The Second Law (7 April 1933) established the new powerful position of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) appointed by the central government to effectively take control of each state administration.

The effect of these laws was to undermine the power and influence of all political parties other than the Nazis and the DNVP, and to move Germany significantly away from being a federal republic and put it on a path to becoming a unitary state.

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.

Using the outbreak of violence that occurred on Altona Bloody Sunday as a pretext, Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen obtained the consent of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg to supersede the Social Democratic government of Prussian Minister-President Otto Braun through invocation of the policy of Reichsexekution.

[7] In the aftermath of the coup, Papen used his new position of power to replace dozens of Social Democratic and liberal police-presidents and regional administrators throughout Prussia with more conservative and autocratic officials.

[9] Papen's coup dealt a staggering blow to the Republic by destroying the principle of federalism, seizing control of the largest state and opening the door to further centralization.

After the Nazis came to power, the term Gleichschaltung was expanded to apply to the process by which other institutions of government and society were also centralized and put under the Reich's control.

The Nazi government used the emergency powers granted to it by the Enabling Act to issue the "Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" on 31 March 1933.

This decree dissolved the duly-elected sitting state parliaments of the German länder except for the Prussian landtag that was elected on 5 March and which the Nazis controlled.

It then reconstituted them based on the electoral results of the 5 March 1933 Reichstag election, except that the seats won by the Communist Party were expressly excluded.

This law essentially nullified the results of the most recent landtag elections and effectively installed a working majority for the Nazis and their ally, the DNVP, in each state.

The Second Law also specifically conferred the executive authority in Prussia as Reichsstatthalter directly on the Reich Chancellor, namely, Hitler.