By Akshay Pau, Asif Khan and Tim Ratnasingam The General Election By Akshay Pau, Asif Khan and Tim Ratnasingam

The German Federal Election The German Federal Election took place on the 5th March 1933 in the Weimar Republic. It was the last genuine election to take place before WWII. The Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler was able to pass the Enabling Act thanks to the success of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), which enabled him to become the Dictator of Germany.

Can you guess who they are and which party they represent?

The election took place shortly after the Reichstag fire when the German parliament was set alight, supposedly by a Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe. Consequently, the popularity of the KPD (Communist Party) decrease and it enabled Hitler to persuade President Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree. This emergency law removed many civil liberties and allowed the arrest of the leaders of the KPD soon before the election, further scornful to the Communists and consolidating the position of the Nazis. Therefore the fire is often believed to have a major effect on the outcome of the election. Furthermore, to assure the outcome of the vote would be a Nazi majority, Nazi organisations “monitored” the vote process.

50,000 members of the SS, SA and Stahlhelm were ordered to monitor the votes. On the other hand, the Nazi Party did not achieve as well in the polls as predicted, despite receiving a much better result than in the November 1932 election. They received 43.9% rather than 50%+. Therefore, he was forced to maintain his alliance with the DNVP (Nationalist Party) to control a majority. In addition to this, Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to pass the Enabling Act (a law which allowed him to pass laws without consulting the Reichstag). He gained this by persuading the Centre Party to vote with him.

On March 23rd the Enabling Act was passed on and despite it was meant to be effective for four years, it was formally prolonged twice. Only the SPD opposed the measure, which came into effect March 27th. Although, representation of SPD was suppressed, as the Nazis SA removed them from their seats in the Reichstag. The powers gained from the bill enabled the KPD and SPD (Socialist Party) to be outlawed. However, if the Communist Party had participated then they would have gained around 17% of the Reichstag votes. Germany was then firmly established as a Dictatorship.

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