The myth that "Hitler was elected" is a dangerous myth

[buritobr]

Sometimes, we hear that Hitler rose to the power through the popular vote, that the democracy allowed Hitler to become the chancellor.
But actually, Hitler lost the presidential election in 1932. In the parliamentary election of November 1932, the NSDAP had only 1/3 of the votes. The sum of the votes for the conservative parties (all the parties except SPD and KPD) was ~60%, but we don't know if the voters of the non-NSDAP conservative parties really wanted Hitler to become the chancellor. Hindenburg invited Hitler to establish a government under a NSDAP + other conservative parties coalition because the top capitalists requested. In the election of March 1933, when the SA was free to use all kinds of violence and the police forces were already under the control of the nazis, the NSDAP still failed to reach >50%.

This myth is dangerous because some people use this myth to say that "Weimar Republic failed because it was too democratic" or "the democracy should not be very democratic in order to protect itself against populists who become authocrats through democratic ways".

[buritobr]

OK, it is correct to say that Hitler became the chancellor through a legal way, because his rise to power was allowed by the Weimar constitution. But his victory was possible because the Weimar constitution had loopholes.
It was not a classic coup like the one which happened in Chile in 1973.
On the other hand, it would be a misleading view to say that Hitler won a free and fair electoral process, like the modern ones, in which all the parties are free and safe to make the campaigns, the leaders of the parties are free to choose the coalitions. It was not like Merkel's victories, in free and fair elections, in which all the parties try to convince the voters, the plurality decides for the CDU and the parties learder are free to build the coalitions.

Germany was already not living in a normal democracy in 1932, when Hindnburg and Von Papen had special powers. The SA was already on the streets using fear as a strategy. The police force of Prussia (republic's largest state) was already controlled by the far-right since July 1932.