Reichstag Fire Decree
By the end of March, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had used the perceived state of emergency to grant Hitler as Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control, which he used to thwart constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitler's seizure of power ("Machtergreifung") thus ended the republic. Democracy collapsed, and the creation of a single-party state began the dictatorship of Nazi Party.