Alternate view of Hitler's rise to power?

Question

The generally accepted view is that Von Papen helped Hitler get to power. BUT would another major theory be that Papen was scared that the Social Democrats and Communists might unite to block Nazism. In 1933, the Nazis had 11.7 million votes, the Social Democrats (SPD) 7.2 million, and the Communists (KPD) around 6 million. Had the SPD and KPD joined against Nazism they would have had control in the Reichstag. So could it just have been Papen was scared of a united left wing coalition? Or is that too far fetched?

Answer 1

I doubt it. The honeymoon for the left ended in 1919. If there was ever going to be a communist revolution in Germany it was going to happen in the months following the end of the war. Eventually the Freikorps was called upon by the new government to brutally put down the Sparticists. And what party led that government? The SPD. The populace of Germany gernerally dreaded the thought of communism. While the SPD consistently distanced themselves from the radical left to appeal to the people, the Nazis sylized themselves as the saviors from communists and Jews (and used those terms interchangeably).

Answer 2

Whether he feared a leftist regime, or agreed with Nazism, the result is the same. He helped them.