This document discusses who voted for the Nazi party in Germany in the early 1930s. It presents several perspectives from historians and social scientists. While some argued the typical Nazi voter was young, male, Protestant and middle class, more recent analysis shows that around 40% of Nazi party members and voters came from working class backgrounds. The Nazi vote was relatively low in areas with high unemployment and higher in areas with low unemployment, while the Communist vote was stronger where unemployment was higher. The document discusses some of the challenges in accurately analyzing voter data from this period.

1. NaziActivism
Charlotte Moore

2. “Since the inception of the Nazi
Party, social scientists have
attempted to define its nature in
terms of its membership. Scholars
have described the party variously
as a class movement, a regional
movement, an anti-urban revolt
against modernity, a generational
revolt, even as a collection of
losers, cut-throats and criminals.”
Paul Madden

3. Who voted
for the Nazi
party?
Around 40% of members of the
NSDAP seem to have been of
working-class origins; similarly
40% of the Nazi votes came
from from workers in July
1932.

4. The problems
and issues
Cannot be claimed to be 100% accurate.
Issues with defining white collar worker and
blue collar worker.
Imprecise terminology within source data
meaning results inevitably have a degree of
imprecision.
Data lacks extra information required for
contemporary social class analysis.
Regression analysis works only if strong
statistical assumptions are met by the data.
No guarantee for a total elimination of bias.

5. The voting behaviour of unemployed -
unemployed worker (Arbeiter) & employee
(Angestellte):1932J = July 1932 Reichstag election;
1932N = November 1932; 1933 = March 1933
Who voted for the
NSDAP?
Falter and other historians have
shown that the Nazi vote was
relatively low in the areas of high
unemployment, and high in zones
of low unemployment, whereas the
Communist vote was markedly
stronger in areas of high
unemployment.

6. NSDAP share amongst those eligible to vote:Arbeiter = worker;
Nicht-Arbeiter = non-worker
Bullock, Bracher and
Knauerhase believed the
standard person who voted
for the nazi was young, male,
protestant and a member of
the middle class.
Who voted for the
NSDAP?

7. "We Workers Have
Awakened. We're
Voting National
Socialist."
July 1932 election poster shows
the German worker, enlightened
through Nation Socialism towering
over his opponents.

8. Hitler gained widespread
support across Germany

9. Secondary
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Primary
The Betrayal of the German Worker, VB, No. 224, 28 September 1926.
The Immediate Programme for Creating Employment. Issue 23 of the ‘National Socialist Library Series’, VB, No. 49, 18 February 1932