this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 285 points 1 year ago (28 children)

But he... wasn't. He lost the presidency in 1932 to Paul Von Hindenburg (53% to 37%. not even particularly close) who later appointed Hitler under pressure to the channclorship (which was an appointed role) in 1933. Hindenburg died in January of 1934 and Hitler de facto merged the presidency and chancelorship into one office (Fuhrer). The story isn't "regular people put Hitler in power", it's "broken legislative systems are vulnerable to facists".

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not sure entirely about that. Nazis were still a party that held up to 44% of seats in the reichstag (before they were all nazi) with like 6 different parties. Hitler wasn't isolated. The population voted for him and his party. Hindenburg didn't like Hitler but essentially passed away at a terrible time and Hitler outplayed Papen who was meant to keep him in check. Hindenburg felt he had to since they had the closest to a majority in the reichstag.

"In the end, the president, who had previously vowed never to let Hitler become chancellor, appointed Hitler to the post at 11:30 am on 30 January 1933, with Papen as vice-chancellor.[91] While Papen's intrigues appeared to have brought Hitler into power, the crucial dynamic was in fact provided by the Nazi Party's electoral support, which made military dictatorship the only alternative to Nazi rule for Hindenburg and his circle. [Sauce]

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, there was support in the population, but there was also a lot of violence to suppress dissent. The historical consensus, as I learned it, is to call it the "seizure of power" ("Machtergreifung" in German), because Hitler wasn't simply voted into power by a majority.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This somewhat misleading, Hitler and the NSDAP were indeed voted into the position to seize power by democratic means which they then abused, the voter supression mainly happened in later elections when the undermining of institutions and the consitution was already well underway. "Machtergreifung" is the propaganda term the Nazis used themselves to describe the process of what happened after the fact, which in reality was much more cloak and dagger-y than the term suggests.

P.S.: Germany didn't have a two-party system, so having a majority wasn't that important. You would form coalitions of parties after an election which then had a majority, or even form a minority government that then has to actively hunt for their missing votes from other parties to get any legislation passed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is not correct. Neither according to Wikipedia, not to what I learned in school. The term "Machtergreifung" was avoided by the Nazis, they used "Machtübernahme" as to not alienate their moderate conservative supporters. But "Machtergreifung" is much more fitting, when applying it to the process that was started in January 1933.

And yes, Hitler convinced Hindenburg to appoint him as the head of a coalition government, as the NSDAP had lost votes and came in "only" at around 33%. The normal rules of how to govern in a multi-party system don't quite apply, because it was never Hitler's goal to rule as part of a coalition, having to compromise.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

They used both terms as well as "Machtübergabe" (transfer of power) to refer to Hitler being appointed chancelor, but that was neither the beginning nor the end of the multi-step coup the Nazis enacted, which is what I wanted to highlight. The term makes it seem like a singular event, when in reality it was a longer process.

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