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Hitler ruled Germany autocratically by asserting the Führerprinzip (leader principle), which called for absolute obedience of all subordinates. He viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections; positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank. [7]
The second round of the 1925 German presidential election was thus not a contest between the DVP's Karl Jarres (1st place) and the SPD's Otto Braun (2nd place), who both belonged to parties which accepted the political system of the Weimar Republic, but was a three-person race between the Centre Party's Wilhelm Marx (3rd place in the first ...
This election set the tone for all further elections and referendums held in the Nazi era. Official results showed 92 percent of the voters approved the Nazi list, on a turnout of 96 percent. The vote was held in far-from secret circumstances; many voters feared that anyone who voted "no" would be detected and punished for doing so.
The president's decision to govern without the support of the Reichstag is regarded by historians as a milestone on Germany's progression from a multi-party democracy to a totalitarian dictatorship under Hitler: [1] the abolition of parliamentary government removed moderate parties from power and eroded trust among the electorate, making the ...
Therefore, the 1932 election was the last presidential election in Germany until 1949 (by which point the country was divided into West Germany and East Germany). It remains, until today, the last direct election of the German President. All presidential elections after World War II have been indirect.
The Weimar National Assembly, which was responsible for writing a constitution for a new, democratic Germany following the overthrow of the Hohenzollern monarchy at the end of World War I, had the task of producing a document that would be accepted by both conservatives who wanted to keep the semi-constitutional monarchy of the Empire and people on the left who were looking for a socialist or ...
Germany's Weimar political system made it difficult for chancellors to govern with a stable parliamentary majority, and successive chancellors instead relied on the president's emergency powers to govern. [71] In 1931 the Nazi Party altered its strategy to engage in perpetual campaigning across the country, even outside of election time. [55]
As Germany's newfound völkisch nationalist leader, Hitler initiated a policy of ethnic nationalism replete with directives to eliminate Jews and other identified enemies as Nazism ultimately became the religion of the movement and the "irrational became concrete" under the terms of its "ideological framework".