View source for March 1933 German federal election

{{Short description|none}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox election
| country = Germany
| flag_year = 1919
| type = parliamentary
| previous_election = November 1932 German federal election
| previous_year = November&nbsp;1932
| election_date = {{Start date|df=yes|1933|03|05}}
| next_election = November 1933 German parliamentary election
| next_year = November&nbsp;1933
| seats_for_election = All 648 seats in the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]
| majority_seats = 324
| registered = 44,685,764 ({{increase}} 0.7%)
| turnout = 88.7% ({{increase}} 8.1[[percentage point|pp]])

| image1 = {{CSS image crop|Image =Adolf Hitler 1932 (cropped).jpg|bSize = 120|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader1 = [[Adolf Hitler]]
| party1 = Nazi Party
| last_election1 = 33.1%, 196 seats
| seats1 = '''288'''
| seat_change1 = {{increase}} 92
| popular_vote1 = '''17,277,180'''
| percentage1 = '''43.9%'''
| swing1 = {{increase}} 10.8 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| image2 = {{CSS image crop|Image =SPD 1932 leadership.jpg|bSize = 120|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader2 = [[Otto Wels]]<br>[[Arthur Crispien]]<br>[[Hans Vogel]]
| party2 = Social Democratic Party of Germany
| last_election2 = 20.4%, 121 seats
| seats2 = 120
| seat_change2 = {{decrease}} 1
| popular_vote2 = 7,181,629
| percentage2 = 18.3%
| swing2 = {{decrease}} 2.1 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| image3 = {{CSS image crop|Image =Ernst Thälmann 1932.jpg|bSize = 120|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader3 = [[Ernst Thälmann]]
| party3 = Communist Party of Germany
| last_election3 = 16.9%, 100 seats
| seats3 = 81
| seat_change3 = {{decrease}} 19
| popular_vote3 = 4,848,058
| percentage3 = 12.3%
| swing3 = {{decrease}} 4.6 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| image4 = {{CSS image crop|Image =Ludwig Kaas, by Erich Salomon, 1930.jpg|bSize = 130|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader4 = [[Ludwig Kaas]]
| party4 = Centre Party (Germany)
| last_election4 = 11.9%, 70 seats
| seats4 = 73
| seat_change4 = {{increase}} 3
| popular_vote4 = 4,424,905
| percentage4 = 11.3%
| swing4 = {{decrease}} 0.6 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| image5 = {{CSS image crop|Image =AlfredHugenberg1933 (cropped).jpeg|bSize = 120|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader5 = [[Alfred Hugenberg]]
| party5 = German National People's Party
| last_election5 = 8.3%, 51 seats
| seats5 = 52
| seat_change5 = {{increase}} 1
| popular_vote5 = 3,136,760
| percentage5 = 8.0%
| swing5 = {{decrease}} 0.3 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| image6 = {{CSS image crop|Image =Heinrich Held, 1933 (cropped).jpg|bSize = 120|cWidth = 120|cHeight = 160|oTop = 0|oLeft = 0}}
| leader6 = [[Heinrich Held]]
| party6 = Bavarian People's Party
| last_election6 = 3.1%, 20 seats
| seats6 = 19
| seat_change6 = {{decrease}} 1
| popular_vote6 = 1,073,552
| percentage6 = 2.7%
| swing6 = {{decrease}} 0.4 [[Percentage point|pp]]

| map_image = {{Switcher
| [[File:1933 German federal election - Charts.svg|450px]]
| Results by electoral constituency
| [[File:German federal election, 1933.svg|450px]]
| Seat distribution by electoral constituency
| [[File:March 1933 German federal election by District.svg|450px]]
| Results by [[Districts of Germany|district and independent city]]
}}

| title = Government
| before_election = [[Hitler cabinet]]
| before_party = [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]]–[[German National People's Party|DNVP]]
| posttitle = Government after election
| after_election = [[Hitler cabinet]]
| after_party = [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]]–[[German National People's Party|DNVP]]
}}{{Politics of Germany}}
[[Elections in Germany#German elections from 1871 to 1945|Federal elections]] were held in [[Weimar Republic|Germany]] on 5 March 1933, after the [[Nazi seizure of power]] on 30 January and just six days after the [[Reichstag fire]]. The election saw [[Nazi stormtrooper]]s unleash a widespread campaign of violence against the [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party]] (KPD), [[Left-wing politics|left-winger]]s,<ref name="Evans">{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |title=The Coming of the Third Reich |publisher=Penguin Press |location=New York |year=2004 |isbn=1-59420-004-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781594200045 }}</ref>{{rp|317}} [[trade unionists]], the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]]<ref name="Evans"/> and the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]].<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|322}} They were the last multi-party elections in a united Germany until [[1990 German federal election|1990]].

The 1933 election followed the previous year's two elections ([[July 1932 German federal election|July]] and [[November 1932 German federal election|November]]) and [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s appointment as [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]]. In the months before the 1933 election, [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] and [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] displayed "terror, repression and propaganda ... across the land",<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|339}} and Nazi organizations "monitored" the vote process. In [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]] 50,000 members of the SS, SA and ''[[Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten|Der Stahlhelm]]'' were ordered to monitor the votes by acting Interior Minister [[Hermann Göring]], as [[Hilfspolizei|auxiliary police]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP) failed to win an absolute majority in this last – more or less – free election. It did, however, register a large increase in votes and gained a Reichstag majority together with its coalition partner, the [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP). This was the first time since 1930 that a [[governing coalition]] had held a [[parliamentary majority]]; however, despite waging a campaign of terror against their opponents, the Nazis only tallied 43.9 percent of the vote on their own, well short of a majority to govern alone.

This would be the last contested election held in Germany until after [[World War II]]. Despite now holding a bare working majority in the Reichstag, Hitler wanted more. Two weeks after the election, he was able to pass an [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]] on 23 March with the support of the Nazi Party, the DNVP and the Centre parties, which effectively gave Hitler dictatorial powers. Within months, the Nazis banned all other parties and turned the Reichstag into a [[Reichstag (National Socialist Germany)|rubberstamp legislature]] comprising only Nazis and pro-Nazi "guests".

==Background==
The [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power#Seizure of control (1931–1933)|Nazi seizure of power]] commenced on 30 January, when President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] appointed Hitler as Chancellor, who immediately urged the dissolution of the Reichstag and the calling of new elections. On his second day as Chancellor, Hitler opened his campaign with a nationwide radio address pledging to save the nation from the communists, which he castigated as "political [[nihilism]]."<ref>{{Citation|last=Kuntz|first=Dieter|title=Hitler and the Functioning of the Third Reich|date=2007-09-01|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203837443|work=The Routledge History of the Holocaust|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780203837443.ch6|isbn=978-0-203-83744-3|access-date=2021-11-05}}</ref> In early February, the Nazis "unleashed a campaign of violence and terror that dwarfed anything seen so far".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Richard J. |title=The Coming of the Third Reich |date=2005 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781101042670 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmjBW3lsA84C&q=unleashed+a+campaign+of+violence+and+terror+that+dwarfed+anything+seen+so+far&pg=PT381 |access-date=2 November 2019 |language=en}}</ref> ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' stormtroopers began attacking trade union and [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party]] (KPD) offices and the homes of left-wingers.<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|317}}

In the second half of February, the violence was extended to the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]], with gangs of [[brownshirts]] breaking up Social Democrat meetings and beating up their speakers and audiences. Issues of Social Democratic newspapers were banned.<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|318–320}} Twenty newspapers of the [[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]], a party of [[Catholic Germans]], were banned in mid-February for criticising the new government. Government officials known to be Centre Party supporters were dismissed from their offices, and stormtroopers violently attacked party meetings in [[Westphalia]].<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|322}} Only the [[Nazi Party]] and the [[German National People's Party]] were allowed to campaign untouched.

Six days before the scheduled election date, the German parliament building was set alight in the [[Reichstag fire]], allegedly by the Dutch Communist [[Marinus van der Lubbe]]. That event reduced the popularity of the KPD and enabled Hitler to persuade Hindenburg to pass the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] as an emergency decree according to [[Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)|Article 48]] of the Weimar Constitution. The emergency law removed many civil liberties and allowed the arrest of [[Ernst Thälmann]] and 4,000 other leaders and members of the KPD<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|331}} shortly before the election, suppressing the Communist vote and consolidating the position of the Nazis.

Although Hitler could have banned the KPD outright, he opted not to do so. He feared a violent [[Communist revolution|Communist uprising]] in the event of a ban, and he also believed the KPD's presence on the ballot could siphon off votes away from the Social Democrats. Instead, he opted to simply have Communist functionaries jailed by the thousands. The courts and prosecutors, both already hostile to the KPD long before 1933, obligingly agreed with the line that since the Reichstag fire was a Communist plot, KPD membership was an act of treason. As a result, for all intents and purposes, the KPD was "outlawed" on the day the Reichstag Fire Decree took effect and "completely banned" as of the day of the election.<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|335–336}} While the Social Democrats (SPD) were then not as heavily oppressed as the Communists, the Social Democrats were also restricted in their actions, as the party's leadership had already fled to [[Prague]], and many members were acting only from the underground. Hence, the Reichstag fire is widely believed to have had a major effect on the outcome of the election. As a replacement parliament building and for 10 years to come, the new parliament used the [[Kroll Opera House]] for its meetings.

The resources of big business and the state were thrown behind the Nazis' campaign to achieve saturation coverage all over Germany. Brownshirts and SS patrolled and marched menacingly through the streets of cities and towns. A "combination of terror, repression and propaganda was mobilized in every... community, large and small, across the land".<ref name="Evans"/>{{rp|339}} Irene von Goetz wrote, "In a decree issued on 17 February 1933, Göring ordered the Prussian police force to make unrestrained use of firearms in operations against political opponents (the so-called ''Schießerlass,'' or shooting decree)".<ref name="VU">{{cite web |last1=von Götz |first1=Irene |title=Violence Unleashed |url=http://www.berlin.de/2013/en/open-air-exhibitions/urban-memorials/08-platz-der-republik-centres-of-the-seizure-of-power/violence-unleashed/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818085550/http://www.berlin.de/2013/en/open-air-exhibitions/urban-memorials/08-platz-der-republik-centres-of-the-seizure-of-power/violence-unleashed/ |archive-date=18 August 2016 |access-date=January 15, 2016 |website=Berlin.de}}</ref>

To ensure a Nazi majority in the vote, Nazi organisations also "monitored" the vote process. In [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]], 50,000 members of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] and ''Der Stahlhelm'' were ordered to monitor the votes as so-called deputy sheriffs or auxiliary police (''[[Hilfspolizei]]'') in another decree by acting Interior Minister [[Hermann Göring]].<ref name="VU"/>

==Results==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14381, Berlin, Polizeipatrouille am Wahltag.jpg|thumb|290px|A police officer of [[Sicherheitspolizei (Weimar Republic)|Sicherheitspolizei]] (left) and an [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] man and his [[German Shepherd]] (right), one of 50,000 Nazis in Prussia appointed by the Party as a "[[Hilfspolizei]]" ("Auxiliary Police") officer]]

{{Election results
|image=[[File:Reichstag composition, March 1933.svg]]
|party1=[[Nazi Party]]|votes1=17277180|sw1=+10.82|seats1=288|sc1=+92
|party2=[[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]]|votes2=7181629|sw2=–2.18|seats2=120|sc2=–1
|party3=[[Communist Party of Germany]]|votes3=4848058|sw3=–4.54|seats3=81|sc3=–19
|party4=[[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]]|votes4=4424905|sw4=–0.68|seats4=73|sc4=+3
|party5=Black-White-Red Struggle Front{{efn|Alliance of the [[German National People's Party]] with ''[[Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten|Der Stahlhelm]]'' and the [[Agricultural League]].}}|votes5=3136760|sw5=–0.37|seats5=52|sc5=+1|color5={{party color|German National People's Party}}
|party6=[[Bavarian People's Party]]|votes6=1073552|sw6=–0.36|seats6=19|sc6=–1
|party7=[[German People's Party]]|votes7=432312|sw7=–0.76|seats7=2|sc7=–9
|party8=[[Christian Social People's Service]]|votes8=383999|sw8=–0.16|seats8=4|sc8=–1
|party9=[[German State Party]]|votes9=334242|sw9=–0.10|seats9=5|sc9=+3
|party10=[[German Farmers' Party]]|votes10=114048|sw10=–0.13|seats10=2|sc10=–1
|party11=[[Agricultural League]]|votes11=83839|sw11=–0.09|seats11=1|sc11=–1
|party12=[[German-Hanoverian Party]]|votes12=47743|sw12=–0.06|seats12=0|sc12=–1
|party13=Socialist Struggle Community|votes13=3954|sw13=New|seats13=0|sc13=New
|party14=Workers' and Farmers' Struggle Community|votes14=1110|sw14=0.00|seats14=0|sc14=0
|invalid=311698
|total_sc=+63
|electorate=44685764
|source=[http://www.gonschior.de/weimar/Deutschland/RT8.html Gonschior.de]
}}
{{notelist}}

<gallery>
File:NSDAP Results, March, 1933.svg|[[Nazi Party|Nazi]] vote share, with majorities in [[Province of East Prussia|East Prussia]] (1), [[Frankfurt (Oder)]] (5), [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]] (6), [[Wrocław|Breslau]] (7), [[Legnica|Liegnitz]] (8), [[Schleswig-Holstein Province|Schleswig-Holstein]] (13), [[Province of Hanover|E Hanover]] (15), and [[Chemnitz]]-[[Zwickau]] (30)
File:SPD Wahl 1933.svg|[[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrat (SPD)]] vote share
File:KPD Wahl 1933.svg|[[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party (KPD)]] vote share
File:Centre Party Results, March, 1933.svg|[[Centre Party (Germany)|Centre Party]] vote share, with pluralities in [[Cologne]]-[[Aachen]] (20) and [[Koblenz]]-[[Trier]] (21). In all 33 other districts, the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] were the largest party.
</gallery>

==Aftermath==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2014}}
Despite achieving a much better result than in the [[November 1932 German federal election|November 1932 election]], the Nazis did not do as well as Hitler had hoped. In spite of massive violence and voter intimidation,<ref name="Evans"/><ref name=VU/> the Nazis won only 43.9% of the vote, rather than the majority that he had expected.

Therefore, Hitler was forced to maintain his coalition with the DNVP to control the majority of seats. The Communists (KPD) lost about a quarter of their votes, and the Social Democrats suffered only moderate losses. Although the KPD had not been formally banned, it was a foregone conclusion that the KPD deputies would never be allowed to take their seats. Within a few days, all KPD representatives had been placed under arrest or gone into hiding.

Although the Nazi-DNVP coalition had enough seats to conduct the basic business of government, Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to pass the [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]], which allowed the Cabinet, and effectively the Chancellor, to enact laws without the approval of the Reichstag for four years. With certain exceptions, such laws could deviate from the Weimar Constitution. Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to arrest all 81 Communist deputies and to keep several Social Democrats out of the chamber.

Hitler then obtained the necessary [[supermajority]] by persuading the Centre Party to vote with him with regard to the [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]]. The bill was passed on 23 March with 444 votes for and 94 against. Only the Social Democrats, led by [[Otto Wels]], opposed the measure, which came into effect on 27 March. The bill's provisions turned the government into a ''de facto'' legal dictatorship.

Within four months, the other parties had been shuttered by outright banning or Nazi terror, and Germany had become formally a one-party state. A [[November 1933 German parliamentary election|snap election]] was called for November by Hindenburg, in which voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and guest candidates, and voting was not secret: the new Reichstag thus included only NSDAP and supporting members, effectively liquidating what was left of Weimar democracy.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/nazi/innenpolitik/wahl33/index.html 1933 elections] German Historic Museum {{in lang|de}}

{{German elections}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1933 elections in Germany|1933 03]]
[[Category:Elections in the Weimar Republic|1933 03]]
[[Category:Federal elections in Germany|1933 03]]
[[Category:March 1933 events]]
[[Category:Electoral violence]]
[[Category:Political violence in Germany]]
[[Category:Democratic backsliding in the interwar period]]