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"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Is Martin Luther King right? Was Hitler "clean" (cannot be charged under the then-law) in the eyes of the law?
If the question is too broad (if "everything" includes reckless youth behaviour) , were his actions perfectly legal while he was the ruler of Germany? Were his schemes of acquiring power afoul of any law?
Given that he spent time in prison, for the Nazi's unsuccessful "Beer Hall Putsch" in the German state of Bavaria. During his time in jail he famously wrote Mein Kampf, it is known that not everything he did was legal.
Of course that's not the period during Mr. Hitler's life that Dr. King intended to refe :)
You'll also have to define under which law. Under the terms of surrender of the Versaille Accords, the remilitarisation of Germany was certainly not legal, though it was intended to as much as possible be performed within the letter of the surrender document (e.g. the He-111 bomber was nominally a passenger and cargo aircraft for Lufthansa.)
As we know, Germany was not allowed to have a military air force under the terms of the Versialles Treaty, so many aircraft were being built under strict secrecy, often under the guise of Lufthansa Airlines. The He 111 was no exception. The Luftwaffe had requested that a large commercial airliner be constructed way back in 1934, but it should be designed in such a way that it could be easily and cheaply converted into a bomber adhering to German military specifications.
Same was true with other systems, like tanks, which were explicitly designed to stay within the letter of the treaty text.
In 1933, the Heereswaffenamt ordered the development of Kleintraktor – an armored vehicle between 4 and 7 tons in weight. It was designated La.S (Landwirtschaftlicher Schlepper / LaS – agricultural tractor) to hide its true purpose from the Treaty of Versailles
Again, a military system officially designed as a civilian one to circumvent the treaty.
The rest is from memory, based on my reading of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer (good book)
Hitler and the NSDAP gained power legally, then used subterfuge to force a situation in which they could institute emergency measures (think Reichstag fire), effectively meaning an end to the Weimar Republic and its laws.
From that moment on of course, they made the law so anything they did was effectively legal.
And that's no doubt what Dr. King meant. When someone with absolute power wants to do harm, whatever he does is by definition legal as there is no law left under which he can be held liable.
No.
In addition to the obvious (Beer Hall Putsch), he also violated the Enabling Act.
Article 2 states, "Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain undisturbed."
However, in 1934, Hitler abused the Enabling Act to violate both parts. First, he abolished the Reichsrat (February 1934), then later he took the President's powers. See Wikipedia.
The Night of the Long Knives (on Hitler's orders) is also an obvious illegal example. They rounded up enemies. Some they simply shot dead. But they hacked Gustav Ritter von Kahr to death with pickaxes.
I'm not sure what law (if any) it violates the letter of. However, it's legally extremely dubious to arrest some legislators, then surround the rest with SA troops to intimidate them while they vote (as they did during the passage of the Enabling Act).
Finally, treaties are also considered law. In 1939, Germany and the USSR agreed to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which provided, "Both High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other Powers." The duration was ten years.
In 1941 (only two years later), Hitler ordered the invasion of the USSR in Operation Barbarossa, a clear violation.
Through a combination of coercion and persuasion, the Nazis managed to pass the so-called Enabling Act with the necessary two-thirds "supermajority" in the Reichstag.
The key features of the Act were that with very few exceptions,
"...laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the government of the Reich... Laws enacted by the Reich government shall be issued by the Chancellor [Hitler] and announced in the Reich Gazette. They shall take effect on the day following the announcement, unless they prescribe a different date."
Hitler had basically given himself the power to write Germany's laws, effective one day after publication. Therefore, everything he did while Chancellor after the passage of the law (March 23, 1933) was legal, or could be made legal.
