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1930 German federal election

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1930 German federal election
←  1928 14 September 1930  ( 1930-09-14 ) July 1932  →
All 577 seats in the Reichstag
289 seats needed for a majority
Registered 42,982,912 ( Increase 4.3%)
Turnout 82.0% ( Increase6.4 pp )
  First party Second party Third party
 
SPD 1930 leadership.jpg
Adolf Hitler 1932 (cropped).jpg
Ernst Thälmann 1932.jpg
Leader Otto Wels &
Arthur Crispien 		Adolf Hitler Ernst Thalmann
Party SPD NSDAP KPD
Last election 29.8%, 153 seats 2.6%, 12 seats 10.6%, 54 seats
Seats won 143 107 77
Seat change Decrease 10 Increase 95 Increase 23
Popular vote 8,575,244 6,379,672 4,590,160
Percentage 24.5% 18.3% 13.1%
Swing Decrease5.3pp Increase15.7pp Increase2.5pp
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Ludwig Kaas Konkordatsunterzeichnung mini.jpg
AlfredHugenberg1933 (cropped).jpeg
Scholz LCCN2014711328 (cropped).jpg
Leader Ludwig Kaas Alfred Hugenberg Ernst Scholz
Party Centre DNVP DVP
Last election 12.1%, 61 seats 14.2%, 73 seats 8.7%, 45 seats
Seats won 68 41 30
Seat change Increase 7 Decrease 32 Decrease 15
Popular vote 4,127,000 2,457,686 1,577,365
Percentage 11.8% 7.0% 4.5%
Swing Decrease0.3pp Decrease7.2pp Decrease4.2pp
Government before election

First Bruning cabinet
Z ? DDP ? DVP ? WP ? BVP ? KVP

Government after election

First Bruning cabinet
Z ? DDP ? DVP ? WP ? BVP ? KVP

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Federal elections were held in Germany on 14 September 1930. [1] [2] Despite losing ten seats, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the largest party in the Reichstag , winning 143 of the 577 seats, while the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dramatically increased its number of seats from 12 to 107. [3] The Communists also increased their parliamentary representation, gaining 23 seats and becoming the third-largest party in the Reichstag.

Background [ edit ]

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) had won the most votes and was the largest party in every election from 1919 to 1930. They led the coalition government between 1919?1920 and 1928?1930.

After the 1928 German federal election , a grand coalition was formed under the Social Democratic chancellor Hermann Muller . The coalition collapsed on 27 March 1930. President Hindenburg appointed Centre Party politician and academic Heinrich Bruning as chancellor , who formed a minority government.

The new government was confronted with the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression . Bruning disclosed to his associates in the German Labour Federation that his chief aim as chancellor would be to liberate the German economy from the burden of continuing to pay war reparations and foreign debt. This would require an unpopular policy of tight credit and a rollback of all wage and salary increases (an internal devaluation ). The Reichstag rejected Bruning's measures within a month, who then used emergency powers to pass it anyway. The Reichstag rejected the emergency decree with 256 votes from the Social Democrats, the Communists, the German National People's Party and the Nazis. Bruning asked Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag, who promptly did so on 18 July 1930. New elections were held on 14 September 1930.

Electoral system [ edit ]

In 1930, Germany was formally a multi-party parliamentary democracy , led by President Paul von Hindenburg (1925?1934). However, beginning in March 1930, Hindenburg only appointed governments without a parliamentary majority which systematically governed by emergency decrees, circumventing the democratically elected Reichstag.

The electoral law awarded one seat in the Reichstag per 60,000 votes. All citizens over 21 could vote through a system of proportional representation . A new parliament was elected every four years to deal with issues related to taxes, trade, defense, etc. The President was directly elected every seven years and was primarily in control of the armed forces; however, he also had significant powers to dissolve the Reichstag, nominate a Chancellor , veto laws, and invoke article 48.

Campaign [ edit ]

The Centre Party shifted right-ward after Ludwig Kaas became its leader. [4]

The Nazis had increased their share of the vote in state elections since their 1928 federal election result. [5] In spring 1930, Adolf Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as the head of the party's Propaganda Division and Goebbels oversaw the party's Reichstag campaign. [6]

Nazi membership rose from 108,717 in 1928, to 293,000 by September 1930. Another 100,000 people joined the party between the election and end of the year. The party had forty-nine newspapers, six of which were daily. [7]

The SPD designated the "bourgeois block" and the Nazis as their enemies and, with the KPD, held rallies in Berlin on 1 August 1930 under the motto "Never again war". Some 30,000 participated in the SPD rally in the Lustgarten and 15,000 in the KPD demonstration at the Winterfeldtplatz. On 23 August, KPD members attacked a Nazi event in Bunzlau . Three people were killed and two seriously injured in fighting with the police. The KPD election campaign climaxed with a rally in the Berlin Sportpalast on 12 September.

Election poster of the Zentrum party

Results [ edit ]

The election had a voter turnout of 82%, the highest since the 1919 election . [8] The Nazis increased their number of seats from 12 to 107. [9] The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the strongest party and won 143 seats, a loss of 10 seats from the previous election. The only other major party to significantly increase its seats was the Communist Party of Germany , which won 13.13% of the vote, securing 77 seats, 23 more than in the last election. The Centre slightly increased their seat count by 7, equalling 68, but dropped to fourth from third place in their seat count and popular vote in comparison to the 1928 election.

The German National People's Party's (DNVP) support plummeted but managed to secure 41 seats overall. They lost 32 seats from their previously held 73, and dropped to fifth from second, chiefly due to the fragmentation of the party under Alfred Hugenberg's leadership. [10] Due to Hugenberg's more hardline positions, moderate voters moved to the newly-formed Christian Social People's Service (CSVD), Conservative People's Party (KVP), and Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party (CNBL). [11] The German People's Party (DVP) continued to haemorrhage seats, losing 15 and only attaining 4.51% of the popular vote, ceasing to be a notable political force after the July 1932 elections. The 28 other political parties shared the remainder of the votes.

The DNVP received 13% in rural areas, twice as much what it received in urban areas. [12] The German National Association of Commercial Employees reported that half of its members voted for the Nazis. [13]

184 of the seats in the Reichstag were held by parties that refused to participate in any coalition government. [14]

Party Votes % +/? Seats +/?
Social Democratic Party 8,575,244 24.53 ?5.23 143 ?10
Nazi Party 6,379,672 18.25 +15.62 107 +95
Communist Party of Germany 4,590,160 13.13 +2.51 77 +23
Centre Party 4,127,000 11.81 ?0.26 68 +7
German National People's Party 2,457,686 7.03 ?7.22 41 ?32
German People's Party 1,577,365 4.51 ?4.20 30 ?15
Reich Party of the German Middle Class 1,361,762 3.90 ?0.61 23 0
German State Party 1,322,034 3.78 ?1.03 20 ?5
Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party 1,108,043 3.17 +1.31 19 +10
Bavarian People's Party 1,058,637 3.03 ?0.04 19 +2
Christian Social People's Service 868,269 2.48 New 14 New
German Farmers' Party 339,434 0.97 ?0.59 6 ?2
Conservative People's Party 290,579 0.83 New 4 New
Reich Party for Civil Rights and Deflation ?Christian Social Reich Party 271,291 0.78 ?0.88 0 ?2
Agricultural League 193,926 0.55 ?0.10 3 0
German-Hanoverian Party 144,286 0.41 ?0.23 3 ?1
Christian Social Peoples Community 81,550 0.23 New 0 New
Polish People's Party 72,913 0.21 0.00 0 0
Schmalix Greater German List 26,707 0.08 New 0 New
German House and Property Owners' Party 25,530 0.07 ?0.05 0 0
Conservative People's Party ? German-Hanoverian Party 22,218 0.06 New 0 New
Independent Social Democratic Party 11,690 0.03 ?0.04 0 0
Free Association of Craftsmen, Retailers, and Tradesmen 9,531 0.03 New 0 New
Radical German State Party 8,841 0.03 New 0 New
German Unity Party for the True National Economy 6,915 0.02 New 0 New
Disabled Veterans and Survivors of the German Side, Including the Found 6,704 0.02 New 0 New
German Cultural Party of Intellectual Professions, Employees and Officials 6,181 0.02 New 0 New
Tradesmen, Craftsmen, Home Owners 3,644 0.01 New 0 New
Schleswig Club 1,785 0.01 0.00 0 0
Humanity Party and the New Community 1,626 0.00 New 0 New
Evangelical voters 1,326 0.00 New 0 New
Party Against Alcohol 1,171 0.00 New 0 New
Workers Party for Creative Workers 907 0.00 New 0 New
Prussian-Lithunanian People's Party 666 0.00 New 0 New
Renter and People's Reich Party 653 0.00 New 0 New
People's Party of the Lusatian Sorbs 288 0.00 New 0 New
Friesland 237 0.00 0.00 0 0
Total 34,956,471 100.00 ? 577 +86
Valid votes 34,956,471 99.24
Invalid/blank votes 268,028 0.76
Total votes 35,224,499 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 42,982,912 81.95
Source: Gonschior.de

Aftermath [ edit ]

The 1930 election left the Social Democrats and KPD with almost 40 per cent of the seats in the Reichstag between them. In November 1931, the SPD suggested the two parties work together but Thalmann rejected the offer, with the KPD newspaper The Red Flag calling for an “ intensification of the fight against Social Democracy ”. Addressing the Nazi electoral breakthrough in the 1930 elections, Thalmann insisted that if Hitler came to power he was sure to fail and drive Nazi voters into the arms of the KPD. As late as February 1932, Thalmann was arguing that “Hitler must come to power first, then the requirements for a revolutionary crisis [will] arrive more quickly”. [15]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ Nohlen & Stover 2010 , p. 762.
  2. ^ Pollock 1930 .
  3. ^ Nohlen & Stover 2010 , p. 790.
  4. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 189-190.
  5. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 131-132.
  6. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 138.
  7. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 194.
  8. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 140.
  9. ^ Pollock 1930 , p. 993.
  10. ^ Beck, Hermann (2009). The Fateful Alliance: German Conservatives and Nazis in 1933 . Oxford: Berghahn Books. pp. 50?51. ISBN   978-1845456801 .
  11. ^ Bessel, Richard ; Feuchtwanger, E.J. (1981). Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany . Croom Helm. pp. 147, 148, 277. ISBN   085664921X .
  12. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 158.
  13. ^ Childers 1983 , p. 173.
  14. ^ Pollock 1930 , p. 991.
  15. ^ Winner, David. "How the left enabled fascism" . New Statesman .

Works cited [ edit ]

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