Who voted for Nazis (1928–1933)? On the social composition of voters

Who voted for Nazis (1928–1933)? On the social composition of voters


Shults E.E.

Cand. Sci. (Hist.), Moscow State Regional University, Moscow, Russia nuap1@yandex.ru

ID of the Article: 7218


For citation:

Shults E.E. Who voted for Nazis (1928–1933)? On the social composition of voters. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2018. No 6. P. 104-115




Abstract

The article is devoted to a problem of social composition of voters of NSDAP 1928 to 1933. The author considers concepts of class approach to voters of national socialists, problems of age, gender and confessional division in preferences of voters and also roles of increase in voter turnout and overflowing of electorate between parties as factors for Nazis success. The importance of problem of support the NSDAP by social groups on elections in Weimar republic consists in the further possible conclusions about reasons of incredible rise of the National Socialist Movement and, generally, about the reasons for arrival of Nazis to power. At the same time, today any question in this regard can not be considered solved and causes heated arguments among researchers. The author concludes that the factor of religious affiliation played a role for Zentrum party and Bavarian People’s Party electorate, but was not crucial for NSDAP. The female voices played a role for the Bavarian People’s Party and the Communist Party of Germany, but not for electorate of NSDAP. Voices of young voters at the age of 20– 30 years could not play a crucial role in progress of NSDAP, as well as voters’ turnout.


Keywords
social base of NSDAP; elections in the Weimar republic; arrival of Nazis to the power; electoral history of Germany

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