1933

March 1933 German federal election

Nazis win a plurality, but not a majority, in the coerced Reichstag election

Nearly nine in ten eligible Germans voted — and the Nazis, already wielding state police power, still failed to win a majority.

5 March 1933, under the fire decree

German voters elected a new Reichstag on 5 March 1933, while Hitler was already chancellor and the Reichstag Fire Decree had suspended core civil liberties. Opposition politicians and publications — Communist ones particularly — had been arrested, banned or driven underground.

In Prussia, 50,000 armed SA, SS and Stahlhelm members had been deputized as auxiliary police. A contemporary US diplomatic report concluded that Nazi terrorism and the suspension of elementary liberties had deprived the election of the character of a free expression of the popular will.

43.9 percent, and the arithmetic beneath it

The NSDAP received 17,277,180 votes — 43.9 percent — and 288 of 647 seats, making it the largest party but leaving it short of an outright majority. Turnout was 88.7 percent.

The SPD took 18.3 percent, the KPD 12.3 percent and 81 seats. The NSDAP's existing coalition partner, the DNVP-led Kampffront Schwarz-Weiß-Rot, held 52 seats, which gave the government 340 and a working majority.

What the government did with the result

It was not the two-thirds constitutional majority Hitler wanted. Within three days the regime annulled the newly elected KPD mandates, altering the Reichstag the vote had produced.

On 23 March, arrests, exclusions, threats and Centre Party support carried the Enabling Act.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1933-03-05.