People's Day election in Gdansk 1933
The election for the 5th People's Day in the Free City of Danzig on May 28, 1933 was shaped by the Nazis' seizure of power in the Reich and led to an absolute majority in the NSDAP in Danzig. It was the last free election in the Free City of Danzig.
initial situation
In the election for the 4th People's Day on November 16, 1930, there was neither a majority for the left nor for the bourgeois parties. The NSDAP, which had won 12 seats, had tipped the scales. German nationalists, center and liberals formed the new Senate Ziehm , which was tolerated by the National Socialists. In the autumn of 1931, an overthrow of the Ziehm Senate was discussed in the NSDAP, but Adolf Hitler decided against it. At the end of 1932 Hitler changed his mind and they waited for an occasion. With the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933, the NSDAP saw the time had come. It withdrew its trust in Senate Ziehm and offered to enter a joint Senate with the bourgeois parties if Hermann Rauschning became Senate President and the NSDAP would provide the Senator for the Interior. The bourgeois parties refused and the Senate resigned. He remained in office until June 20, 1933.
The 1933 election was influenced by the global economic crisis , which had also led to unemployment, social cuts and corporate collapse in Gdansk. Another important influencing factor was the Nazis' seizure of power in the Reich.
The election campaign
The NSDAP election campaign was conducted with a great deal of brutality. Many communist and democratic party election rallies were blown up, and the SA committed a large number of campaigning violence.
The Danziger Neusten Nachrichten , which had previously been close to the DNVP , now reported in the interests of the National Socialists. After the takeover of government in the Reich, the NSDAP experienced a massive increase in membership.
The vote
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| May 28, 1933, election for the 5th People's Day | be right | Seats | ||
| at all | vH | overh | vH | |
| Eligible voters | 233,842 | 57.38 | ||
| Voters | 215.341 | |||
| voter turnout | 92.09 | |||
| invalid votes | 1,213 | 0.56 | ||
| valid votes | 214.128 | 99.44 | 72 | |
| from that: | ||||
| National Socialist German Workers Party (Hitler Movement) | 107,331 | 50.12 | 38 | 52.78 |
| Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Gdansk | 37,882 | 17.69 | 13 | 18.06 |
| Center Party | 31,336 | 14.63 | 10 | 13.89 |
| Communist Party | 14,566 | 6.80 | 5 | 6.94 |
| German National People's Party | 13,596 | 6.35 | 4th | 5.56 |
| Poland | 4,358 | 2.04 | 1 | 1.39 |
| Polish list Doctor Moczynski | 2,385 | 1.11 | 1 | 1.39 |
| Young German movement | 1,698 | 0.79 | - | - |
| German-Gdansk Home Owners Party | 976 | 0.46 | - | - |
Post-election development
After the National Socialists had received an absolute majority of the votes and 38 of 72 seats in the People's Day, Hermann Rauschning (NSDAP) became the new President of the Senate. The Senate Rauschning consisted exclusively of NSDAP members. Following the example of the empire, an enabling law was passed and a number of laws on conformity which were in contradiction to the Danzig constitution . The opposition factions turned to the League of Nations (which was the guarantor of the Free City of Danzig) with complaints about this. However, the League of Nations took no action.
The early Volksstag election in Gdansk in 1935 was under the impression of Nazi terror and massive election fraud and was therefore no longer a free choice.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Dieter Schenk : Danzig 1930–1945. The end of a free city . Ch.links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-737-3 , p. 28 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ StatMDan 1933, p. 28
