because many Communist voters did not follow the party's lead, the referendum failed with only 37.1% of the votes in favor of an early dissolution. State Parliament election 1932 Elections in Prussia and several other states were scheduled to be held after the Reich presidential election of 1932 in which Hindenburg, supported by the German State Party (formerly the DDP), the Centre and the SPD, prevailed over Hitler and Thälmann (KPD). Since Prussia's coalition parties had to assume that the democratic camp would fare badly in view of the political radicalization, the rules of procedure were changed at the instigation of Ernst Heilmann, chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. A preliminary form of a constructive vote of no confidence was introduced to prevent the Minister President from being voted out of office by a purely negative majority – one formed by two parties unwilling to work with one another. From then on, an absolute majority was required for the election of the Minister President. The coalition parties' fears about the 1932 Prussian election were justified. The SPD dropped to 21.2%. The German State Party shrank almost to insignificance with 1.5%. In contrast, the NSDAP grew from 1.8% to 36.7% and became the strongest parliamentary group with 162 seats. The coalition had lost its majority. Together the parties had only 163 seats. With 219 seats, the KPD and NSDAP had a negative majority. The National Socialist Hanns Kerrl became president of the Prussian Parliament. The government then resigned but remained in office on a caretaker basis until a new Minister President could be elected. Similar situations existed in other states of the Reich. The attempt to form a new majority government proved unsuccessful. There were negotiations between the Centre and the NSDAP, but the configuration, which Severing and Braun considered to be a possibility, failed. Nor could a majority be found to again revise the amended rules of procedure. It thus seemed possible that the caretaker government could continue on indefinitely. Ernst Heilmann in particular tried to convince the KPD to tolerate it. Since the KPD had weakened its stance against social fascism in favor of a united front, the attempt had at least some chance at success, but in the end it too failed. Braun had had a physical collapse on the night of 22–23 April in the wake of the exertions of the election campaign. When it became clear