The Nazi takeover dismantled Weimar privacy rights within months

Evidence

The first changes came quickly that spring, and they affected private life in the most basic and intrusive ways. In March, the Nazis awarded themselves new powers to arrest suspects and search homes at will. They created laws that allowed phone tapping and mail surveillance — areas of privacy previously considered sacred. In April, they announced ‘boycotts’ of Jewish businesses, and removed all public employees deemed Jewish or having anti-Nazi affiliations from their jobs. Trade unions were banned on 2 May. The first spectacular book burning took place on 10 May. All political parties other than the National Socialists were officially banned on 14 July 1933. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 255

Categorization

• XREF: The rapidity of surveillance-law change here pairs with Zamyatin’s We and totalitarian surveillance literature — the pace at which ‘sacred’ privacy collapses. — connects to: Nazi power consolidated within months via invasive surveillance and bans — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 255

Broader Connections

• Nazi power consolidated within months via invasive surveillance and bans #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 255