Interior Minister Köster The Law for the Protection of the Republic (German: Gesetz zum Schutze der Republik) was the name of two laws of the Weimar Republic that banned organisations opposed to the "constitutional republican form of government" along with their printed matter and meetings.

Politically motivated acts of violence such as the assassination of members of the government were made subject to more severe punishments, and a special state court was established to enforce the law's provisions.

The immediate cause for enacting the first law was the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on 24 June 1922 by members of the right-wing extremist group Organisation Consul.

The news of the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on 24 June 1922 led to tumult in the German Reichstag.

The anger was directed in particular against Karl Helfferich of the German National People's Party (DNVP) who had delivered a tirade against Rathenau the day before his assassination.

On 25 June, Chancellor Joseph Wirth of the Centre Party made a speech during which he turned toward the right-wing members of the Reichstag, specifically Helfferich,[3] and declared, There stands the enemy who drips his poison into the wounds of a people.

Minister President Hugo von Lerchenfeld argued that the law was improperly directed only against extremism from the right, that it encompassed earlier offences retroactively, that former members of the federal government should not be implicated, and that the bill curtailed the rights of the states by making a federal authority responsible for certain offences rather than state authorities.

In a meeting with the minister presidents of the states on 29 June, the government was dissuaded from the idea of having the Reichstag introduce the bill.

[6] The latter provided that members of the former ruling families who were living abroad could be prohibited from entering Germany or have their place of residence restricted – a provision that clearly included the former German emperor, Wilhelm II.

The retroactive assignment of jurisdiction to the State Court was unconstitutional because it deprived the accused of the (normally responsible) "lawful judge", and the civil servants act affected their "vested rights".

[7] The law[8] was divided into six sections: Prison terms and/or fines were set for "whoever participates in a secret or anti-state association which attempts to undermine the constitutionally established republican form of government of the Reich or of a state, or supports it or … a member with advice and action, in particular with money".

Anyone who belonged to an association that carried out an attempt to assassinate a member of the government, or who knew of such an organization and did not report it, was to receive life imprisonment or the death penalty.

"Meetings, processions and demonstrations may be prohibited if certain facts exist which justify the concern that discussions are taking place in them which constitute the offence of one of the punishable acts."

[10] Berlin could have responded with a Reichsexekution – a federal intervention against a member state, using military force if necessary – or an appeal to the German High Court.

Due to the increased number of seats held by the German National People's Party, which had voted against the law in 1922, it needed to support the extension in order for it to pass.

[13][14] Interior Minister Severing As a result of an increase in politically motivated violence, the government of Hermann Müller (SPD) presented the Reichstag with a draft of a new version of the Law for the Protection of the Republic in December 1929.

Since there was no chance of the bill receiving a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag, the clauses from the First Law that violated the Constitution were taken out, including Section V, the provision regarding the former sovereigns (the "Emperor Paragraph").

Heightened threats of punishment had little effect given the increased radicalisation of the public, and the conflicts between the federal government and the states prevented the cooperation on constitutional protection on which the law was based.

[20] Thirteen individuals were sentenced to prison in October 1922 for aiding and abetting the murder of Walther Rathenau, but the court ruled that a conspiracy was unproven.

[21] By early 1923, the states of Prussia, Saxony, Baden, Thuringia, Schaumburg-Lippe, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Hamburg, Bremen and Hesse had banned the Nazi Party under the provisions of the law.