The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich () of 30 January 1934, was a sweeping constitutional change to the structure of the German state by the government of Nazi Germany. It was one of the key pieces of legislation that served as the basis for the policy of Gleichschaltung, or coordination, by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successfully established their totalitarian control over all aspects of the German government and society. The law abolished the independent parliaments (landtage) of the then-extant 16 German states, transferred the states' sovereignty to the central government and essentially converted Germany from a federal republic to a unitary state. Background Germany long had a federal system of government composed of numerous independent states (). The German Empire (1871–1918) contained 25 such states. Twenty-two were hereditary monarchies consisting of four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies and seven principalities. In addition, there were three city-states (Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck) that were republics. All the states also had some sort of representative assembly, with varying degrees of popular representation and authority. These ranged from freely elected assemblies which acted as true legislatures in the republics, to representatives of the estates in Mecklenburg. Following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the abolition of the monarchies, the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) was established. After some consolidation, it ultimately consisted of 17 republics, largely styled "free states," each with its own popular assembly. Most were named landtag but those in the three city-states were called bürgerschaft (literally, citizenry). All these parliaments were freely elected by universal popular franchise and the state governments were responsible to them. The states were largely autonomous in terms of internal affairs and had control over matters such as education and public order, including the police and the courts. When Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor at the end of January 1933, the Nazi Party had control of only a few of the state governments and Hitler perceived that elements in the remaining states could form the nucleus of an opposition to the central government. He therefore set about curtailing their independence and seizing control of the government institutions. The first effort in this regard was the "Provisional Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich." The Nazi government used the emergency powers granted to it by the Enabling Act to issue this law on 31 March 1933. The law directed that the