Law for the Protection of the Republic

First Law for the Protection of the Republic Erstes Gesetz zum Schutze der Republik
Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
Citation	RGBl. I S. 585
Passed	21 July 1922
Enacted	23 July 1922
Signed by	President Ebert Interior Minister Köster Justice Minister Radbruch
Signed	21 July 1922
Date of expiry	23 July 1929
Introduced by	Reichsrat
Voting summary	303 voted for 102 voted against
Status: Expired

The Law for the Protection of the Republic (German: Gesetz zum Schutze der Republik) was the name of two laws of the Weimar Republic that banned organisations opposed to the "constitutional republican form of government" along with their printed matter and meetings. Politically motivated acts of violence such as the assassination of members of the government were made subject to more severe punishments, and a special state court was established to enforce the law's provisions.

The immediate cause for enacting the first law was the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on 24 June 1922 by members of the right-wing extremist group Organisation Consul. The First Law for the Protection of the Republic, passed in July 1922, was extended for two years in 1927 and expired in 1929. The slightly modified Second Law for the Protection of the Republic was in effect from 1930 to 1932.

The first law violated the Weimar Constitution in several regards, most notably because the new state court was technically an illegal special court set up alongside the German High Court. The law could be enacted only because it passed in the Reichstag by a two-thirds majority, the margin that was required to change the constitution. The second law did not contain any unconstitutional elements and passed by a simple majority.