The ideas of racial inferiority of the time led this law to become a reference point for defining German Aryans as the only benefactors of German government citizenship. The Reich Citizenship Law made it necessary to further protect those deemed Aryans or German citizens and following the passing of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor, which prohibited sexual relations and marriage between Jews and Germans. According to the statute of this law, relations between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are prohibited. This law was enacted to keep the true Aryan Germans pure and not to contaminate their genetics with the supposedly “inferior” race of Jews. By defining who was a citizen, Hitler was able to control who was protected under the new government and whose rights were deemed unjustifiable and could be persecuted.