Economic debts and political gains: electoral support for the NAZI party in agrarian and commercial sectors, 1928-1933

Abstract

Es ist inzwischen eine gesicherte Tatsache, daß die NSDAP am besten in den protestantischen ländlichen Gebieten Deutschlands und bei den (wieder protestantischen) Selbstständigen abschnitt. Beide Gruppen wurden durch die Weltwirtschaftskrise besonders hart getroffen. Der vorliegende Beitrag überprüft mittels einer Regressions- und Pfadanalyse, inwieweit die wirtschaftliche Krise und die mit ihr einhergehende Verschuldung des 'alten Mittelstands' zu den starken Affinitäten zum Nationalsozialismus beigetragen hat. Anhand der Wahlunterlagen von 1928-1933 läßt sich der Zusammenhang bestätigen. (pmb)

'It is by now a well-established fact that the NSDAP fared best in the protestant rural parts of Germany and among the (again protestant) self-employed. Both groups were affected during the depression by decreasing prizes, reduced business transactions and lower income. The following analysis is trying to figure out by means of correlation, regression and path analysis what part was played by the economic crisis and especially agrarian and non-agrarian debts in the genesis of this very strong affinity of the protestant farming and nonfarming old middle class to National Socialism. The results of various bivariate and multivariate analyses quite strongly indicate that there was an independent effect of the incidence of agrarian and non-agrarian debts on the electoral success of the Hitler movement. We may thus conclude that there is indeed a very high probability that the relative numerical significance of economic debts furthered the rise of National Socialism at the ballot box.' (author's abstract)