The Weimar Republic was established in Feb 1919 in defeated Germany and lasted till March 1933, when it got replaced with Hitler's 3rd Reich. The Constitution of the Weimar Republic was adopted in Aug 1919. It made a bicameral house of members : the Reichstag, a state assembly, and the Reichsrat, composed of the representative of the assorted Lander (states). The Reichsrat could reject laws passed by the Reichstag. During states of emergency, Lander assemblies and governments were postponed and they were ruled straight from the center. Elections were meant to be held each four years and anybody over twenty years old could vote.

A system of proportional representation gave voice and presence in the Reichstag to even the tiniest political parties. One tenth of the populace could force a ballot on draft legislation denied by the Reichstag. The President, elected by universal suffrage, was the state head and served a term in office of 7 years. He chosen and discharged the Chancellor (P. M.) and commanded the Republic's much-reduced armed forces. He had a right to halt laws passed by the Reichstag, melt it and call early elections and referenda. He could also rule by decree, having announced a condition of emergency. The Weimar Constitution warranted a right to local self-government, a "dignified existence", commercial and spiritual liberties, liberties of speech, press, and assembly, and the legal right to form trade unions. The Weimar Constitution wasn't revoked or replaced.

Article one of the decree postponed all rights warranted by the Weimar Constitution. "Thus, restrictions on private freedom, on the right of free expression of opinion, including liberty of the press, on the right of organisation and assembly, and violations of the secrecy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations, as well as limitations on property rights are allowable outside the legal boundaries otherwise prescribed.". Article a couple of the decree permitted the Reich government to take over the power of the Lander regimes to revive security and order. The Weimar Constitution was a dead letter. The thirteen thousand word Constitution, adopted in 1949, by West Germany, was patterned after its Weimar predecessor but contained protects against its own suspension by a willful dictator and against the announcement of assertive war. The Land of Bavaria - a very important constituent of West Germany - declined to ratify it as it deemed it too "centralistic" (not enough power was given to the Lander). The 1st elections under this made over document occurred in Aug fourteen, 1949.