national socialist party was democratically elected, tell me who was dumb enough to vote for them, hint its in the name
you know they weren’t in fact democratically elected, right
oh how did they come to power then?
It’s actually quite interesting
So, the July 1932 election results (after a voter intimidation campaign) were
- 37% Nazi
- 25% Socialist
- 13% Communist
So they had the largest share of the vote. But no other party would work with them, on principle, so there could be no coalition, so there could be no government.
Hence there was another election that November.
- 33% Nazi
- 20% Socialist
- 17% Communist
Same problem. So, the president used emergency powers to make Hitler the chancellor.
But…
A chancellor isn’t a dictator, and Hitler’s laws still had to be signed off by the president.
So he had the communist party outlawed, arrested its members and set up the first concentration camp, Dachau, for them.
“First they came for the communists” is literal truth.
Then there was another election in March 1933, with hardly any communists, and of course the Nazi vote was much higher.
When the Reichstag voted on the Enabling Act, the few communist members remaining were not allowed to attend or vote; nor were some of the socialists.
This meant that the Reichstag wasn’t quorate, but what the hell, it was a power grab anyway. The law passed and Hitler was in sole charge.
By the way, Hitler had tried to overthrow the government once before, and failed. Americans reading should reflect on this.