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82-630: Nazi Germany cultivated the Führerprinzip ("leader principle"), and Hitler was generally known as simply der Führer ("the Leader"). In compound words , the use of Führer remains common in German and is used in words such as Reiseführer ( travel guide ), Museumsführer ( museum docent ), Bergführer ( mountain guide ), or Oppositionsführer ( leader of the opposition ). However, because of its strong association with Hitler,

164-501: A Reichsexekution under Article 48 to send troops into the two states to remove the Communists from the governments. Ebert later granted Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno considerable latitude under Article 48 to deal with Germany's hyperinflation . It was a more controversial use of the power because it was not clear that the constitutional article was meant to be used to handle economic issues. There were twelve governments while Ebert

246-409: A compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign ) that consists of more than one stem . Compounding , composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs. If

328-470: A synthetic language , the relationship between the elements of a compound may be marked with a case or other morpheme . For example, the German compound Kapitänspatent consists of the lexemes Kapitän (sea captain) and Patent (license) joined by an -s- (originally a genitive case suffix); and similarly, the Latin lexeme paterfamilias contains the archaic genitive form familias of

410-542: A vote of no confidence be constructive – that is, the Reichstag had the power to make a government resign without the burden of being sure that a new one could be formed. Friedrich Ebert and Paul von Hindenburg (initially) both attempted to appoint chancellors who were able to build coalitions that had the confidence of the Reichstag. Thirteen of the twenty Weimar governments (not counting Hitler's) were nevertheless minority cabinets when they took office. The president

492-478: A clearly unconstitutional move, refused. With virtually all his support lost, Schleicher resigned on 28 January. Given Germany's continued economic and political instability and under pressure from his advisors, President Hindenburg consented to appoint Adolf Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag on 1 February, and in the election of March 1933 , the Nazi Party won only 44% of

574-447: A compound noun such as place name begins as spaced in most attestations and then becomes hyphenated as place-name and eventually solid as placename , or the spaced compound noun file name directly becomes solid as filename without being hyphenated. German, a fellow West Germanic language , has a somewhat different orthography , whereby compound nouns are virtually always required to be solid or at least hyphenated; even

656-454: A compound noun, resulting in a pleonasm . One example is the English word pathway . In Arabic , there are two distinct criteria unique to Arabic, or potentially Semitic languages in general. The initial criterion involves whether the possessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ appears or is absent when the first element is definite. The second criterion deals with the appearance/absence of

738-426: A formal head, and its meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the English compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents. For example, a must-have is not a verb but a noun. The meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as "(one) whose B

820-517: A gradual scale (such as a mix of colours). Appositional compounds are lexemes that have two (contrary or simultaneous) attributes that classify the compound. All natural languages have compound nouns. The positioning of the words (i.e. the most common order of constituents in phrases where nouns are modified by adjectives, by possessors, by other nouns, etc.) varies according to the language. While Germanic languages, for example, are left-branching when it comes to noun phrases (the modifiers come before

902-500: A kind of "replacement emperor" ( Ersatzkaiser ). Hugo Preuss , who wrote the initial draft of the constitution, intended the president to be above political parties and a counterweight to the Reichstag. He wanted the office to be a block to the "parliamentary absolutism" that he feared might otherwise develop. Preuss' decision to have a president as head of state was influenced by constitutional scholar Robert Redslob and sociologist Max Weber . The constitution did not require that

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984-539: A member of the Germanic family of languages, English is unusual in that even simple compounds made since the 18th century tend to be written in separate parts. This would be an error in other Germanic languages such as Norwegian , Swedish , Danish , German , and Dutch . However, this is merely an orthographic convention: as in other Germanic languages, arbitrary noun phrases , for example "girl scout troop", "city council member", and "cellar door", can be made up on

1066-616: A prefix such as in Führerschein (driver's license), Führerstand (train cabin), or Führerhaus (truck cabin). Since German is a language with grammatical gender , Führer refers to a male leader; the feminine form is Führerin . The use of alternative terms like " Chef " (a borrowing from the French, as is the English "chief", e.g. Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes ) or Leiter (often in compound words like Amtsleiter , Projektleiter , or Referatsleiter )

1148-635: A vehicle), a meaning Führer can also have in German. However, in the compound word härförare and hærfører , that part does mean "leader", and is a cognate of the German Heerführer (military leader). Führer has been used as a military title (compare Latin Dux ) in Germany since at least the 18th century. The usage of the term " Führer " in the context of a company-sized military subunit in

1230-542: A visit to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin . He had wanted to address Hitler as Führer aller Germanen ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style. Historian Loe de Jong speculates on the difference between the two: Führer aller Germanen implied a position separate from Hitler's role as Führer und Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of

1312-489: Is A", where B is the second element of the compound and A the first. A bahuvrihi compound is one whose nature is expressed by neither of the words: thus a white-collar person is neither white nor a collar (the collar's colour is a metonym for socioeconomic status). Other English examples include barefoot . Copulative compounds ( dvandva in the Sanskrit tradition) are compounds with two semantic heads, for example in

1394-612: Is actually morphological derivation . Some languages easily form compounds from what in other languages would be a multi-word expression. This can result in unusually long words, a phenomenon known in German (which is one such language) as Bandwurmwörter ("tapeworm words"). Compounding extends beyond spoken languages to include Sign languages as well, where compounds are also created by combining two or more sign stems. So-called " classical compounds " are compounds derived from classical Latin or ancient Greek roots . Compound formation rules vary widely across language types. In

1476-405: Is another type of verb–noun (or noun–verb) compound, in which an argument of the verb is incorporated into the verb, which is then usually turned into a gerund , such as breastfeeding , finger-pointing , etc. The noun is often an instrumental complement. From these gerunds new verbs can be made: (a mother) breastfeeds (a child) and from them new compounds mother-child breastfeeding , etc. In

1558-594: Is the longest word in Finnish, but evidence of its actual use is scant and anecdotal at best. Compounds can be rather long when translating technical documents from English to some other language, since the lengths of the words are theoretically unlimited, especially in chemical terminology. For example, when translating an English technical document to Swedish, the term "Motion estimation search range settings" can be directly translated to rörelse­uppskattnings­sökintervalls­inställningar , though in reality,

1640-569: Is usually not the result of replacing of the word " Führer ", but rather using terminology that existed before the Nazis. The use of Führer to refer to a political party leader is rare today and Vorsitzender (chairman) is the more common term. However, the word Oppositionsführer ("leader of the [parliamentary] opposition") is more commonly used. Terms derived from Führer   Other   Final solution Parties Compound (linguistics) In linguistics ,

1722-504: The Führer , and who also used the Roman salute – where the right arm and hand are held rigidly outstretched – which they called the "German greeting". According to historian Richard J. Evans , this use of " Führer " by Schönerer's Pan-German Association, probably introduced the term to the German far-right, but its specific adoption by the Nazis may also have been influenced by

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1804-532: The German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. For example, the commanding officer of a company was (and is) titled " Kompaniechef " (literally, Company Chief), but if he did not have the requisite rank or experience, or was only temporarily assigned to command, he was officially titled " Kompanieführer ". Thus operational commands of various military echelons were typically referred to by their formation title followed by

1886-593: The Germans , and the intent to annex these countries to the German Reich to form the Greater Germanic Reich ( Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation ). Waffen-SS formations from these countries had to declare obedience to Hitler by addressing him in this fashion. On 12 December 1941 Dutch fascist Anton Mussert also addressed him as such when he proclaimed his allegiance to Hitler during

1968-656: The Reich ') was the head of state under the Weimar Constitution , which was officially in force from 1919 to 1945, encompassing the periods of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany . The Weimar constitution created a semi-presidential system in which power was divided between president, cabinet and parliament . The president was directly elected under universal adult suffrage for a seven-year term, although Germany's first president, Friedrich Ebert ,

2050-655: The SS and SA , had Nazi Party paramilitary ranks incorporating the title of Führer . The SS including the Waffen-SS , like all paramilitary Nazi organisations, called all their members of any rank except the lowest one a Führer of something; thus confusingly, Gruppenführer was also an official rank title for a specific grade of general. The word Truppenführer was also a generic word referring to any commander or leader of troops and could be applied to NCOs or officers at many different levels of command. In Germany,

2132-664: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) the first Reich president by a vote of 379 to 277. The first regular presidential election was to have taken place when the Weimar Constitution came into effect in August 1919, but the continuing turmoil in the Republic caused the Reichstag to postpone it repeatedly, until in late 1922 it extended Ebert's term to 30 June 1925. The change required amending Article 180 of

2214-459: The " Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich ", which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of the president was to be merged with that of Chancellor. Thus, upon Hindenburg's death, Hitler became Führer und Reichskanzler – although eventually Reichskanzler was quietly dropped from day-to-day usage and retained only in official documents. Hitler therefore assumed

2296-858: The Australian Aboriginal language Jingulu , a Pama–Nyungan language , it is claimed that all verbs are V+N compounds, such as "do a sleep", or "run a dive", and the language has only three basic verbs: do , make , and run . A special kind of compounding is incorporation , of which noun incorporation into a verbal root (as in English backstabbing , breastfeed , etc.) is most prevalent (see below). Verb–verb compounds are sequences of more than one verb acting together to determine clause structure. They have two types: trɔ turn dzo leave trɔ dzo turn leave "turn and leave" जाकर jā-kar go- CONJ . PTCP President of Germany (1919%E2%80%931945) The president of Germany ( German : Reichspräsident , lit. 'president of

2378-525: The Danube Steam Shipping"), but there is no evidence that this association ever actually existed. In Finnish, although there is theoretically no limit to the length of compound words, words consisting of more than three components are rare. Internet folklore sometimes suggests that lentokone­suihkuturbiinimoottori­apumekaanikko­aliupseerioppilas (airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student)

2460-521: The English compound doghouse , where house is the head and dog is the modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds tend to be of the same part of speech (word class) as their head, as in the case of doghouse . An exocentric compound ( bahuvrihi in the Sanskrit tradition) is a hyponym of some unexpressed semantic category (such as a person, plant, or animal): none (neither) of its components can be perceived as

2542-640: The Greater German Reich"), while germanischer Führer served more as an attribute of that main function. As late as 1944, however, occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title. One of the Nazis' most-repeated political slogans was Ein Volk , ein Reich, ein Führer – "One People, One Empire, One Leader". Historian Joseph Bendersky  [ de ] says

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2624-644: The Hitler oath, or the personal oath of loyalty of the military to Hitler, became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces while Hitler remained Supreme Commander. Following the Blomberg–Fritsch affair in 1938, Hitler assumed the commander-in-chief's post as well and took personal command of the armed forces. However, he continued using the older formally higher title of Supreme Commander, which

2706-726: The MPs of the Catholic Centre Party allowed the Nazi-dominated Reichstag to reach the qualified constitutional two-thirds majority required for passage of the Enabling Act allowing the cabinet to promulgate laws by decree, rendering in practice the system of checks and balances defunct. The Act became the official legal justification for such decrees later routinely issued by Hitler himself. One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler and his cabinet decreed

2788-577: The Nation). An additional title was adopted by Hitler on 23 June 1941 when he declared himself the "Germanic Führer" ( Germanischer Führer ), in addition to his duties as Führer of the German state and people. This was done to emphasise Hitler's professed leadership of what the Nazis described as the " Nordic - Germanic master race ", which was considered to include peoples such as the Norwegians , Danes , Swedes , Dutch , and others in addition to

2870-475: The Nazi Party would win the most seats in the new election and allow him to set up an authoritarian government. In the July election , the Nazis, with 37% of the vote, had the most seats of any party in the Reichstag. By two decrees from Hindenburg, Papen dissolved the newly elected Reichstag and suspended elections beyond the constitutionally mandated 60 days. The Communist Party presented a motion of no confidence in

2952-700: The President's powers without assuming the office itself – ostensibly out of respect for Hindenburg's achievements as a heroic figure in World War I . The Enabling Act had specifically prohibited legislation that would affect the position or powers of the Reich President, but the first one-party Reichstag elected in November 1933 had passed an act on the first anniversary of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, 30 January 1934, abolishing those restrictions. It

3034-560: The Republic ( Brüning I and Brüning II , Papen , and Schleicher ) are called presidential cabinets because presidential decrees more and more often replaced the Reichstag's legislation. Under Brüning, the Social Democrats, out of fear that the Nazi Party would gain strength if there were another election, tolerated the government by not supporting motions that sought to revoke the decrees, but after Franz von Papen became chancellor in 1932, they refused to do so. Although he

3116-483: The candidate who received the most votes – whether or not it constituted a majority – was elected. A group could nominate a substitute candidate in the second round in place of the candidate it had supported in the first. The president could not be a member of the Reichstag at the same time. The constitution required that on taking office the president take the following oath: The requirements and responsibilities of

3198-409: The compound are marked, e.g. ʕabd-u servant- NOM l-lāh-i DEF -god- GEN ʕabd-u l-lāh-i servant-NOM DEF-god-GEN "servant of-the-god: the servant of God" Agglutinative languages tend to create very long words with derivational morphemes. Compounds may or may not require the use of derivational morphemes also. In German , extremely extendable compound words can be found in

3280-510: The compound may be similar to or different from the meaning of its components in isolation. The component stems of a compound may be of the same part of speech —as in the case of the English word footpath , composed of the two nouns foot and path —or they may belong to different parts of speech, as in the case of the English word blackbird , composed of the adjective black and the noun bird . With very few exceptions, English compound words are stressed on their first component stem. As

3362-576: The constitution. Due in large part to the ongoing political violence during the early years of the Republic, Ebert used Article 48 on 136 occasions, although he always based invoking the act on agreements between himself, the government and parliament. In October 1923, when the Communist Party of Germany entered the Social Democratic-led governments of Saxony and Thuringia with hidden revolutionary intentions , Ebert used

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3444-591: The discussion of a regulation on tendering of Danube steamboat shipping company captain hats") etc. According to several editions of the Guinness Book of World Records , the longest published German word has 79 letters and is Donau­dampfschiffahrts­elektrizitäten­hauptbetriebswerkbau­unterbeamten­gesellschaft ("Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Electric[ity] Maintenance Building of

3526-480: The government, and when it passed Papen again called for a new election. Following the November 1932 election in which the Nazi Party's share of the vote slipped to 33%, Papen resigned under pressure from Kurt von Schleicher . In January 1933, when Schleicher found out that Papen and Hitler were plotting to remove him, he went to Hindenburg to ask for a state of emergency. Hindenburg, out of reluctance to make such

3608-494: The head), the Romance languages are usually right-branching. English compound nouns can be spaced, hyphenated, or solid, and they sometimes change orthographically in that direction over time, reflecting a semantic identity that evolves from a mere collocation to something stronger in its solidification. This theme has been summarized in usage guides under the aphorism that "compound nouns tend to solidify as they age"; thus

3690-574: The hyphenated styling is used less now than it was in centuries past. In French , compound nouns are often formed by left-hand heads with prepositional components inserted before the modifier, as in chemin-de-fer 'railway', lit. 'road of iron', and moulin à vent 'windmill', lit. 'mill (that works)-by-means-of wind'. In Turkish , one way of forming compound nouns is as follows: yeldeğirmeni 'windmill' ( yel : wind, değirmen-i : mill-possessive); demiryolu 'railway' ( demir : iron, yol-u : road-possessive). Occasionally, two synonymous nouns can form

3772-508: The inside, but he governed within the letter of the Weimar Constitution if not always its spirit. In March 1930 he appointed Heinrich Brüning chancellor after Hermann Müller 's government collapsed. In July, when the Reichstag rejected Brüning's budget bill, Hindenburg adopted it by decree and, when the Reichstag reversed the action, he dissolved it. The years that followed saw an explosion of legislation by decree. Hindenburg used Article 48 109 times from 1930 to 1932. The last four cabinets of

3854-463: The interim president. Under Article 45, the president could be removed from office prematurely by a popular referendum initiated by the Reichstag. To require such a referendum, the Reichstag had to pass a motion supported by at least two-thirds of votes cast in the chamber. If the proposal was rejected by voters, the president would be deemed to have been re-elected and the Reichstag would be dissolved. The Reichstag had authority (Article 59) to impeach

3936-531: The isolated word " Führer " is usually avoided in political contexts, due to its intimate connection with Nazi institutions and with Hitler personally. However, the suffix -führer is used in many compound words. Examples include Bergführer (mountain guide), Fremdenführer/Touristenführer (human tourist guide), Geschäftsführer (manager), Reiseführer (travel guidebook), Spielführer (team captain — also referred to as Mannschaftskapitän ), and Wachführer ( command duty officer/officer of

4018-580: The isolated word itself usually has negative connotations when used with the meaning of "leader", especially in political contexts. The word Führer has cognates in the Scandinavian languages , spelled fører in Danish and Norwegian . In Norwegian, the word has the same meaning as the German word. The Norwegian word for mayor is ordfører , literally meaning word leader . In Swedish and Danish, förare and fører normally means "driver" (of

4100-454: The joining of the words or signs is orthographically represented with a hyphen, the result is a hyphenated compound (e.g., must-have , hunter-gatherer) . If they are joined without an intervening space, it is a closed compound (e.g., footpath , blackbird ). If they are joined with a space (e.g. school bus, high school, lowest common denominator ), then the result – at least in English – may be an open compound . The meaning of

4182-774: The language of chemical compounds, where, in the cases of biochemistry and polymers, they can be practically unlimited in length, mostly because the German rule suggests combining all noun adjuncts with the noun as the last stem. German examples include Farb­fernsehgerät (color television set), Funk­fernbedienung (radio remote control), and the often quoted jocular word Donau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitänsmütze (originally only two Fs, Danube-Steamboat-Shipping Company captain['s] hat), which can of course be made even longer and even more absurd, e.g. Donau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitänsmützen­reinigungs­ausschreibungs­verordnungs­diskussionsanfang ("beginning of

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4264-566: The lexeme familia (family). Conversely, in the Hebrew language compound, the word בֵּית סֵפֶר bet sefer (school), it is the head that is modified: the compound literally means "house-of book", with בַּיִת bayit (house) having entered the construct state to become בֵּית bet (house-of). This latter pattern is common throughout the Semitic languages , though in some it is combined with an explicit genitive case, so that both parts of

4346-466: The parliament or the president. It effectively brought an end to democracy in the German Reich. On 1 August 1934, Hitler's government issued the " Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich ", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death (which occurred the next day), the offices of president and chancellor would be merged and held by Hitler . Hitler from then on styled himself Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor") and did not use

4428-566: The parties of the centre and left united behind Wilhelm Marx of the Centre Party . Hindenburg won a plurality in round two (45%) to become Germany's second president. The decision of the Communist Party of Germany to run their candidate, Ernst Thälmann , in the second round was widely considered to have thrown the election to Hindenburg. Many on the right hoped that once in office Hindenburg would destroy Weimar democracy from

4510-465: The party. Drexler and the party's Executive Committee then acquiesced to Hitler's demand to be made the chairman of the party with "dictatorial powers" as the condition for his return. Final solution Parties In 1933, Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg. A month later, the decision to vote with the Nazi Party taken by

4592-513: The plural (but in many cases they have been reanalyzed as plural forms, and a singular form has appeared). French and Italian have these same compounds with the noun in the singular form: Italian grattacielo 'skyscraper', French grille-pain 'toaster' (lit. 'toast bread'). This construction exists in English, generally with the verb and noun both in uninflected form: examples are spoilsport , killjoy , breakfast , cutthroat , pickpocket , dreadnought , and know-nothing . Also common in English

4674-697: The possessive marker li-/la ‘for/of’ when the first element is preceded by a cardinal number . A type of compound that is fairly common in the Indo-European languages is formed of a verb and its object, and in effect transforms a simple verbal clause into a noun. In Spanish , for example, such compounds consist of a verb conjugated for the second person singular imperative followed by a noun (singular or plural): e.g., rascacielos (modelled on "skyscraper", lit. 'scratch skies'), sacacorchos 'corkscrew' (lit. 'pull corks'), guardarropa 'wardrobe' (lit. 'store clothes'). These compounds are formally invariable in

4756-560: The president before the State Court for the German Reich , the court which handled disputes between state bodies. The Reichstag could only do so on a charge of wilfully violating German law. The move to impeach had to be supported by a two-thirds majority of the Reichstag members at a meeting with at least two-thirds of the members present. On 11 February 1919, the Weimar National Assembly elected Friedrich Ebert of

4838-471: The president occupying a position of considerable power, legislating by decree and appointing and dismissing governments at will. In 1934, after the death of President Hindenburg , Adolf Hitler , who was already chancellor , assumed the powers of the presidency as Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor"). In his last will in April 1945, Hitler named Karl Dönitz president, thus briefly reviving

4920-477: The president were laid out in Section III (Articles 41–59) of the Weimar Constitution. The Weimar Constitution granted the president sweeping powers in the event of a crisis. If "public order and security [were] seriously disturbed or threatened", Article 48 gave the president the power to "take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order". The permissible steps included the use of armed force,

5002-534: The presidential office until just after the German surrender in May 1945. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany established the office of Federal President ( Bundespräsident ), which is a chiefly ceremonial post largely devoid of political power. The governmental structure established by the Weimar Constitution was a mix of presidential and parliamentary systems, with a strong president as

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5084-482: The pretence of legality of his dictatorship. He issued thousands of decrees that were based explicitly on the Reichstag Fire Decree . That decree itself was based on Article 48 of the constitution, which gave the president the power to take measures deemed necessary to protect public order. The Enabling Act was renewed in 1937 for four years and again in 1939 for four years by the Reichstag. In 1943, it

5166-495: The right to reverse any such measures. The Weimar Constitution did not provide for a vice presidency. Article 51 stated that if the president died or left office prematurely, a successor would be elected. During a temporary vacancy, the powers and functions of the presidency passed to the chancellor. A December 1932 constitutional amendment made the president of the Reichsgericht (Germany's highest civil and criminal court)

5248-476: The slogan "left an indelible mark on the minds of most Germans who lived through the Nazi years. It appeared on countless posters and in publications; it was heard constantly in radio broadcasts and speeches." The slogan emphasised the absolute control of the leader over practically every sector of German society and culture – with the churches being formally the most notable exception. The designation Führer itself

5330-583: The spot and used as compound nouns in English too. For example, German Donau­dampfschifffahrts­gesellschafts­kapitän would be written in English as "Danube steamship transport company captain" and not as "Danube­steamship­transportcompany­captain". The meaning of compounds may not always be transparent from their components, necessitating familiarity with usage and context. The addition of affix morphemes to words (such as suffixes or prefixes , as in employ → employment ) should not be confused with nominal composition, as this

5412-524: The suspension of many of the civil rights guaranteed by the constitution and forcing a state government to cooperate if it failed to meet its obligations under the constitution or federal law. Most importantly, the president could issue emergency decrees which had the same legal force as laws passed by parliament. Per Article 50, all presidential decrees had to be counter-signed by the chancellor or competent national minister. The Reichstag had to be informed immediately of any measures taken under Article 48 and had

5494-456: The title Führer , in connection with mission-type tactics used by the German military forces. The term Führer was also used at lower levels, regardless experience. The first example of the political use of Führer was with Austrian Georg von Schönerer (1842–1921), a major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in Austria , whose followers commonly referred to him as

5576-475: The title "Reich President". The law making him head of state was unconstitutional since it violated Article 2 of the Enabling Act, which stated that "the rights of the President remain unaffected". Amid widespread fraud and voter intimidation, the law was approved by a popular referendum on 19 August. In his Final Political Testament written just before he committed suicide on 30 April 1945, Hitler split

5658-428: The two offices he had merged, although the act was unconstitutional under Articles 41 and 51 of the Weimar Constitution, which was technically still in effect. Karl Dönitz , who had been appointed president, ordered Germany's military (not political) surrender a few days later. He had by then appointed Ludwig von Krosigk as head of government (chancellor), and the two attempted to form a government at Flensburg . It

5740-612: The use in Italy of " Duce ", also meaning "leader", as an informal title for Benito Mussolini , the Fascist Prime Minister , and later (from 1922) dictator, of that country. Adolf Hitler took the title to denote his function as head of the Nazi Party ; he received it in 1921 when, infuriated over party founder Anton Drexler 's plan to merge with another antisemitic far-right nationalist party, he resigned from

5822-458: The vote. With the aid of the major parties except the SPD and KPD – all of whose members, along with 26 from the SPD, were forcibly kept from the chamber – the Nazis were able to command the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the Enabling Act and amend the constitution with the claim of legality. The act gave the chancellor and his cabinet the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of

5904-447: The watch ). When used in the context of vehicles and traffic, it is often interchangeable with the suffix -fahrer (vehicle driver): Kraft(fahrzeug)führer/-fahrer (road vehicle driver), Lok(omotiv)führer/-fahrer (train driver), Sportbootführer/-fahrer (skipper); however, it is worth noticing the exception of the pair Autofahrer (car driver) and Autoführer (road guidebook). It may also be used in this context as

5986-465: The word would most likely be divided in two: sökintervalls­inställningar för rörelse­uppskattning – "search range settings for motion estimation". A common semantic classification of compounds yields four types: An endocentric compound ( tatpuruṣa in the Sanskrit tradition) consists of a head , i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic meaning of the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. For example,

6068-417: Was directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of seven years. Re-election was not limited. The presidency was open to all German citizens who had reached 36 years of age. The direct election of the president occurred under a form of the two round system . If no candidate received the support of an absolute majority in the first round of voting, a second round was held at a later date. In that round,

6150-474: Was elected by the Weimar National Assembly rather than the people. The intention of the framers of the constitution was that the president would rule in conjunction with the Reichstag (legislature) and that his extensive emergency powers would be exercised only in extraordinary circumstances. The political instability of the Weimar period and an increasingly severe factionalism in the legislature, however, led to

6232-755: Was extended indefinitely by a decree from Hitler himself. Those extensions by the Reichstag were merely a formality with all other parties having been banned. However, Hitler had a narrow range of interest – mostly involving diplomacy and the military – and so his subordinates interpreted his vaguely formulated orders and wishes in a manner beneficial to their own interests or those of their organisations. This led to vicious power wrangles that were immensely beneficial to Hitler in aiding him to ensure that no subordinate amassed enough power to challenge or jeopardise his absolute rule. Regional Nazi Party leaders were called Gauleiter , " leiter " also meaning "leader". Almost every Nazi paramilitary organisation, in particular

6314-614: Was initially used only in the context of the Nazi Party, though its meaning gradually sprawled to cover the German state, the German Armed Forces, the German nation, and ultimately all the Germanic peoples. Hitler's word became in practice absolute and ultimate, even when incompatible with the constitution, as he saw himself as the sole source of power in Germany, similar to the Roman emperors and German early medieval leaders . In spite of that, he took great care to maintain

6396-665: Was president (six of them minority when they took office) and three Reichstag elections. Ebert's presidency ended with his death in February 1925. The election to replace him was held in March and April 1925. After the first ballot did not result in any candidate securing a majority of the votes, the right-wing parties successfully pushed for their first round candidate, Karl Jarres of the German People's Party , to be replaced by World War I Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, while

6478-527: Was reintroduced in 1935, Hitler created the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a post held by the Minister of War . He retained the title of Supreme Commander for himself. Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as " Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes " (Leader of the German Reich and Nation). Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg , then the Minister of War and one of those who created

6560-401: Was suffering from the onset of senility, Hindenburg stood for re-election in 1932 with the support of the pro-republican parties, who thought that only he could prevent the election of Adolf Hitler . Hindenburg won the election in the second round with 53% of the vote to Hitler's 37%. In June he replaced Brüning as chancellor with Franz von Papen and dissolved the Reichstag. Papen hoped that

6642-552: Was then approved by a referendum on 19 August . The title was changed on 28 July 1942 to " der Führer und Reichskanzler des Großdeutschen Reiches " (Leader and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich). According to the Weimar Constitution , the President was the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Unlike "President", Hitler did take this title ( Oberbefehlshaber ) for himself. When conscription

6724-528: Was thus filled with a somewhat new meaning. Combining it with " Führer ", he used the style Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (Leader and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht ), yet a simple " Führer " after May 1942. Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as " Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes " (Leader of the German Reich and Nation). In his political testament , Hitler also referred to himself as Führer der Nation (Leader of

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