A second decree the same day transferred executive power in Prussia to the Reich Minister of the Armed Forces Kurt von Schleicher and restricted fundamental rights.

The second and major rationale was that in parts of Prussia there were violent street demonstrations and clashes taking place that Papen said the caretaker government could not control.

The immediate result, however, was elimination of the last resistance in Prussia to Papen's attempt to establish a "New State", essentially a precursor to a restored monarchy.

Contrary to Papen's intent, the move ultimately had the effect of easing Hitler's path to power.

The aim of the circle, often called the Luther League after its founder Hans Luther, a former Reich chancellor and president of the Reichsbank (1930–1933), was to strengthen the Reich's central power, reorganize northern Germany, especially Prussia, which was by far the largest state in Germany, and create an authoritarian presidential regime.

"[3] Papen's initiative for the Prussian coup is to be understood within the context of the plan for the establishment of a ‘New State’, a concept propagated above all by Walther Schotte – a journalist and historian who provided Papen with ideas and theories – and Edgar Jung, a lawyer and anti-democratic journalist.

They did not favor the National Socialists but rather wanted to create the precursor to a monarchy, an authoritarian presidential regime with a chancellor dependent on the confidence of the president and a parliament severely limited in its rights, similar to the government under the constitution of the German Empire.

[9] With parliamentary rules having recently been changed to require an absolute majority for the election of a minister president, it was possible that the caretaker government could continue on indefinitely.

[10] The situation was similar to that in Bavaria, Saxony, Hesse, Württemberg and Hamburg, although the Reich government did not concern itself with them.

Because such a path would have achieved its goal only in the long term, was difficult to accomplish and highly controversial, he favored another option.

The deadly confrontations and ensuing police action differed markedly from the Reich execution against Saxony in 1923.

Three days earlier, on 14 July, Reich President Paul von Hindenburg had at Papen's request signed an undated emergency decree pursuant to Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which allowed the Reich president, with the chancellor's co-signature, to take the necessary measures, including use of the military, to restore public security and order if they were endangered.

The third option, which would have consisted of waiting and leaving Prussia's caretaker minority government in office and trusting that it would get the situation under control even without a parliamentary majority, was one that Papen from the outset did not consider.

Papen informed the constitutional ministers about the Hindenburg decree that allowed him to be installed as Reich commissioner and for the caretaker government to be removed.

Severing responded negatively to Papen's suggestion that he voluntarily relinquish his official duties, saying that he would "yield only to force".

[14] Otto Klepper reported a year later in an essay in the exile newspaper The New Journal that he had hoped that Severing would resist after he made his declaration, especially since both Papen and Interior Minister Wilhelm von Gayl, who was also present, had seemed very uncertain.

[15] "I suggested that we recess the meeting with Papen for an hour to discuss further action by the Prussian government and went to the door.

Only then – after it was certain that no resistance was in the offing – was State Secretary Erwin Planck given the order to set the command to the Reichswehr in motion.

The Berlin police chief Albert Grzesinski, his deputy Bernhard Weiß, and the commander of the protective police, the Centre Party politician Magnus Heimannsberg, were taken into custody and released the next day, after they had bound themselves in writing to engage in no more official acts.

Georg Gottheiner, an administrative lawyer and DNVP member, spoke as the main representative of the Reich government.

[20] The cooperation between the Braun government and the Reich commissioner that was indirectly called for in the judgement was from the outset not possible.

The judgement basically tolerated a breach of the constitution because the court shied away from charging the Reich president with the act.

[21] Historian Michael Stolleis assessed the judgement as a "landmark in the constitutional history describing the downfall of the Republic.

"[22] According to historian Dirk Blasius' account, the verdict was perceived by almost everyone as either a welcome defeat or a clumsy failure of the Reich government.

[25] Between the promulgation of the decree and the court ruling, Papen's provisional government replaced Prussia's top administrative and police officials.

The true power, however, lay with the representatives of the Reich execution – the "Commissar Government" under Franz Bracht.

It was not until Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933 that Hermann Göring, with Papen's help, secured a new emergency decree from Hindenburg that officially deposed Braun's "sovereign government".

The crimes punishable by life imprisonment under Criminal Code §§ 81 (high treason), 302 (arson), 311 (explosion), 312 (flooding), 315 para.