Hitler Coming to Power

David Weigel, subbing for Andrew Sullivan, quotes Michael Ledeen saying

Dingy Harry Reid doesn't know the first thing about fascism, since he says that Hitler came to power by winning an election. Wrong. The NSDAP did well in an election, but the Conservatives formed the government. Hitler became Chancellor via parliamentary action. His electoral success came later. Ditto for Mussolini.

I have to respectfully disagree. I guess it's somewhat a question of how you define winning an election in a parliamentary system in which no party wins a clear majority in the parliament. As of the last national election in 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag. More people voted for them than for any other party. It is true they did not win a majority of the vote, but they got more than anyone else which I think qualifies as winning the election.

And it is not correct that the Conservatives formed the government. It was von Papen who managed to convince Hindenberg to accept a government with Hitler as Chancellor, something he had been loathe to do since the Nazis had first risen to prominence in the Reichstag. In turn, that government certainly needed von Papen's approval and involvement in order to approach Hindenberg. But that does not mean Hitler was not actively involved in forming the government, in running the negotiations with von Papen and the Nationalists to come up with an assignment of ministries that von Papen, and by extension Hindenberg, would find acceptable. The government was formed by negotiation between the Nationalist party, assorted conservatives like von Papen, and the Nazis, a process not unlike what happens in any parliamentary system when no party wins an outright majority.