[1] Papen's predecessor as chancellor, Heinrich Brüning, had been unable to build a stable ruling coalition in the Reichstag in order to pass the deflationary austerity measures that he thought were necessary to combat the effects of the Great Depression on the German economy.

[2] With the support of President Paul von Hindenburg, Brüning governed using the emergency decrees authorized in Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

The worsening economy and his growing unpopularity among the people of Germany, combined with a number of policy differences with Hindenburg, caused him to lose the President's confidence by early 1932.

[3] Papen, then of the Catholic Centre Party, had come to Schleicher's attention as a candidate for chancellor through an article he wrote for the newspaper Der Ring in which he called for building a "genuinely conservative state-bloc" to fight the chaos to which he said Germany had been brought by the Weimar democracy.

As a result of the objections, Papen initially wanted to turn down Hindenburg's offer, but the President appealed to his patriotic sense of duty and habit of soldierly obedience.

[9] The cabinet primarily backed the interests of military leadership and the Junker owners of large agricultural estates east of the Elbe river.

[7] The cabinet consisted of the following ministers:[10] Plans for a change to an authoritarian constitution had been taking shape among Hindenburg's close advisors before Papen's chancellorship.

[7] Papen's inaugural policy statement, which was the first that was broadcast over the radio instead of being delivered in person in front of the Reichstag, did not mention the plans for his new state but did unmistakably outline his government's general direction.

He contrasted the moral erosion of the German people, which had been exacerbated by an "unholy class war" and amplified by cultural Bolshevism, to the enduring basis of the Christian worldview.

[8] He ended by saying that his planned dissolution of the Reichstag would result in "the nation being faced with a clear and unambiguous decision as to the forces it is willing to follow on the path to the future.

[12] Per a prior agreement with Hindenburg and Hitler, Papen dissolved the Reichstag on 4 June 1932 and called for new elections in the hope that the Nazi Party would win the most seats and allow him to set up an authoritarian government.