And as I would have pointed out had the thread not been closed, NSDAP "wins" the July election with 37.27% of the vote. That's not enough to form a government, and Papen's minority government continues because NSDAP cannot get a coalition in place to rule.
In a parliamentary democracy, the party that gains the most votes, wins the election.
37.27% of the votes is enough to form a minority government, but that didn't happen in July 1932 and neither has anyone so claimed. A government led by Hitler was formed after the free November election of 1932 though, in which Hitler obviously also won.
I should also point out that in the July election, bans on the SA had been lifted and voter intimidation was in play. And the Nazis still didn't get a majority of seats.
Then I should again point out that the Communists were also engaged in massive voter intimidation, a
nd they still didn't stop Hitler from winning the election.
The November election did not give them better results, and they lost seats.
Of that I am fully aware. But they still won the election so what is your point?
If you want to call that "winning," go right ahead. But after the November election, Hitler had to enter into a coalition government to get the ball rolling for the formation of the cabinet in 1933.
Yes, that is called winning. If you wanna call it something else when political parties you don't like win, be my guest. As good as all governments in Western countries are coalition governments.
That's assuming you even consider the elections free and fair, or even that Germany was still a functioning democracy/republic at this point, given Hindenburg's abuse of Article 48.
Yes, mainstream historians consider the November 1932 election a free and fair election.
Which tells me that the elections are not free and fair.
Well, to the extent they were unfree and unfair, this also benefited the communists.
You make the mistake of assuming that I think it's okay to intimidate voters when Communists do it. I don't. But if the party that people claim "wins" uses voter intimidation to persuade voters, I think it's worth mentioning in my argument.
No, what I assume is that you for some reason think that intimidation against the Nazis had no effect while intimidation by the Nazis had massive effect. That is why your "intimidation argument" is not a very good one.
Dragging the Communists into it only further calls into question that the elections are in any way a representation of what Germany's people think.
Any of those elections are much more of a representation of what people thought than the elections of for example the US and France were, the former not allowing voting for blacks and the latter not allowing voting for women. These are the countries you think of as the real democratic ones of the era, right?
My classic liberal logic? Have I ever said that fascists or communists cannot win elections in free elections? If you can find a quotation where I have said that in the past five years, I'd love to see it.
I am not even arguing that fascists or communists can or cannot win free and fair elections. I am arguing that the common examples people use to talk about fascists winning elections, Germany or Italy, are not good examples of fascists winning free and fair elections.
So why are you ferociously resisting the the idea that Hitler and NSDAP was the most popular party in Germany in the 1930s, even though so much is indicating that this was indeed the case?
I think Hitler is a remarkable and excellent example of that a non-liberal can win a liberal election.
I'm also confused how women's suffrage matters after the Enabling Act is passed. Does the right to vote mean anything after the Enabling Act is passed? Or are you arguing that the Enabling Act was not the central piece of legislation the NSDAP wanted to pass?
The enabling act was passed in 1933, after Hitler had already won two elections.
Yes german women could vote, but if they didn't vote the "right way" they could be sent to jail or political camps the same way as men, really democratic !
So more than half of Germany's population were sent to jail after the 1933 election? Please don't post a BBC article this time. You should really pick up a history book.
By the way, the nazis didn't got rid of just the "dangerous" communists, they outlawed the social-democrats, the centrists, rights and far-rights parties as well. What great democrats !
Yes, they outlawed all parties after they won three elections in a row. I have to say I'm rather amused by rabid anti-Nazi revisionists like yourself, who hold vile hatred of the National Socialists and somehow think they are excellent historians because of it. Yes because in reality the "dangerous" communists are poor victims of history, including communists in Cambodia, China and Soviet.
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