>>Two successive federal elections left the Nazis as the largest party in the Reichstag and anti-democratic parties in control of a majority of its seats. Under this political climate, Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933.

Yes. But unlike the US that really only has 2 parties, Germany had/has many parties who usually needed to cobble together a government.

In 1932 there were two democratic Reichstag elections in which Hitler's NSDAP won 230 seats then 196 seats, about a third of the Reichstag. This is my reference to doing worse the second time around, which seemed to suggest that the Nazi party had reached its peak. To reach 50% Hitler needed to cobble together a shaky government to pressure an unwilling Hindenburg to name him chancellor, at which point yet another round of elections was announced. But this time Hitler had chancellor's power and made some changes. The police force was reformed to include a Gestapo that was used to tread on competing parties, particularly the Communist and Social Democrat parties whose leaders were accused, arrested and sent to concentration camps. The SA (Nazi party militia) disrupted many political meetings and even murdered opposition leaders. The week before the election the Reichstag was burned down (by the Nazis themselves according to many historians) which was blamed on a nearby Communist to justify emergency powers granted to Hitler, including a ban on the Communists and Social Democrats taking part at all in the election campaign. Their newspapers were shut down and the SA roamed the streets "to keep the peace" which meant beating up Hitler's opponents if they showed themselves.

Despite this suppression of opposition, the Nazis still only won 288 seats in 1933 which still wasn't the majority Hitler wanted- though interestingly, he did win the popular vote. ;-)

Next came Hitler's "Enabling Law" that effectively made him dictator. /edit/ A 2/3 majority would be needed to pass the act. When elected politicians tried to assemble after the election to vote on this law, SA and SS thugs were in attendance to prevent some members from entering while others were threatened with the consequences of not passing the act. Hitler promised restraint, peace and prosperity if only the bill would be passed. He secured some votes by falsely promising to restore some basic rights he'd previously taken away. In the end, only the Social Democrats opposed the bill and their 84 votes were not enough. Hitler declaimed "You are no longer needed! - The star of Germany will rise and yours will sink! Your death knell has sounded!" The passage of that act allowed Hitler to make law by decree and that was the end of democracy in Hitler's Germany.