Arbeitslosigkeit und Nationalsozialismus: eine empirische Analyse des Beitrags der Massenerwerbslosigkeit zu den Wahlerfolgen der NSDAP 1932 und 1933 [1983]

Abstract

"In social and historical science literature the rise of mass unemployment in Germany until 1933 is often described as causally related to the success of the NSDAP in German elections. Only rarely, however, is the hypothesis concerning the interrelatedness of these two variables adequately founded empirically. An examination of a database covering all districts and administrative reforms instead reveals a negative relation between NSDAP electoral success and figures of unemployment. The analysis of contrast groups shows the variables including the proportion of workers, the proportion of unemployed and the level of urbanization as having a negative effect on the NSDAP's election chances. Seen from their absolute strength, as well as from growth in voters, the NSDAP had more success in regions where the unemployment rate was lower in relation to the average of the Third Reich and vice versa." (author's abstract)