March Elections, 1933

What were the results of the March 1933 general election?

The Nazi Party increased the number of seats it held in the Reichstag to 288.

What happened in the run up to the March 1933 general election in the Weimar Republic?

The Nazi government used the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State to arrest communists and ban their newspapers. Hitler persuaded industrialists like Krupp to donate large sums of money to the Nazi Party's election campaign.

Why was the March 1933 election in Weimar Germany important?

The March election was important for 4 key reasons:

• ❖ The Nazis didn't secure the majority that they needed in the March elections so they needed the support of other parties to pass legislation.
• ❖ The Communist Party were banned from the 81 seats they had won in the March election by Hitler's emergency powers.
• ❖ The Nazi Party gained the support of the National Party, which had 52 seats, and the Centre Party (ZP), which had 74, by promising to protect the interests of the Catholic Church.
• ❖ This gave the Nazi Party the majority it needed to pass laws and, more importantly, to gain 2/3 of the seats that they needed to successfully alter the constitution.