 By the time of the 1933 Reichstag elections, after Hitler had already seized power, local support for the Nazis had swollen to 95.9%.Hitler's success in these elections paved the way for his Enabling Act of 1933 ("Ermächtigungsgesetz"), thus starting the Third Reich in earnest.Beginning in 1945, the Palatinate lay within the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate and was in the course of series of administrative reforms in 1968 united with Rhenish Hesse.