The electoral breakthrough of the Nazis in the Presidential + Reichstag elections 1929-1933

Impact of Unemployment on Voting

  • Winter of 1932: About 1/3 of German workers unemployed.
  • Overwhelmed unemployment insurance, leading to reliance on local handouts and shanty towns.

Nazi Electoral Success

  • 1928: 0.8 million votes.
  • 1930: 6.4 million votes (107 seats).
  • July 1932: 13.7 million votes (230 seats).
  • Nov 1932: 11.7 million votes (196 seats).

Nazi Voter Base

  • Supported by the Mittlestand, but influenced by religion and local community.
  • Voters lacked faith in the Weimar system and felt their status was threatened.

Emotional Appeal

  • Charismatic leader Hitler, use of symbols and rallies.
  • Appealed to those feeling alienated, especially the mittlestand.
  • Offered a bright future, tapping into unease.
  • Membership turnover indicates strong but unsustainable emotional appeal.
  • Broad Volkspartei promises appealed across classes, especially where community support was lacking.

Working-Class Support

  • Brustein: Blue-collar support due to expectation of continued Weimar welfare benefits.
  • Offered a third way between Marxism and laissez-faire capitalism.
  • Economy to serve the state, supporting farmers through price controls.
  • Rational economic reasons for voting Nazi.

Support from Big Business

  • Hitler courted industrialists; financial backing from IG Farben + Krupps.
  • Support of Hugenberg in 1929 Anti-Young Plan referendum provided mass media access.
  • Gave Nazis respectability by associating with influential circles.

Anti-Semitism

  • May explain early support but not a primary vote-winner.
  • Other parties like DNVP were also anti-Semitic.
  • Hitler downplayed his personal animosity towards Jewish people near elections.
  • Goldhagen: antisemitism was not crucial in Nazi electoral successes.

Fear of Communism

  • Rise of Nazis due to fear of communism amid Weimar's decline.
  • Middle and upper classes saw Nazis and SA as defense against bolshevism.
  • Actions of Bruning and Von Schleicher led to fears of agrarian bolshevism.

Hitler's Role

  • Exploited mass dissatisfaction with Weimar Republic using oratory and charisma.
  • Promised strong government and German pride.
  • Attacked "race enemies" and Marxists.

Propaganda

  • Goebbels: Propaganda was their "sharpest weapon."
  • Reinforced rather than created Nazi ideology.
  • Portrayed Hitler as the solution, communism as the threat, and the government as the problem.
  • Used technology (planes) and trained speakers (6,000 by 1933).
  • Cheap, effective poster campaigns with simple messages.

Propaganda Techniques

  • 1932 Presidential election: Hitler used a plane for campaigning.
  • Slogan: "Our last hope."
  • Distributed mass pamphlets with titles like ‘Immediate Economic Programme’.
  • Tailored speeches to audience problems, vague policies to facilitate this.
  • Used latest technology + traditional methods like rallies and uniforms.
  • Music, lighting, and displays fostered mass suggestion.

Conclusions

  • Propaganda reinforced existing sympathies.
  • Germans voted Nazi for rational economic reasons: public investment, financial control, autarky, and support for farmers.
  • Exploited protests in farming areas.