The Enabling Act (German: Ermchtigungsgesetz) of 1933, officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (lit.'Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich'), was a law that gave the German Cabinetmost importantly, the Chancellorthe powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or Weimar President Paul von Hindenburg. Critically, the Enabling Act allowed the Chancellor to bypass the system of checks and balances in the government and the laws created under it could explicitly violate individual rights prescribed in the Weimar Constitution.In January 1933 Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler convinced President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him as chancellor, the head of the German government. Four weeks into his chancellorship, the Reichstag building caught fire in the middle of the night. Hitler blamed the incident on the communists and was convinced the arson was part of a larger effort to overthrow the German government. Using this justification, Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to enact the Reichstag Fire Decree. The decree abolished most civil liberties including the right to speak, assemble, protest, and due process. Using the decree the Nazis declared a state of emergency and began to arrest, intimidate, and purge their political enemies. Communists and labor union leaders were subsequently arrested and interned in Dachau, the first concentration camp constructed by the Nazi regime. By clearing the political arena of anyone willing to challenge him, Hitler submitted a proposal to the Reichstag that would immediately grant all legislative powers to the cabinet. This would in effect allow Hitler's government to act without concern to the constitution.

Despite outlawing the communists and repressing other opponents, the passage of the Enabling Act was not a guarantee. Hitler allied with other nationalist and conservative factions and they steamrolled over the Social Democrats in the March 5, 1933 German federal election. That election would be the last multiparty election held in a united Germany until 1990, fifty-seven years later, and occurred in an atmosphere of extreme voter intimidation perpetrated by the Nazis. Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler did not command a majority in the Reichstag voting on the Enabling Act. The majority of Germans did not vote for the Nazi Party, as Hitler's total vote was less than 45% despite the terror and fear fomented by his repression. In order for the enabling act to be passed the Nazis implemented a strategy of coercion, bribery, and manipulation. Hitler removed any remaining political obstacle so his coalition of conservatives, nationalists, and Nazis could begin building the Nazi dictatorship. The Communists had already been repressed and were not allowed to be present or to vote, and some Social Democrats were kept away as well. In the end the Social Democrats were the only ones among those present to vote against the act.The act passed in both the Reichstag and Reichsrat on 23 March 1933, and was signed by President Paul von Hindenburg later that day. Unless extended by the Reichstag, the act would expire after four years. With the Enabling Act now in force, the chancellor could pass and enforce unconstitutional laws without any objection. The combined effect of the Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire Decree ultimately transformed Hitler's cabinet into a legal dictatorship and laid the groundwork for his totalitarian regime. The Nazis dramatically escalated the political repression, the party now armed with the Enabling Act outlawed all political activity and by July, the Nazis were the only legal party allowed to participate. The Reichstag from 1933 onward effectively became the rubber stamp parliament that Hitler always wanted. The Enabling Act would be renewed twice and would be rendered null once Nazi Germany collapsed to the Allies in 1945.

The passing of the Enabling Act is significant in German and world history as it marked the formal transition from the democratic Weimar Republic to the totalitarian Nazi dictatorship. From 1933 onwards Hitler continued to consolidate and centralize power via purges, and propaganda. In 1934 Hitler and Heinrich Himmler began removing non-Nazi officials together with Hitler's remaining Nazi political opponents, culminating in the Night of the Long Knives. Once the purges of the Nazi Party and German government concluded, Hitler had total control over Germany and began the process of rearmament. Thus began the political and military struggles that ultimately culminated in the Second World War.

Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈad.ɔlf ˈhɪt.lɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. During his dictatorship, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

Hitler was born in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned with a sentence of five years. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.

By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support.

Hitler sought Lebensraum (lit. 'living space') for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime lover, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in Berlin. Less than two days later, the couple committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. Their corpses were burned.

Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history.

Hitler's actions as Führer of Germany are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral. Prominent historian and biographer Ian Kershaw describes Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil", and that "never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man".