Who Voted For the Nazis?

Alvin Ittoo

WHO VOTED FOR THE NAZIS?

1.The graph, ‘Graph showing % of votes for parties, shows how the Nazis votes rose whilst other parties fell. The table below shows how the votes went.

Percentage of Votes For Parties in Wiemar Republic

This is the data that the graph is done from. You can see that in 1928 the Nazis gained just 2.6% of the vote. This can be attributed to the relative stability of the Stresemann Years. Germany’s economy was being supported by American loans and the country seemed to be back on its feet after the inflation crisis of 1923. The Dawes plan had reduced the annual payments for reparations and as long as America was stable Germany would be to. As u can see from the graph before 1928 the Nazis gained the least amount of votes as people didn’t feel the need to turn to extreme groups. By this time of course Hitler had already changed his policy and was aiming at middle classes and farmers. The farmers in particular would be unhappy with the way farming was and would turn to the Nazis. But even so very few people voted for them at this time. Germans were willing to give democracy a chance and the SPD remained the main party in Weimar, as shown in the graph. However come 1930 things were very different.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 meant Germany suffered. America began calling in the loans and Germany was plunged into depression. Unemployment rose. Now was the Nazis time as people started turning to more radical parties. Many people blamed the depression on jews and so Nazi anti Semitism was popular. Also Hitler had targeted the kind of people likely to be affected by the depression. Middle classes and small business owners would obviously be terribly affected, as well as white collar workers. We know these were the main supporters of the Nazis and so this shows how Hitler aimed at different types of people. By 1932 the Nazis were the biggest party in the reich with 37.3 % of the votes, more than all the middle class parties put together. The decline of middle class parties votes in conjunction with the rise of Nazi support shows how the supporters of the middle class parties turned to Nazi policies. These people that turned to the Nazis were often unemployed and were seeking strong leadership to get Germany out of its depression. In brief, the Nazis gained more support from the middle class, protestants that supported parties like the DDP and DVP.

2. The Nazis gained tremendous support during the years between 1928 and 1933. They became one of the most popular parties in politics. This was achieved by targeting certain areas of society. By looking at age, gender, religion, region and class, we can try and get an idea of who voted for the Nazis. The Wall Street Clash meant that people had reason to turn to extremes and so the Nazis were able to target people that would do so. We can look at different factors to see who voted for the Nazis. I will look at age, class, ...

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Firstly, region. In 1924 10.2% of Lower Bavaria voted for the Nazis. This was a mainly catholic area. However the first big breakthroughs came from rural protestant areas like Schleswig – Holstien. This area was one of the areas where from July 1932 the vote stayed around 50%. And it was here and East Prussia that in 1933 had over 50% of the people in the area voting Nazis. Lower Bavaria was still reasonably high with 39%. The graph entitled ‘Chart showing rise in

votes for regions’ shows how votes rose in each region and which regions had a higher % of Nazi voters. This along with maps and other sources tells us that Nazis supporters were located mainly in the North. The reason being was that these areas were mainly rural and agricultural. The main types of people that lived there were farmers and small business owners. Farmers were one of the first supporters of the Nazis and Hitler made it clear that they’d be important in German society. It was said that ‘Only when Germany is reborn in power…….will the German farmer stand as a free man on free soil serving the German community as the backbone of our people’. So obviously farmers-who had been neglected in the social democrat government and were very hard done by- would like the idea of this. In these areas he promised tax cuts for farmers and protection of food prices. The poster says ‘Free the soil farmers vote for Adolf Hitler’, this shows us how Hitler appealed to farmers. It plays on their sense of importance. He also appealed to small business men. This was with his policies of making trade unions powerless and stopping communism. Also with the depression these business men would want someone to take firm control and lead Germany back to economic security. On the 24th October 1929 the American Stock Market crashed. The USA soon started calling in debts and so Germany suffered. People looked to extremes such as the communists and Nazis. However business men wouldn’t look to communists so Hitler got their support. He said he would rid the country of the Treaty of Versailles and reparations. Hitler blamed this for the depression. Election

posters that showed Hitler being against big business also appealed to small business men. However Hitler wasn’t really against the big business, as long as they weren’t threatening him. In fact he tried to gain some financial backing from top German industrialists. Also in the north were working class areas. He fared well here as most of Nazis members from working classes. As illustrated in the pie chart. It shows membership of the Nazis and what percentage were from what class.

So now we know what regions the Nazis aimed at. Northern, rural and working class areas. In the south there were more cities and it was harder to make an impact here. Nazi rallies had a longer lasting effect in small areas. Also the south was mainly catholic and as they had there own party, the Bavarian Centre Party, they’d be more likely to vote for them. When you couple this with the fact that as Nazi support grew, support for parties that had previously been voted for by protestants declined, it points to protestants voting for Nazis as far as religion goes.

So far as far as finding what kind of people voted Nazi, we have established that they are likely to be from the North and are likely to be protestant. We also have an idea of the kinds of classes that voted as they lived in the north, farmers, small business men and workers.

Another way of looking at who voted for the Nazis it to look at age. Hitler’s new radical ways appealed to younger voters. Looking at party membership in 1930 will show that around 70% were under 40. 37% were under 30 and among party officials 65% were under 40. This shows that it was a very young party. Hitler saw Germany’s youth as very important. When he came to power he’d reward women for having kids and set up youth groups. In 1931 there were more members from the 18 to 30 age group than any other. 61% were 18 to 30 whilst a mere 8% were between 41 and 50. We can assume therefore that as members of the party were mainly young, voters were too. It comes down partly to peer pressure, younger voters would want to vote for a party with members around their age wanting the same things, in theory.

Of Nazi voters in 1930, the majority were male. For example in Bremen 12.9% were male while 11.1 % were female. Men seemed to vote Nazis more in general. This may have been because of the military appearance of them In a country where its history is very militant a group following suit may well b popular among men. Also, men who fought in the war would want to gain revenge for losing, and Nazis policies catered for this. Although the men’s support never declined for the Nazis, they were second to women. In the three years following 1930 women’s support grew and by 1933 in Bremen 34.4% women supported them, whilst 30.8% of men did. This may be because Hitler made women seem very important. He wanted them to have lots of Ayran children. Posters were aimed at women and like I said they were given prizes later on for bearing kids.

Now onto perhaps the defining factor in asking who supported Nazis, class. The areas targeted by Nazis were mainly occupied by farmers, small businesses and middle classes. These were the NSDAP’s main supportes. However Hitler did try to gain support of higher classes. He send out a special pamphlet called ‘The Road to Resurgence’. This was aimed at top industrialists in order to gain funds. Very few were published and it was kept very secret as it may upset Hitlers working class supporters. He argued that capitalists ‘had worked their way to the top through their capacity, and on the basis of this selection they have the right to lead.’ This appealed to some industrialists but most didn’t support Hitler.

The thing about the Nazis was that they could appeal to so many different groups. They told farmers they were the ‘backbone’ if society and that taxes on farmers would be cut. They also said that workers that earned ‘honestly’ that they had to be against capitalism and the ‘Stock Exchange bandits and other blood suckers by’. However, to get support of business, as I have mentioned, he supports capitalism. Hitler was always good at telling people what they want to hear and by doing this he appealed to most people.

So, to answer, who voted for the Nazis? A wide range of people voted for them. Across society you can see people that did. However, I would say, his main supporters were farmers, middle classes and workers. To break it down further, the supporters were generally young voters. They were drawn to the new radical ideals and many were brought up to think they were good. The decline in protestant, middle classes voting for other parties parallels with the rise of votes for Nazis. Therefore these were the people that really started supporting them as protestants had no particular party unlike catholics. Most support came from the North as the Nazis worked harder here. There rallies had a longer lasting effect on people and it was easier to be noticed than in cities. Furthermore to this, any German that hated Jews or the fact that Germany lost the war would support Hitler. In brief Hitler appealed to a wide range of people.