ABSTRACT
By the beginning of 1932, it was obvious that the authority of the Reichstag had weakened so badly as to be almost meaningless. Chancellor Brüning was convinced that a new election would bring the National Socialists to power, and he attempted to extend Hindenburg’s presidency to 1934. To do this, however, required the cooperation of Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg, chairman of the rightist Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German Nationalist Peoples’ Party), and Brüning could not secure it. This forced the elderly Hindenburg to stand for re-election in March, but he fell short of the needed majority, and had to face Hitler again in April. The Nazi Führer did not defeat the old marshal, but the NSDAP garnered well over thirteen million votes, almost double that received in the 1930 election.
