Germany's communists were a weaker revolutionary force by the 1930s

Could Germany's communists have taken power if Hitler had been killed in the late 1930s?

No. The movement of the 1930s lacked the revolutionary strength it had shown during the violent struggles of 1918-1919 and the early 1920s.

The strongest case for a communist seizure of power belongs to 1918-1919, when armed conflict with the Freikorps made revolution a real possibility. By the 1930s, the movement had changed in organization and behavior. Membership totals alone did not prove that it could seize state power after Hitler's removal. The party's highly disciplined, rule-bound demonstrations provide a humorous illustration of how far it had moved from an organization prepared to force a revolution.