Despite its best efforts, the NSDAP was unable to win an absolute majority on March 5, 1933. With 43.9 percent of the vote, it still needed the German National People’s Party (DNVP) as a coalition partner. The Communists (KPD) won 12.3 percent—a comparatively small decline, under the circumstances, from the 16.9 percent it had won in the November elections of the preceding year. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) also retained a large portion of its votes, with 18.3 percent. Hitler’s attempt to unite the German people had failed. On the other hand, two thirds of German voters had supported parties hostile to the republic, namely the NSDAP, the DNVP, and the KPD.
Source: Elections to the 8th Reichstag in 1933. Reich President von
Hindenburg leaves the polling station in Kanonierstraße. In the
background Otto Meißner, the first to come out of the door. Berlin,
March 5, 1933. Unknown photographer.
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