During the Nazi rise to power (1933–1939), lawyers and legal professionals played a crucial role in legitimizing Hitler’s regime, manipulating the law to suppress opposition, and presenting the Nazi dictatorship as a "legal revolution" to the German public. Here’s how they managed the transition:

1. Exploiting Legal Loopholes & "Legal Revolution"

• Emergency Decree (Reichstag Fire, 1933): After the Reichstag fire, Nazi lawyers (like Franz Gürtner, Minister of Justice) helped draft the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending civil liberties under the Weimar Constitution.

• Enabling Act (1933): Lawyers framed the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) as a "temporary" constitutional amendment, granting Hitler dictatorial powers while maintaining an illusion of legality.

2. Gleichschaltung (Coordination of Legal Institutions)

• Purges & Loyalty Oaths: Jewish and dissenting judges/lawyers were removed, while others swore oaths to Hitler. The German Lawyers’ League was Nazified.

• Nazi Legal Theory: Jurists like Carl Schmitt justified Führerprinzip (leader’s absolute authority) as "true democracy," replacing rule of law with Nazi ideology.

3. Propaganda Through "Lawful" Persecution

• Nuremberg Laws (1935): Lawyers crafted race laws to codify anti-Semitism as "legal policy," making persecution seem orderly and state-sanctioned.

• Show Trials: High-profile cases (e.g., Reichstag fire trial) were used to smear opponents while pretending to follow legal procedures.

4. Economic & Social Control

• Labor & Property Laws: Lawyers designed laws stripping Jews of citizenship, banning them from professions, and legalizing confiscation of assets—presented as "economic recovery" measures.

• Volksgemeinschaft ("People’s Community"): Legal rhetoric framed Nazi policies as unifying Germany, appealing to national pride.

5. Suppressing Resistance "Legally"

• People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof): Established in 1934 to try "traitors" in sham trials, giving repression a veneer of judicial process.

• Legalizing Extrajudicial Violence: The Night of the Long Knives (1934) was retroactively legalized, showing that Hitler’s actions were "above the law."

Result: A Dictatorship Disguised as Legality

By using lawyers to twist the legal system, the Nazis:
✅ Made repression seem "orderly" to avoid public backlash.
✅ Gave conservative elites (judges, bureaucrats) a false sense of continuity.
✅ Convinced many Germans that Hitler’s rule was legitimate.

This manipulation of law was key in making the Nazi takeover appear smooth and "legal"—while destroying democracy from within.