The Enabling Act, 23 March 1933 - the vote, the arithmetic, and the two numbers in the record

[Report #202] **In plain terms:** the parliament voted to let the government make law without it. The vote is usually given as 444 to 94. The chair announced 441. Both numbers are in the record, and the chair's own constitutional arithmetic was wrong three separate ways. WHAT THE LAW DID: the Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich gave the Hitler government the right, for four years, to enact laws without the legislature, including laws deviating from the Weimar constitution, and surrendered the Reichstag's powers over treaties, the budget and borrowing. Passed 23 March 1933; promulgated the following day, which is why both dates circulate. Canon's hitler record already carries 'the Enabling Act followed in March'. WHERE AND UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS, from the USHMM: the vote was taken in 'the makeshift Reichstag building, formerly the Kroll Opera House' in Berlin, with SS troops sent there 'to intimidate other political parties'; all 81 Communist deputies were 'prevented' from taking their seats and held in Nazi-controlled camps; 26 of 120 Social Democrats were likewise prevented and detained; and the law passed 'with only Social Democrats voting against it'. THE TWO TALLIES, resolved. Schneider 1953, verbatim: 'Reichstagspraesident Goering verkuendete das vorlaeufige Abstimmungsergebnis: ‚Abgegeben wurden 335 Karten. Es haben gestimmt mit Nein 94, mit Ja 441 Abgeordnete.‘ (Bei der spaeteren genauen Nachzaehlung ergaben sich sogar 444 auf Ja lautende Stimmzettel gegen 94 Nein-Stimmen.)' So 441 was the PROVISIONAL result announced from the chair and 444 the figure on a later exact recount. Sources that give 441 and sources that give 444 are both citing the record; the Deutsches Historisches Museum carries 441, the Bundestag 444. Neither is an error. GOERING'S ARITHMETIC, WRONG THREE WAYS, each itemised by Schneider. Goering declared: 'Die gesetzliche Mitgliederzahl des Hauses betraegt 566. Davon sind zwei Drittel = 378, davon wiederum zwei Drittel = 252.' Against that: (a) the legal membership was 647, not 566, because the 81 KPD deputies were validly elected - 'Es gab keine gesetzliche Moeglichkeit, diese Mandate zu kassieren'; (b) the quorum therefore required 432 present, not 378, and 'Tatsaechlich sind 538 Abgeordnete anwesend gewesen'; (c) the majority required was two thirds of those actually present, which was 359 of 538, not Goering's 252. The 444 yes votes cleared the correct threshold anyway. Frick had put the same 566/378 arithmetic to the cabinet on 15 March (Document 2962-PS, IMT XXXI p. 402) while recommending that the KPD mandates not be formally cancelled. THE RETROACTIVE VALIDATION, which is the finding this record exists for. On how the exclusion of the KPD mandates was ever made lawful, Schneider: 'Die ‚Rechtsgrundlage‘ ist erst nachtraeglich durch eine auf Grund des Ermaechtigungsgesetzes erlassene Vorschrift beschafft worden' - the legal basis was obtained only afterwards, by a provision issued under the Enabling Act itself. That provision is section 10 of the law of 31 March 1933 (see gleichschaltung_laender_1933_03_31). The quorum that carried this Act on 23 March was given its legal foundation eight days later, by the Act's own first use. THE ZENTRUM'S PRICE, and that it was not paid. On Bruening's account (Deutsche Rundschau 1947, H. 7, pp. 17f., as reported by Schneider), a letter undoing the civil-liberties provisions of the 28 February decree was drafted as the consideration for Zentrum votes and was verbally approved by Hitler and Frick; when it did not arrive, Kaas was pressed to announce a no vote at the third reading, and Hitler and Frick assured him the confirming letter had already been delivered at the Kroll Opera - 'was, wie sich spaeter herausstellte, nicht zutraf', which, as later turned out, was not the case. Schneider notes separately that whether a Reichskonkordat was also held out to the Zentrum 'waere noch zu klaeren' - still to be clarified. Kaas's own plenary statement expressly referenced the 'Vorverhandlungen'. THE SPEED: the second reading took approximately three minutes and the third approximately one, by Schneider's estimate, after which the roll-call began. The Reichsrat assembled the same evening in the library of the Interior Ministry and took note without objection; every state government was already in National Socialist hands or under a Reich commissioner. THE PARLIAMENT THAT WAS ALREADY GONE, which is the structural half of the record. Schneider's count of Reichstag statutes against presidential emergency decrees: 1930, 98 statutes; 1931, 42 decrees against 34 statutes; 1932, 60 decrees against only 5 statutes. And 6,013,000 unemployed on 31 January 1933. Delegating legislative power was not novel in 1933 - Schneider walks the enabling laws of 14 August 1914 and of 13 October and 8 December 1923, and notes the 1933 law's title echoes the second 1923 one. What was new was the extension from ordinances to statutes, including statutes departing from the constitution. HELD OPEN: the gazette page (the research pass gave RGBl I S. 141 in a table and cited it nowhere), and the stenographic record itself - Verhandlungen des Reichstags Bd. 457, sitting of 23 March 1933, which Schneider names as his primary and which was NOT retrieved for this record. Held; name no holder.