as is Christopher Browning.

IMHO, Hindenburg was was more indecisive and susceptible to influence than McConnell. He was prodded into taking these measures mostly by General Kurt von Schleicher and former Chancellor Franz von Papen, who also made the mistake of thinking Hitler could be pushed around. Again, they wanted his base, mostly the SA, but they were afraid disillusioned Nazis would defect to the Communist party, because a large segment of them were nihilistic anarchists at heart. The Russian Revolution and conspiracy theories spawned by Germany's defeat in WWI created a "terror" of a far left revolution in Germany.