Article 48 was a measure in the constitution of the Weimar Republic of Germany (1919–1933) that allowed the President to rule by decree. The article is worded as follows:

Art. 48. If a state fails to perform the duties imposed upon it by the federal constitution or by federal law, the President . . . may enforce performance with the aid of the armed forces. If public order and security are seriously disturbed or endangered within the Federation, the President . . . may take all necessary steps for their restoration, intervening, if need be, with the aid of the armed forces. For the said purpose he may suspend for the time being, either wholly or in part, the fundamental rights described in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153. The President . . . has to inform the Reichstag without delay of any steps taken in virtue of the first and second paragraphs of this article. The measures to be taken are to be withdrawn upon the demand of the Reichstag. Where delay is dangerous a state government may take provisional measures of the kind described in paragraph 2 for its own territory. Such measures are to be withdrawn upon the demand of the President . . . or of the Reichstag. . . .