though it had effectively been rendered a dead letter with the passage of the Enabling Act.

The text of the Article 48 neither precisely defined the kind of emergency that would justify its use nor expressly granted to the president the power to enact, issue, or otherwise promulgate legislation.

Friedrich Ebert, the first president of the Weimar Republic. His 136 invocations of Article 48 were by agreement with Parliament.
Paul von Hindenburg, the second president of the Weimar Republic. He used Article 48 109 times in three years, largely as a way to bypass parliament.
The burning Reichstag building, 27 February 1933. The event gave Hitler an excuse to invoke Article 48, which in turn led to him gaining dictatorial powers by seemingly legal means.