German federal election, March 1933

German federal election, March 1933

November 1932 ← 5 March 1933 → November 1933

All 647 seats in the Reichstag 324 seats needed for a majority Turnout 88.74%   First party Second party Third party   Leader Adolf Hitler Otto Wels Ernst Thälmann Party NSDAP SPD KPD Leader since 28 July 1921 1919 October 1925 Last election 196 seats, 33.09% 121 seats, 20.43% 100 seats, 16.86% Seats won 288 120 81 Seat change 92 1 19 Popular vote 17,277,180 7,516,243 4,848,058 Percentage 43.91% 18.25% 12.32% Swing 10.82% 2.18% 4.54%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ludwig Kaas Alfred Hugenberg Heinrich Held Party Centre DNVP BVP Leader since September 1928 1928 27 June 1924 Last election 70 seats, 11.93% 52 seats, 8.34% 20 seats, 3.09% Seats won 74 52 18 Seat change 4 0 2 Popular vote 4,424,905 3,136,760 1,073,552 Percentage 11.25% 7.97% 2.73% Swing 0.68% 0.37% 0.36%

Chancellor before election Adolf Hitler NSDAP Elected Chancellor Adolf Hitler a coalition Chancellor Nazi Party(DNVP coalition)

Adolf Hitler
NSDAP

Adolf Hitler a coalition Chancellor
Nazi Party(DNVP coalition)

Federal elections were held in Germany on 5 March 1933. The 1933 poll was held after the Nazi seizure of power and the Reichstag fire, just six days before the election. Nazi storm troopers had unleashed a campaign of violence against the Communist Party (KPD), left-wingers, trade unionists, the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and the centre-right Catholic Centre Party.

The 1933 election followed the previous year's two elections (July and November) and Hitler's appointment as Chancellor. In the months before the 1933 election, brownshirts and SS displayed "terror, repression and propaganda [...] across the land", and Nazi organizations "monitored" the vote process. In Prussia 50,000 members of the SS, SA and Stahlhelm were ordered to monitor the votes by acting Interior Minister Hermann Göring, as auxiliary police.

The Nazis registered a large increase in votes in 1933. Despite waging a campaign of terror against their opponents, the Nazis only tallied 43.9 percent of the vote, well short of a majority. They needed the votes of their coalition partner, the German National People's Party (DNVP), for a bare working majority in the Reichstag.

...
Wikipedia