DECREE, 28 FEBRUARY 1933,
BY REICH PRESIDENT VON HINDENBURG, COSIGNED BY REICH CHANCELLOR HITLER AND REICH MINISTERS FRICK AND GUERTNER, SUSPENDING CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND INSTITUTING OTHER MEASURES[84]
1933 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART 1, PAGE 83
Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State of 28 February 1933.
Pursuant to article 48, paragraph 2 of the German constitution, the following is decreed as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the State:
Article 1
Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice.[85] Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association and interferences with the secrecy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
[All footnote quotations from the Weimar constitution used in this volume have been taken from the translation in Select Constitutions of the World, edited by B. Shiva Rao (Mylapore, Madras, The Madras Law Journal Press, 1934), page 208 and following pages.]
Article 2
If in a state [Land] the measures necessary for the restoration of public security and order are not taken, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest State authority.