Enabling Act of 1933

1933-03-23

German law of 1933 that gave the cabinet - above all Chancellor Adolf Hitler - the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or President Paul von Hindenburg. By allowing the chancellor to override the checks and balances in the constitution, the Enabling Act was the pivotal step in the transition from the democratic Weimar Republic to the totalitarian dictatorship of Nazi Germany.