Wednesday, February 28, 2007

 

This Day in the History of Wrong Choices

On this day in 1933, President Hindenburg and Chancellor Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permitted the suspension of civil liberties in a time of national emergency. This "Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State" abrogated the following constitutional protections: Free expression of opinion, freedom of the press, right of assembly and association, right to privacy of postal and electronic communications, protection against unlawful searches and seizures, individual property rights, states' right of self-government. (who knew Germany had states?) A supplemental decree created the SA (Storm Troops) and SS (Special Security) federal police agencies.

I think it's safe to say this was the result of the Reichstag fire, so if the Nazis didn't set it, they sure were well prepared to take care of it. Before the Reichstag became the German Parliament again after the reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the entire USSR, it housed the best museum on this period in history. It was these 'emergency powers' which allowed the Nazis, only slightly more popular than the Communists, to outlaw other parties and become the state itself.

(h/t This Day in History)

Comments:
"...who knew Germany had states?"

Ask me over a bier* sometime; I can probably give you a reasonably interesting potted history. There are lots of wars involved.

* oder zwo**.

** South German dialect for "zwei" = two.
 
Ich kann das Deutsch auch. Ich habe in Swabish Hall (in Baden Wurtenburg) gestudiert and "Grus Gott" gesagt eins oder zwomals.

Thanks for the bier offer--you're on. Interstate war in Germany--can't be bad.
 
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