A factor to why Hitler was appointed could be due to the fact that Hidenburg had ulterior motives. In the 1920s Germany agriculture suffered from low prices for farm products. Landowners in the East, then received ‘Osthilfe’, these funds were supposed to help large landowners ‘to stay afloat’. Hindenburg received his old family bankrupt estate at Neudeck in the east, as an 80th Birthday present, this was intended to keep him close to Junker’s interests. However, in 1932 a Reichstag committee found out that Osthilfe funds were used for which brought the Neudeck estate in a scandal, this could have influenced Hindenburg’s decision to appoint Hitler as Chancellor, to distract the investigations and make them come to an end. However this would just be a minor factor rather than the main motive to his appointment as Hindenburg had the power to rule by article 48 and so even if he did loose public support he would still have been in power.
A more major reason as to why Hitler was appointed chancellor is more likely to be due to the elites such as Von Papen wanting him as a puppet. The Nazi party lost 35 seats in the November 1932 election but remained the Reichstag's largest party. The most shocking move of the early election campaign was to send the SA to support a Rotfront action against the transport agency and in support of a strike. After Chancellor Papen left office, he secretly told Hitler that he still held considerable sway with President Hindenburg and that he would make Hitler chancellor as long as he, Papen, could be the vice chancellor. This shows that Papen wanted to be vice Chancellor and knew that he would only have got the power if he sided with someone and he chose Hitler. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of a coalition government of the NSDAP-DNVP Party. The SA and SS led torchlight parades throughout Berlin. In the coalition government, three members of the cabinet were Nazis: Hitler, Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior) and Hermann Göring (Minister Without Portfolio). Hindenburg and Von Papen were hoping to use Hitler as a puppet, to use his mass support to put through Bills, which could end democracy and set up an authoritarian state. Hindenburg tried to set up a state like this before during the First World War but failed due to no mass support, but with Hitler, Hindenburg could achieve his goal. The fact that Hitler was only allowed three Nazi’s in the cabinet shows although they only wanted Hitler there as a puppet to do as he was told, the elites must have still seen the Nazi party as a threat. However without Von Papen and Hindenburg’s motive, Hitler would probably have never gotten into power and so due to Hitlers popularity and the elites choices, this is why Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933.
In conclusion, electoral success is only a partial reason for Hitler being appointed chancellor in 1933, if it was purely down to electoral successes then he would have been put into the position earlier. In fact the main reason was down to Hindenburg and Von Papen’s plans that he finally made it to being Chancellor as his mass support was appealing to them. However saying this, without electoral success and mass support, Hitler would have never been considered for the Chancellor position in the first place.
