By July 1932, the
were by far the largest party in the
[?] with 230 seats. Hitler was growing in popularity and he had given Hindenburg a good race in the
elections of the same year. Despite Nazi political success, Hindenburg was reluctant to appoint Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.
Hindenburg used his powers to make Fritz Von Papen, the leader of the
[?] Party, Chancellor instead of Hitler. The
[?] did not really support Von Papen, so he had to step down. Hindenburg appointed one of his advisers, Von Schleicher, as Chancellor in December 1932. Von Schleicher failed to win support in the Reichstag and
[?] after eight weeks.
On 30th January 1933, Hindenburg appointed
[?] Chancellor. Von Papen had convinced the President, that he and other Weimar politicians could
Hitler. In Hitler’s cabinet there were only
[?] Nazis, all the other positions were taken up by politicians from other parties. Von Papen became Hitler’s Vice-Chancellor, thinking that he could control Hitler and
Germany through him.
On paper, it looked as if Hitler’s position was still quite
[?] . In reality, Hitler was Chancellor of Germany, Goring was in charge of much of the Prussian
[?] (by far the largest state in Germany) and Hitler knew that once in power he could pick off his
[?] one by one. Many of the other cabinet ministers, although not Nazis, were from the right wing
parties and actually agreed with many of Hitler’s policies.
In the March 1933 elections, Hitler finally gained an overall
by making an alliance with the nationalists and expelling the
[?] after the Reichstag
[?] . This majority gave Hitler the ability to pass the
Act that gave him the powers of a dictator.
By the summer of 1933, Hitler’s position had been greatly strengthened. He had seized control of the government through political deals and manipulation, he had
the Communists and he had passed the Enabling Act. Nevertheless, he still faced potential opposition from the ageing President
and from other leading Nazis, in particular Ernst
, head of the 2.5 million strong SA.