The highest the Nazis ever acheived was 43.9% in March 1933:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_March_1933
Now in November 1933 the Nazi did get 92.11% of the vote, no one else was permitted on the ballot in that election (The 7.89% voted for people who were NOT in the Nazi Party but were sympathetic to the Nazis and thus permitted on the ballot, so effectively it was 100% for the Nazis)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_November_1933
As to Hitler's succession of Hindenburg, when the Enabling Act was passed (the act that gave absolute power to Hitler), technically the right of President Hindenburg was unaffected. Under the Wiemar Republic the President could rule by decree in times of emergencies. Thus the President retained the power to dissolved the German Parliament AND name the Chancellor (Hindenburg could replace Hitler with anyone Hindenburg wanted).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_48_(Weimar_Constitution)
The German Enabling act of 1933, was to give the Chancellor and his cabinet all of the power of the German Reichstag, thus subject Hitler only to the power of the President. Thus it was important for Hitler to assume all of the power of the President into his hands. Hitler kept on the good side of Hindenburg, but Hindenburg was suffering from bad advisers and senility (He was 87 when he died, he had retired from the German Army BEFORE WWI, but called back into service in 1914 but accepted the appointment if he could name his own staff, which was granted and he did).
Hindenburg and Hitler hated each other, but as times went from bad to worse, they were forced to work together. Under the Enabling acts, Hindenburg as President could replace Hitler at any time, but Hitler had enough votes to get what Hindenburg thought was needed to be done. Hindenburg did accept the Nazi's Antisemitism, but in the only case where Hindenburg forced Hitler to do something, Hitler had to change a law removing all Jews from Government positions to include an exception to anyone who had served in the German Army during WWI OR whose Father served in the Army during WWI (Given the nature of WWI and Germany, that excluded MOST people in the Civil Service of Germany, till Hindenburg died and Hitler removed the exemption).
Hindenburg was use to dealing with difficult people, he had named Ludendorff as his Chief of Staff in 1914.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Ludendorff
Ludendorff, had been called a Hitler with a brain. He was also mentally unstable, but a genius at military planning. His planning to defeat the Russians in 1914 at the battle of Tandenburg is studied to this day, as while as the 1918 Spring Offensive.
There is a debate which was the biggest single military operation in history, the Ludendorff's German Spring Offensive of WWI or Desert Storm. Both were MASSIVE operations. Compared to each D-Day was a small attack, and the German attack on Russia in 1941 was three separate operations that were only loosely coordinated. Artillery was massive in the Spring offensive of 1918 while Air Operations were important but minor, the opposite for Desert Storm, where Artillery, while important, was minor compared to the massive Air Attack.
While a Military Genius, he was quick to blame everyone else for his failures (mostly because he tried to do what others had said was impossible, for example knocking out France in 1918 before to many US troops entered France). He is considered the author of the "Stab in the back" theory of why Germany lost WWI. When German failed to defeat France in the Spring Offensive, the German Army was done and even Ludendoff accepted that situation (Come August 1918 Ludendoff was questioning if any German Division would survive the end of August). Thus in defeat Ludendorff turned over the Government of Germany to the German Reichstag to negotiate a peace. When the terms were unacceptable to Ludendoff, he rejected them, even as Germany went into Revolution (The German Revolution of 1919). Ludendoff then said the Revolution and Versailles Treaty were the result of Lefties refusing to do what was needed.
Ludendorff is an interesting person, a Nazi in the 1920s, who turned against the Nazis as they obtained power in the early 1930s. Hindenburg had worked with Ludendorff during WWI, ruling together as a Dictatorship between 1917 and 1918 (Even by passing the Kaiser during that time period). Thus Hindenburg's working with Ludendorff let Hindenburg think he could control Hitler liked Hindenburg had controlled Ludendorff, the problem was Hindenburg was senile by the Hitler was his Chancellor and unlike Ludendorff who viewed Hindenburg as his superior, Hitler was just waiting for Hindenburg to die.
Just a comment that Hindenburg saw an "insane" genius at work in the form of Ludendorff, and thought he could work with Hitler like Hindenburg had worked with Lundendorff. The problem was Lundendorff was just plan off the rocker, but Hitler wanted power and knew how to get it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
