After the 1928 German federal election, a grand coalition was formed under the Social Democratic chancellor Hermann Müller.

President Hindenburg appointed Centre Party politician and academic Heinrich Brüning as chancellor, who formed a minority government.

The Reichstag rejected the emergency decree with 256 votes from the Social Democrats, the Communists, the German National People's Party and the Nazis.

The President was directly elected every seven years and was primarily in control of the armed forces; however, he also had significant powers to dissolve the Reichstag, nominate a Chancellor, veto laws, and invoke article 48.

[7] The SPD designated the "bourgeois block" and the Nazis as their enemies and, with the KPD, held rallies in Berlin on 1 August 1930 under the motto "Never again war".

They lost 32 seats from their previously held 73, and dropped to fifth from second, chiefly due to the fragmentation of the party under Alfred Hugenberg's leadership.

[11] The German People's Party (DVP) continued to haemorrhage seats, losing 15 and only attaining 4.51% of the popular vote, ceasing to be a notable political force after the July 1932 elections.

In November 1931, the SPD suggested the two parties work together but Thälmann rejected the offer, with the KPD newspaper Die Rote Fahne calling for an “intensification of the fight against Social Democracy”.

As late as February 1932, Thälmann was arguing that “Hitler must come to power first, then the requirements for a revolutionary crisis [will] arrive more quickly”.

[15] As a result of the election, Brüning lost his majority in the Reichstag and continued to rule by decree, implementing harsh austerity measures that brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.

[18] A new cabinet was formed under the leadership of Franz von Papen (derisively labelled the "cabinet of barons"[19]), but was unable to form a new majority in the Reichstag, only receiving the support of the German National People's Party (DNVP) and the German People's Party (DVP); after a few months of ineffectual leadership, a snap election was called by Hinderburg.