Reading through a thread in r/WorldNews I noticed a reference to Hitler and the rise of the nazi party in German in the post-WWI era. I am not trying to make any comparisons to current events or start a discussion about that. I am curious if Historians can look back now and point to a time, whether it was a specific law, or policy, or action by the government, where you could make the argument that the tide of power shifted irreversibly away from the citizens of Germany. I know this might seem like a dumb question because the rise of Hitler was dependent on support of the people at the time (and now as I think about it, maybe the citizens of Germany never really had any power) but I'm wondering if there were incremental steps taken that took away the people's ability to change course if they had decided to do so through other movements.
The enabling act was an amendment added to the constitution shortly after Hitler was appointed chancellor. It essentially allowed Hitler to pass any laws without approval of the Reichstag (basically congress). In the months afterwards, the Nazi party either attacked or threatened other parties, until eventually all other parties were banned by law. Thus, the Nazi party was the only legal party in Germany, and Germany had now became a dictatorship.
The only person with power to remove Hitler was German President, Paul von Hindenburg, who was beloved as a war hero. Because he was so beloved, Hitler or other nazis couldn't attack or offend him, as most of the army would have sided with Hidenburg. So Hitler had to basically wait for him to die on his own.
Right before his death, Hitler passed a law that said upon Hidenburg's death, the office of chancellor and president would be merged together. Hidenburg died in August of 1934, and Hitler was now head of state with no one to remove him from power. So the Nazis could now do whatever they wanted with no one to stop them.
So yeah the citizen's never really had any power. The Nazis just used the laws to their advantage to get rid of every other party. And with no other parties, the people had no choice to vote for them.