Reichstag election 1930
The Reichstag election of September 14, 1930 was the election for the 5th German Reichstag of the Weimar Republic .
prehistory
After the Reichstag election on May 20, 1928 , a grand coalition consisting of the SPD, Zentrum, BVP, DDP and DVP under Chancellor Hermann Müller (SPD) was formed. This last parliamentary government of the Weimar Republic failed on March 27, 1930, whether because of the dispute over a slight increase in unemployment insurance contributions or the intentions of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg , who was striving for an " anti-parliamentary " and " anti-Marxist " presidential cabinet, is in research controversial. Hindenburg appointed the center politician Heinrich Brüning as Reich Chancellor, who formed a minority government without the SPD ( Cabinet Brüning I ). The Reichstag rejected the Reich budget for 1930 presented by Brüning, which was then passed on July 16 as an “ emergency ordinance to secure the economy and finances”. At the request of the SPD on July 18, 1930, the Reichstag then exercised 256 votes from the SPD, KPD, NSDAP and DNVP of its right, as laid down in Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution , to repeal an emergency ordinance. Brüning asked Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag in accordance with Article 25 of the constitution and to schedule new elections. Hindenburg did so on July 18, 1930; the new elections took place on September 14, 1930.
The election campaign
Shortly after the dissolution of the Reichstag, the parties began campaigning. The SPD attached great importance in its election campaign to the NSDAP, which had only received 2.6% of the vote in 1928 but has since gained in state elections. She had posters printed with the words "Against the Citizens' Block and Swastika " and warned against fascism . On August 1st, the SPD and KPD held large rallies in Berlin under the motto “Never again war”. Around 30,000 people took part in the SPD event in the Lustgarten , and around 15,000 in the KPD demonstration on Winterfeldtplatz . On August 23, KPD supporters tried to break into a crowded NSDAP event in Bunzlau . Three people were killed and two seriously injured in the clashes with the police. On September 12, the KPD's election campaign reached its climax with a rally in the Sports Palace .
The DNVP had to deal with internal problems during the election campaign. On July 17, there was a break between the anti-democratic right wing around party chairman Alfred Hugenberg and the moderate circles around Kuno Graf von Westarp . On July 23, part of the moderate wing formed the People's Conservative Party . On August 8, seven members of the Reichstag resigned from the DNVP because they disapproved of Hugenberg's right-wing course. On August 14th, Hugenberg spoke in a campaign speech in the Berlin Sports Palace about a coming “ Third Reich ”.
The DVP tried to form a bourgeois bloc with other parties. On August 7, however, the Economic Party and the Conservative People's Party withdrew from the project. On July 27th the German State Party was founded. a. the majority of the DDP joined.
The NSDAP election campaign was first organized centrally by Joseph Goebbels . The NSDAP denounced the collapse of Germany under the “Weimar System”, conjured up the national community and presented the prevailing global economic crisis as a plot against Germany. Goebbels' instructions were largely without open anti-Semitic propaganda. Instead, national , anti-communist and anti-capitalist slogans now prevailed in the NSDAP's election campaign . In addition, there was a great deal of activism , which made the party appear young, fresh and energetic. On August 10, 400 men tore down the black, red and gold flags at an NSDAP demonstration on Berlin's Schlossplatz . Adolf Hitler was the keynote speaker in more than twenty major rallies between August 3 and September 13. In a Hitler manifesto on September 10th in the Berlin Sportpalast in front of at least 16,000 listeners, it was said: “ National Socialism is fighting for the German worker by taking him out of the hands of his deceivers.” Hitler said: “What we promise is not material improvement for an individual estate, but rather the increase in the strength of the nation, because only this shows the way to power and thus to the liberation of the whole people. "
The vote
The turnout increased by 6.4 percentage points to 82.0%. This means that around 4.2 million more voters went to the polls than in 1928. The winners were the NSDAP (+15.7%) and, to a much lesser extent, the KPD (+2.5%). DVP (−4.2%), SPD (−5.3%) and especially Hugenberg's DNVP (−7.3%) suffered heavy losses.
In the Reichstag elections, the NSDAP achieved the breakthrough with 6.4 million votes after 810,000 in 1928: It became the second largest parliamentary group. It recorded its greatest gains in northern and eastern Germany. In Schleswig-Holstein their share rose from 4% to 27%, in East Prussia , Pomerania , in the province of Hanover and Mecklenburg it also reached over 20%. Goebbels noted in his diary on September 15: “The sports palace is like a madhouse. S. A. carries me across the hall on its shoulders. "
The parties supporting the Chancellor were able to assert themselves, but the hope that the Conservative People's Party would draw a significant number of votes from Hugenberg's DNVP into the government camp was not fulfilled. In August, the Reich Association of German Industry urged its members to support only those parties "that stand on the basis of the constitution and unequivocally advocate the maintenance and development of private business and private property." This was directed against both the Communists and the NSDAP, but the desired basis for the government did not materialize: of the 577 members of the Reichstag, only around 200 supported Brüning. The election result did not raise any hopes that a majority government would be formed, as the economic and political ideas of the SPD and the bourgeois parties diverged widely.
At the opening of the Reichstag on October 13, 1930, the members of the NSDAP all appeared in brown party uniform and ostentatiously violated the uniform ban in Prussia . They did not have to expect criminal prosecution as they enjoyed political immunity . On the same day there were pogrom-like riots in Berlin . Jewish-looking passers-by were insulted and beaten up by SA people, and the shop window was thrown in the Wertheim department store .
One consequence was a massive withdrawal of foreign short-term loans that German banks had taken out all too unscrupulously in the supposed Roaring Twenties . The resulting lack of liquidity and the rate hike with which the Reichsbank tried to stop the loan withdrawals exacerbated the deflationary effects of the current global economic crisis.
Reactions
The morning after the election, the Frankfurter Zeitung commented: "Bitter elections, in which a mood fed by many sources, stirred up by wild hatred, was released into radical ballot papers." In reality, Hitler doesn't even know how to keep his promises.
The Times saw the election as an instinctive response to the ineptitude of the traditional parties, and Le Temps judged worst expectations had been exceeded. In contrast, Lord Rothermere wrotein the Daily Mail that Hitler also offered advantages, since he had built a wall against Bolshevism.
On September 23, President Paul von Hindenburg issued a declaration against foreign press reports that a right-wing coup was imminent in Germany. This was to counter the further withdrawal of foreign loans from Germany.
Results
| Political party | Votes (absolute) |
Votes (in percent) |
Change (% points) |
Sit in the Reichstag |
Change (seats) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) | 8,575,244 | 24.5% | −5.3% | 143 | −10 |
| National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) | 6,379,672 | 18.3% | + 15.7% | 107 | +95 |
| Communist Party of Germany (KPD) | 4,590,160 | 13.1% | + 2.5% | 77 | +23 |
| German Center Party (Center) | 4,127,000 | 11.8% | −0.3% | 68 | +7 |
| German National People's Party (DNVP) | 2,457,686 | 7.0% | −7.3% | 41 | −32 |
| German People's Party (DVP) | 1,577,365 | 4.5% | −4.2% | 30th | −15 |
| Reich Party of the German Mittelstand (Economic Party ) | 1,361,762 | 3.9% | −0.6% | 23 | ± 0 |
| German State Party (DStP) | 1,322,034 | 3.8% | −1.0% | 20th | −5 |
| Christian-National Peasant and Rural People's Party (Rural People) | 1,108,043 | 3.2% | +1.3% | 19th | +10 |
| Bavarian People's Party (BVP) | 1,058,637 | 3.0% | −0.1% | 19th | +2 |
| Christian Social People's Service (CSVD) | 868.269 | 2.5% | - | 14th | +14 |
| German Farmers Party (DBP) | 339.434 | 1.0% | −0.6% | 6th | −2 |
| Conservative People's Party (KVP) | 290,579 | 0.8% | - | 4th | +4 |
| Reich Party for People's Law and Appreciation (People's Law Party) | 271.291 | 0.8% | −0.8% | 0 | −2 |
| Landbund | 193,926 | 0.6% | −0.1% | 3 | ± 0 |
| German-Hanover Party (DHP) | 144.286 | 0.4% | −0.2% | 3 | −1 |
| Others | 291.083 | 0.8% | −0.9% | 0 | ± 0 |
| total | 34,956,471 | 100% | 577 | +86 |
The parties with the strongest votes by constituency ,
the percentage of the strongest party is given
See also
- List of members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic (5th electoral term)
- List of constituencies and constituencies of the Weimar Republic
- Imperial Government (Weimar Republic)
Web links
- Election posters from 1930
- Votes and distribution of seats
- Reiner Zilkenat : The NSDAP and the Reichstag elections of September 14, 1930
References and footnotes
- ↑ The German Empire. Reichstag election 1930 Andreas Gonschior.
- ↑ The German Empire. Reichstag election 1928 Andreas Gonschior.
- ↑ so Hindenburg's choice of words based on a note by Kuno Graf Westarp from January 15, 1930. In: Gerhard Schulz (Hrsg.): Politics and Economy in the Crisis 1930-1932. Sources on the Brüning era . Droste, Düsseldorf 1980, p. 18.
- ↑ Eberhard Kolb : The Weimar Republic . Oldenbourg, Munich 1988, p. 200 f.
- ^ Gerhard Schulz: From Brüning to Hitler. The change in the political system in Germany 1930–1933 (= between democracy and dictatorship. Constitutional policy and imperial reform in the Weimar Republic. Vol. 3). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1992, p. 115 ff.
- ^ Gerhard Paul : Uprising of the pictures. Nazi propaganda before 1933 . JHW Dietz Nachf., Bonn 1990, pp. 90-94.
- ↑ Michael Mayer : NSDAP and anti-Semitism 1919–1933 . In: Munich Discussion Paper , No. 2002-5, ub.uni-muenchen.de (PDF; 361 kB) accessed on January 9, 2011, pp. 10, 17 f. and more often.
- ↑ Ian Kershaw: Hitler 1889-1936 , Stuttgart, 2nd ed. 1998, 9th chapter, p. 418.
- ↑ Chronik 1930, Chronik Verlag, 1989, p. 142.
- ^ Ian Kershaw: Hitler 1889-1936 , Stuttgart, 2nd ed. 1998, 9th chapter, p. 419.
- ^ Gerhard Schulz: From Brüning to Hitler. The change in the political system in Germany 1930–1933 . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1992, p. 732.
- ↑ Gerd Hardach: World market orientation and relative stagnation. Monetary Policy in Germany 1924–1931 . Publishing house Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1976, p. 119 ff.
- ↑ Chronicle 1930 . Chronik Verlag, 1989, p. 159.
- ↑ Joachim C. Fest: Hitler. The ascent , 4th book, 2nd chapter: The landslide . Ullstein 1978, p. 403.
.svg){kind=small}