Germany marks 75 years since parliament ceded power to Hitler

Germany's justice minister solemnly noted the upcoming 75th anniversary of a key milestone in the Nazi seizure of power _ a pressured vote in parliament that allowed Adolf Hitler to become dictator.

Brigitte Zypries said the so-called Enabling Act _ passed by Germany's parliament on March 23, 1933 _ signaled the legislative body's own demise.

"With the passage of the Enabling Act, the parliament disempowered itself _ the abandonment of the division of power destroyed the foundations for our liberal democracy," Zypries said Thursday.

"Today we think of those parliamentarians who at that time _ without consideration for themselves _ fought for democracy and defended the people against the coming dictatorship," she added.

Emerging with about a third of the vote in elections in late 1932, Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933.

Hitler's accession to the post gave the Nazi party its "in" to eventually consolidate absolute control over the country in the months to follow, setting it on the path to World War II and the Holocaust.

About a month after being appointed chancellor, Hitler used the torching of the Reichstag parliament building _ blamed on a Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe _ to strengthen his grip on power, suspending civil liberties and cracking down on opposition parties in paving the way for the police state.

Van der Lubbe, a bricklayer, was convicted of arson and high treason in December 1933, and executed Jan. 10, 1934.

In a move earlier this year _ evidence that Germany's rehabilitation is still going on 75 years later _ German prosecutors formally overturned van der Lubbe's conviction.

With passage of the Enabling Act, Hitler's Cabinet was "enabled" by parliament to issue decrees without the need for approval by lawmakers or the president, effectively making him Germany's dictator.

By midsummer, he had declared the Nazi Party to be the only political party in Germany and named himself "Fuehrer" or "Leader" of the country upon Hindenburg's death in 1934.