The answer lies partially in the complexities of the Weimar government. The parliamentary structure which governed Germany in the late 1920's and early 1930's featured administrations built of coalitions of several political parties. Weimar-era Germany had many political parties, and it was usually impossible for any of them either to obtain a simple majority of seats in the Reichstag, which was the German parliament, or to obtain a majority of the popular vote.
At any one time during these years, there were dozens of active political parties, and voters elected representatives from a variety of them. Some of these parties were regional. Many had long and unwieldy names, and were known by abbreviations, nicknames, and colors. The word ‘Nazi’ is itself a nickname; the official name of the party was the National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Its abbreviation was NSDAP. In English, the name of the party would be the National Socialist German Workers Party.
The Nazi party gained national attention and its representatives were elected to the Reichstag for the first time in May 1928. Voting for the party peaked in July 1932 and declined thereafter. It never had a majority in the Reichstag, although it did have a plurality. How then did it grab power?
Hitler and the Nazis were good at exploiting the technicalities of the parliamentary system and the technicalities of Weimar's well-intentioned but unwieldy form of government. They were also good at bribery, intimidation, and general corruption. In early 1933, Hitler saw his chance. Historian Lowell Green writes:
With singleness of purpose, Hitler sought to consolidate his gains. Because he lacked a majority in key government positions, Hitler had Hindenburg dissolve the Reichstag, calling for new elections on March 5, 1933. Meanwhile, parliament was undermined when its building in Berlin, the Reichstagebäuse, was burned down by an unidentified arsonist on February 27. It was widely thought that the Nazis had ordered the fire to block parliamentary government, but the Nazis called the fire an attack on the government. They used the occasion to justify the suspension of civil liberties and to create the foundation for the ensuing dictatorship.
Lacking a majority, the Nazis arranged for another election, and then arranged for their chancellor, Hitler, to have "emergency powers" in hand. The Nazis corrupted the election and manipulate the results. Even with blatant electoral fraud, the Nazis were unable to gain a majority. Lowell Green continues:
The election of 1933 was not an overwhelming victory for the NSDAP. Despite all its efforts to manipulate public opinion, the Nazi Party won only 44 percent of the votes on March 5. However, Hitler was able to increase his support to a 52 percent majority in the Reichstag by means of an alliance with the German National Volk Party (Deutschnationalen Volkspartei [DNVP]) and the German Volk Party (Deutsche Volkspartei [DVP]), which was called the "Battle Front Black-White-Red."
Coalition-building is common and necessary in parliamentary systems in which a single party rarely has a majority. Several parties form an alliance and thereby gain the majority. The Nazis were willing to lie and to intimidate the leaders of other parties. With the coalition in place, the Nazis quickly made whichever laws they pleased, included laws which made other political parties illegal.
The election of March 1933, while corrupt and fraudulent, still managed to reveal that the majority of German voters were against the Nazis. By November 1933, another election would be held, in which only Nazi candidates were allowed to be on the ballot. The official results were that 92.11% of the votes were cast for the Nazis. The November 1933 election was purely a sham, and did not represent any process of freely electing representatives.
Thus it was that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, who never won a majority in any free and fair election, took power. In the last meaningful election, the majority of German voters showed themselves opposed to the Nazis. By mastering parliamentary technicalities, bureaucratic maneuvering, intimidation, fraud, bribery, and corruptions, the Nazis took power against the will of the voters.
