September 15, 1935

Nuremberg Laws

The Reichstag enacts the Nuremberg Laws

The Reichstag met at night and unanimously approved laws whose central definitions had not yet been written.

15 September 1935: a special session at the party rally

At a special night session during the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg on 15 September 1935, the all-Nazi Reichstag unanimously adopted three laws: the Reich Citizenship Law, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, and the Reich Flag Law.

Hitler had originally summoned the deputies to enact a flag law. Amid demands for anti-Jewish legislation at the rally, he ordered Interior Ministry lawyers to draft a Blood Protection Law and then a Citizenship Law within roughly two days.

Hermann Göring, as president of the Reichstag, read the legislation to the assembled deputies.

What the two racial laws actually said

The Reich Citizenship Law limited Reich citizenship to state subjects of "German or kindred blood" who met the regime's conduct test. Only Reich citizens were to possess full political rights.

The Blood Protection Law prohibited marriages and extramarital sexual relations between Jews and citizens of German or related blood, restricted Jewish households' employment of certain women, and barred Jews from flying the Reich or national flag.

The household provision applied to female citizens of German or related blood under 45.

The definition arrived two months later

The laws were published in the Reich Law Gazette the following day. Wilhelm Stuckart and Bernhard Lösener were among the Interior Ministry officials who did the hurried drafting in Nuremberg immediately before the session.

Neither September statute contained a genealogical formula for who counted as a Jew. That machinery came on 14 November, when an implementing regulation classified people through the religious affiliation of their grandparents — at least three grandparents classified as fully Jewish, with separate rules for people with two — and declared that a Jew could not be a Reich citizen.

Enforcement did not wait for the 1936 Olympics: a scholarly tally records 11 convictions for "racial defilement" during 1935.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

September 15 is solid for adoption by the Reichstag.
The listed wording 'go into effect' blurs several dates: publication followed on September 16; most of the Blood Protection Law took effect the day after promulgation; its household-employment provision began January 1, 1936; and the November 14 regulation explicitly defined Jews and declared that a Jew could not be a Reich citizen.