This subsequently meant that they had more seats than any other party in the Reichstag and thus gave them unrivaled influence to pressure Hindenburg into acting on the people's will by making Hitler chancellor. .
The fact that Hitler became chancellor however was by no means solely down to the fact that they were perceived to be the most popular party. Hindenburg's advisors and his previous chancellor, Von Papen, believed that Hitler could be controlled and by believing this, drastically underestimated his potential power and wit. They thought that by surrounding Hitler with right wing conservative advisors, Hitler could be used as a puppet, with Von Papen infamously describing how 'we've hired him'. This fatal error was in no small part down to Hitler as a person. As Ullrich describes, Hitler was able to 'outmanoeuvre his competition' due to his intelligence as a 'skilled tactician'. This deliberate tactic by Hitler meant that the elites who were, in effect, in charge of decision making overestimated their own abilities to control Hitler whilst underestimating his qualities. Having said this, the only reason that Hitler was in a position to become chancellor was due to the fact that he had popular support. The elites wanted to appoint Hitler to 'appease the masses' who were calling for change and steer Germany away from a civil war. With over 12 million people voting for Hitler in the presidential election, and the Nazis obtaining 37.4% of the vote in the July 1932 election, Hindenburg had little choice but to appoint Hitler or would risk losing his own power. Hitler was so confident from this support that he had turned down the chance to become vice chancellor previously, believing that with huge public support it was an inevitability. .
As well as this though, there is the fact that alternative plans had failed, and Hindenburg had simply run out of options.
