After the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler quickly set about taking control of all aspects of the German government and society.

By the provisions enacted in the Reichstag Fire Decree, many civil liberties guaranteed to German citizens by the Weimar Constitution had been suspended, including the right of habeas corpus, and freedom of speech, the press and assembly.

The blows fell first on their fiercest opponent, the Communist Party (KPD), whose Reichstag deputies were banned from taking their seats, and most of whom were arrested and taken to concentration camps.

On 22 June, they banned all Social Democratic publications and meetings, and canceled all SPD electoral mandates in both the Reichstag and the state Landtage (parliaments).

The Reichstag, once the scene of democratic debate and deliberation, was reduced to a forum where Hitler would deliver speeches and other political pronouncements to a docile audience, and where the occasional piece of legislation was adopted by acclamation.

[7] After the fall of the Nazi regime at the end of the Second World War in Europe, the Allied occupation authorities set about to "denazify" German law.