Who voted for the Nazi's, and why, in the period 1930-32.
The support for the Nazi's rose rapidly during the years 1930-32. They went from being a relatively small party to being the largest in Germany. In the 1930 elections the Nazi's managed to get 6.4 million votes which was equivalent to 18% of all votes cast. This was a major improvement on their last election result, which was a mere 2% in 1928. This was the beginning of a successful period for the Nazi's which culminated in Hitler becoming chancellor. In the elections of July 1932 the Nazi's became the largest party in Germany; with a massive 13.7 million votes and over a third of all votes cast (37%). These new parties mainly come from 3 parties, the DDP, DNVP and DVP. These were mainly middle class parties and they swapped to the Nazi's. There were main groups of middle class voters who supported the Nazi's; these were the white collar workers and the farmers and artisans. They voted for the Nazi's for different reasons, the middle class for higher salaries and the farmers and artisans wanted tariffs to boost food prices. These ideas clashed as the farmers did not want to pay higher taxes to pay for increased salaries and the white collar workers wanted lower food prices. Despite there differences, the middle class groups were united by their shared resentments of loss of status, fear of a communist revolution as a result of the Great Depression, a dislike of their taxes being used to pay for welfare programmes and the dislike of Weimar's 'decadent' experimentalist culture which the Nazi's described as filth and promised to replace it with a return to traditional values and culture. The middle class voters were fragmented between the three main middle class parties, the democrats, populists and nationalists. The political success of the Nazi's was based on their ability to unite the disaffected voters from these three parties and unite them behind Hitler.
The support for the Nazi's rose rapidly during the years 1930-32. They went from being a relatively small party to being the largest in Germany. In the 1930 elections the Nazi's managed to get 6.4 million votes which was equivalent to 18% of all votes cast. This was a major improvement on their last election result, which was a mere 2% in 1928. This was the beginning of a successful period for the Nazi's which culminated in Hitler becoming chancellor. In the elections of July 1932 the Nazi's became the largest party in Germany; with a massive 13.7 million votes and over a third of all votes cast (37%). These new parties mainly come from 3 parties, the DDP, DNVP and DVP. These were mainly middle class parties and they swapped to the Nazi's. There were main groups of middle class voters who supported the Nazi's; these were the white collar workers and the farmers and artisans. They voted for the Nazi's for different reasons, the middle class for higher salaries and the farmers and artisans wanted tariffs to boost food prices. These ideas clashed as the farmers did not want to pay higher taxes to pay for increased salaries and the white collar workers wanted lower food prices. Despite there differences, the middle class groups were united by their shared resentments of loss of status, fear of a communist revolution as a result of the Great Depression, a dislike of their taxes being used to pay for welfare programmes and the dislike of Weimar's 'decadent' experimentalist culture which the Nazi's described as filth and promised to replace it with a return to traditional values and culture. The middle class voters were fragmented between the three main middle class parties, the democrats, populists and nationalists. The political success of the Nazi's was based on their ability to unite the disaffected voters from these three parties and unite them behind Hitler.