ABSTRACT
Article 48 found its genesis in the events of 1919; it found its source in German history. The life and death of the German Republic is in no small part a story of the use and abuse of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. In the prosecution of military measures under Article 48 the democratic Ebert regime had to rely upon an army whose sympathies were extremely reactionary and which itself dabbled in insurrection against the established authorities. By a decree of October 12, 1922 a new departure under Article 48 was effected. This presidential order set up regulations forbidding speculation in foreign currencies, surely one of the outstanding contributing factors to Germany's economic woes, and the dictatorship article was cited as the authority. The close affinity of the dictatorship article and the enabling act was thus clearly acknowledged.
