It was one of the key pieces of legislation that served as the basis for the policy of Gleichschaltung, or coordination, by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successfully established their totalitarian control over all aspects of the German government and society.

Germany long had a federal system of government composed of numerous independent states (German: länder).

These ranged from freely elected assemblies which acted as true legislatures in the republics, to representatives of the estates in Mecklenburg.

The states were largely autonomous in terms of internal affairs and had control over matters such as education and public order, including the police and the courts.

The Nazi government used the emergency powers granted to it by the Enabling Act to issue this law on 31 March 1933.

In this manner, the Nazis, in conjunction with their allies the conservative German National People's Party who had polled nearly 8%, were able to take control of all the state parliaments.

These new central government officials were charged with ensuring that the policy guidelines formulated by the Reich Chancellor were observed.

The proposed law was then introduced, advanced through three readings in under five minutes by Reichstag President Hermann Göring and adopted without any debate or dissenting votes.

As the occupation authorities prepared to hold elections for new local and regional representative assemblies, they approved the formation of reestablished länder in 1946–47.

By 1947 the länder in the Western zones had freely elected parliamentary assemblies, thus effectively repealing the provisions of the "Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich."

Institutional developments followed a superficially similar pattern in the Soviet zone, but there the electoral process was less than fully free.