Reichsgesetzblatt

The Reichsgesetzblatt (lit. 'Reich Law Gazette' or 'Imperial Law Gazette'; abbreviated RGBl.), was the government gazette of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945, thus covering the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany.

All laws of the German Reich in a formal sense (i.e., all laws that have been passed through the prescribed legislative process) had to be promulgated in it to become legally existent.

At least since the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the promulgation (Verkündung) of a law was the last step in the German legislative process. The legal existence of a law depended on its formal (and complete) promulgation – this promulgation had to happen in the Reichsgesetzblatt. The respective mechanism was laid down in the empire's constitution: Article 2 Sentence 2 of the 1871 Constitution prescribed that laws had to be promulgated in the Reichsgesetzblatt. If no special provision was made, they entered into force 14 days after their publication. The gazette thus had a significant role in the formation of the laws of the empire.

This role continued during the Weimar Republic era (1919–1933): Article 70 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution commanded that laws had to be published within a month of their adoption in the Reichsgesetzblatt and Article 71 again established that – in the absence of a special provision – they entered into force 14 days after their publication.

During Nazi Germany (1933–1945), Article 70 of 1919 Weimar Constitution formally remained in force, but the rule that laws entered into force 14 days after publication was only used once (for the Reichsbürgergesetz [de]), because all other laws had their own special provision for their entry into force.

The predecessors of the Reichsgesetzblatt were the Bundes-Gesetzblatt für den Norddeutschen Bund [de] (Federal Law Gazette for the North German Confederation), the official journal of the North German Confederation, which was established on 26 July 1867, and the older Gesetzessammlung [de] of the Kingdom of Prussia.

The Reichsgesetzblatt was first issued – as No. 19 – under this name on 8 May 1871. The issues No. 1 to 3 of the 1871 volume of the Reichsgesetzblatt were still published under the title Bundesgesetzblatt für den Norddeutschen Bund (Federal Law Gazette for the North German Confederation), while the issues No. 4 to 18 (27 January 1871 – 2 May 1871) of said volume were titled Bundesgesetzblatt für den Deutschen Bund (Federal Law Gazette for the German Confederation).

The Reichsgesetzblatt was originally published by the office of the German Reich Chancellor, while the Prussian Gesetzsammlungsamt (Law Collection Office) was in charge of the technical aspects of publishing the paper. Later the Reichsamt des Innern [de] (1880–1918) and afterwards the Reich Ministry of the Interior [de] (1918–1945) were responsible for its publication. The laws published in each volume of the Reichsgesetzblatt – always covering one year – were numbered chronologically.