1 February

Reichspräsident Hindenburg dissolves the Reichstag by decree. In doing so Hitler's government hopes to obtain the Reichstag majority it requires in the new elections.
[Grüttner, p. 49]

15 February

Käthe Kollwitz and Thomas Mann are forced to resign from their posts in the Prussian Academy of Arts under pressure from the Nazis.
[Tofahrn, p. 19]

22 February

Göring announces the establishment of an “auxiliary police” which is to be comprised of members of the SA, SS and the “Stahlhelm”. The “auxiliary police” is to consist in future of 50,000 men. This enables the NSDAP’s paramilitary groups to terrorize their opponents with state authority.
[Grüttner, p. 50]

27 - 28 February

On the evening of 27 February a devastating fire breaks out in the Reichstag building. The question of who was behind this is still contested even today. Nevertheless the Reichstag fire is intentionally exploited by the Nazis to issue the “Decree for the Protection of the People and the State”. The “Fire Decree” renders virtually all of the fundamental rights contained within the Weimar Reich Constitution invalid and puts an end to the constitutional democracy.
[Hildebrand, p. 3]