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three big parties were
Social Democrats.
Centre Party (sometimes referred to as Catholic Center Party)
and
the Nazis.
KPD kommunists were comparatively minor, growing a bit in strength as the country polarized but nowhere near as big as either the center or the spd.
in 1930 SDP and Centre were in coalition. The Presidency, which in the Weimar system was a popularity contest separate from party politics was held by Paul von Hindenburg of the National Party (a conservative monarchist leaning party popular among the military but minor in the Reichstag) Chancellor Muller of the SPD faced the effects of Great Depression rippling across the Atlantic, which included a polarization in politics beginning in '29 and growing unemployment. The SPD was the most popular party at this time and the cabinet was composed of mostly spd and centre party members. As the numbers of unemployed grew, the gov't was faced with budget crunches including a critical shortfall in the national unemployment insurance. The Centre Party wanted benefits reduced. The SPD wanted the pay-in from employers increased. A compromise was worked out in the cabinet but rejected by the SPD rank and file and others in the Reichstag. His gov't having reached an impasse, Muller resigned the Chancellorship.
Now the institution of Chancellor and President had some "quirks" in the Weimar Constitutional system. One of these was that the President could name the Chancellor. (maybe that was all the time or maybe it was just when no party held a majority in the Reichstag --which was always) Anyway, a Centre party politician named Bruning now became the Chancellor, appointed to the job by President Hindenburg. The shoe was on the other foot. If the Centre party did not care to do things the SPD way in the cabinet, they could see how they liked trying to run the coalition as the junior partner with a substantial SPD superiority in the Reichstag. One would expect a quick turnaround with the senior partner to the coalition returned to the chancellorship in short order
Well here's what happened INSTEAD.
There so happened to be ANOTHER little quirk of the weimar constitution that said that the President could enact anything the Chancellor proposed without the consent of the parliament if the chancellor and the president were in agreement that there was a state of emergency. This nifty law, called Article 48, was supposed to be used only in the event of dire emergencies like wars or insurrections and the like. But there was enough of a loophole there that people who didn't care about democracy could find a way to exploit it. The right people came together and started exploiting it.
Bruning, who personally favored a return to monarchy and to the autocracy of Bismarck, promptly used Article 48 to force through his approach to the unemployment insurance problem. Benefits were cut, indeed unemployed persons eventually found themselve laboring on the estates of Prussian aristocrats. And after that, Bruning continued to resort to Article 48 as he discovered the joys of ruling without having to obtain the consent of the governed. When the stunned parliament eventually tried to vote to suspend his article 48 powers, Bruning got Hindenburg to dissolve the Parliament. In the new elections the Nazis gained so many seats that to oppose them, all the other parties would have to act together including far right splinters together with Centre Party, SPD and the KPD. But the balancing act was not even attempted. Bruning had fallen in love with his Article 48 powers and he had become determined to remake Germany's political institutions into an autocracy. Hindenburg was his "King" figure and he was playing the Cardinal Richelieu or Bismarck "Minister" figure who runs the country for the King by dictat.
But it didn't work out. Bruning fared no better than Muller despite having resorted to dictatorial powers, including summarily dismissing parliament. He was replaced by Centre party backer Franz Von Papen. Von Papen was a land magnate who although involved in politics had never been elected to anything --not by ordinary voters. This strange fact was due to the godlike role of the President under the Weimar Constitution. Hindenburg named von Papen to the Chancellorship just like Bruning, passing over any SPD leaders, despite their status as the larger party in the coalition (a coalition which was no doubt permanently shattered by Bruning's abuses). You could say that at the point of Papen's ascent to the CHancellorship that the Right and the Center were now in an open & unmistakable conspiracy against democracy and the Weimar constitution. Papen would use Article 48 routinely too,like Bruning, but also without any better success. Meanwhile the Nazis had been growing more or less inevitable with every election. They had already leapfrogged the Centre and the SPD to become number one. But their leader, A. Hitler, who never stood for election himself (except for Pres.) was a highly polarizing figure. Hindenburg didn't like him or want to give him the chancellorship. However, von Papen undertakes to do a deal with Hitler. The Brown Shirts had been banned under Bruning for their use of violence to sweeten the electoral results for the Nazis. Hitler tells Papen he will have the Nazis full support if he lifts the ban on the SA brownshirts AND calls for fresh elections immediately. Papen goes for it. The Nazis make big gains and combined with the KPD now have a blocking majority that can stop the functioning of Papen's Centre Party government. Hitler then breaks his promise to support von Papen's government. Von Papen immediately resorts agains to ruling by decree. (meanwhile the police forces of 2/3 of Germany have come under direct control of the chancellorship under the pretext of stopping SA-communist violence.)
The new parliament is seated and soon the KPD moves to repeal one of von Papen's emergency decrees and no-confidence his gov't. Von Papen moves to dissolve the Parliament Again, but the vote is taken 5oo and something to forty something. And yet another round of elections is held. This time the Nazis slip a little. But the damage to the Republic is already too far gone. THe government has been functioning for 3 full years as a dictatorship since Bruning took over as the junior partner of the SPD -Centre coalition and began issuing decrees. Anything the Chancellor can't get agreement on is rammed through by Article 48 decrees signed by the old general von Hindenburg. Anytime the parliament attemtps to repeal these decrees, the Chancellor dissolves parliament. The rotting away of the democracy is revealing something assertive and nasty --sort of like FLorida 2000. It's coming to a head. Von Papen, having lost the support of his cabinet hands his resignation to Hindenburg. A new clown is appointed: Von Schleicher, a personal friend of Hindenburg. His ideas to form a coalition are a joke and his gov't collapses in 50 something days. In the interim, Papen has done another backroom deal with Hitler, Hitler demands the chancellorship and certain other plums. Papen agrees to Hitler as Chancellor with himself in a kind of a co-Chancellorship position and he also gives Hitler control over the Prussian Interior Ministry, ( meaning control over the police in most of the country). Hindenburg can't resist it anymore, and Hitler is appointed Chancellor at the end of January 1933. In the elections of March of that year, the police under Hitler's command hire 50,000 "auxiliaries" who are in fact Brownshirts of the SA to "keep order". And of course they do this by beating up and intimidating voters and parliamentarians of other parties besides the Nazis and the Nationalists. The Kommunists are banned and their Reichstag deputies arrested.
The Reichstag is burned. Hitler demands his Enabling Act vote making him dictator indefinitely and the Centre Party lines up to vote for it along with most of the Nationalists.
The KPD is umm absent let's say. and the SPD the most numerous party after the Nazis, votes en bloc against it. In 60 - 90 days all these SPD deputies are either dead, escaped the country or rotting next to the Kommunists in the first concentration camp.
If you're looking for a "traitorous villain" in the story of 1930-33 Germany that villain is the traditional values-business boosting Catholic Centre Party which ran Germany as a dictatorship for 3 years before Hitler could grab for power, and whose inner circle of powerbrokers did deal after deal with Hitler trying to shore up their own political fortunes instead of tending to their old alliance with the Social Democrats. yes the KPD liked to play a disruptive role but with usually not much more than a dozen deputies in the Reichstag they were a marginal force in the political meltdown of the Weimar Republic.
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