Article 48 was an amendment to the Weimar Constitution that allowed the President of the Weimar Republic in Germany to work with Parliament Was Article to carry out duties to protect the people in times of crisis. The decree was intended to help the people, but it eventually led to the fall of democracy in Weimar, Germany.
The beneficial attributes of Article 48 included the ability of the president to tax the people to help in times of economic crisis. Most of the decrees established with the use of this article were designed to help with economic or social problems. However, the real intent of Article 48 was that it could only be used in extreme situations.
Although Article 48 was useful at times, it gave the government an opportunity to crush the individual liberties of the German people. It even allowed the removal of those liberties granted to the general population in the Constitution. Article 48 eventually led to Nazism in Weimar when Chancellor Bruning used President Hindenburg’s authority granted by Article 48 to issue a large number of presidential decrees. Chancellor Bruning essentially became a dictator between 1930 and 1932, effectively turning a democratic country towards Nazism.