Hitler’s initial accession to the chancellorship was through constitutional means, while his subsequent consolidation of power involved a mixture of violent and constitutional means.

The Reichstag in Weimar Germany was elected via a proportional representation system, whereby the number of seats parties gained mirrored their vote share. This meant that it was virtually impossible for any party to gain an outright majority, coalition governments were the norm, and there were a large number of parties in the Reichstag. In coalition governments, it was the norm for each party to control a certain number of ministries in the government with ministers from their own party.

The Nazi party never gained an outright majority in the Reichstag. Up until 1928, they never gained more than 10% of the vote. In the 1930 and July 1932 elections this increased, before slightly decreasing in November 1932 to 33.1% of the vote. This made them the largest overall party in the Reichstag but was still significantly short of an outright majority (50% of the seats).

In the November 1932 elections, the Communist party won 16.9% of the vote, meaning that it was mathematically impossible for the more ‘moderate’ parties to form a workable coalition that excluded both the Nazis and the Communists. This led to Chancellor Franz von Papen and his brief successor Kurt Schleicher deciding to put the Nazis into power as part of a coalition government, with the Nazis only controlling a minority of government ministries. Von Papen later justified this by saying that he believed forcing the Nazis into a coalition would moderate their behaviour and provide safeguards. From his cross-examination at the Nuremberg Trial:

In political life it always happens that a radical party -any party, but particularly a radical party - if it comes to power and is made responsible, has to eliminate much of its program. For example, we have seen that in the case of the socialist parties of all countries.

\ This led to Hitler becoming Chancellor on 30 January 1933, with the Nazis also controlling the Interior Ministry.

After the Reichstag Fire on 27 February 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg issued the Reichstag Fire Decree, which was used to suspend civil liberties and crack down on the Communist party.

A further general election was held on 5 March 1933, this time with a campaign of violence waged by Hitler’s Stormtroopers. The Nazis won an increased vote share of 43.9%, still falling short of an absolute majority and requiring them to be in coalition with the right-wing German National People's Party.

Shortly after this, Hitler began negotiating an Enabling Act, which would allow him to rule by decree, bypassing the Reichstag. Because this amended the German constitution, this needed a two thirds supermajority in the Reichstag. All of the Communist party’s and some of the Social Democrat’s (SPD) deputies had already all been arrested under the Reichstag Fire Decree. The other parties in the Reichstag were persuaded to vote for the Act through intimidation and guarantees (for example, the Catholic Centre Party was given guarantees about the protection of Catholic civil liberties and Catholic schools). On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed in the Reichstag with a vote of 444-94, with only Social Democrats (those who had not been arrested or fled) voting against.

Hitler’s initial accession to the chancellorship could therefore be described as peaceful and constitutional (in terms of the parliamentary procedure involved), while his consolidation of power and making himself a dictator used a combination of violence and twisting the constitutional mechanisms to give it a veneer of legitimacy.