1930 German federal election

none September 2022 Weimar Republic parliamentary 1928 German federal election 1928 yes 1930 09 14 July 1932 German federal election Jul 1932 All 577 seats in the Reichstag 289 42,982,912 ( 4.3%) 82.0% (6.4pp) SPD 1930 leadership.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Otto Wels &Arthur Crispien Social Democratic Party of Germany 29.8%, 153 seats 143 10 8,575,244 24.5% 5.3 pp Adolf Hitler 1932 (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Adolf Hitler Nazi Party 2.6%, 12 seats 107 95 6,379,672 18.3% 15.7 pp Ernst Thälmann 1932.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Ernst Thälmann Communist Party of Germany 10.6%, 54 seats 77 23 4,590,160 13.1% 2.5 pp Ludwig Kaas 1928 Crop.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Ludwig Kaas Centre Party (Germany) 12.1%, 61 seats 68 7 4,127,000 11.8% 0.3 pp AlfredHugenberg1933 (cropped).jpeg 120 120 160 0 0 Alfred Hugenberg German National People's Party 14.2%, 73 seats 41 32 2,457,686 7.0% 7.2 pp Scholz LCCN2014711328 (cropped).jpg 140 120 160 0 10 Ernst Scholz German People's Party 8.7%, 45 seats 30 15 1,577,365 4.5% 4.2 pp 450px Results by electoral constituency 450px Results by district and independent city 450px Results for each party Government First Brüning cabinet Z–DDP–DVP–WP–BVP–KVP Government after election First Brüning cabinet Z–DDP–DVP–WP–BVP–KVP A federal election was held in Germany on 14 September 1930 to elect the fifth Reichstag of the Weimar Republic.Nohlen Stöver 2010 762 Despite losing ten seats, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) remained the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 143 of the 577 seats, while the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dramatically increased its number of seats from 12 to 107.Nohlen Stöver 2010 790 The Communists also increased their parliamentary representation, gaining 23 seats and becoming the third-largest party in the Reichstag. The government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre Party lost its majority in the Reichstag as a result of the election. With President Paul von Hindenburg's support, his new cabinet became the first of the three presidential cabinets that governed through presidential emergency decrees rather than the parliament.Winkler Heinrich August Heinrich August Winkler Der Lange Weg Nach Westen C. H. Beck 2000 978-3-406-66049-8 1 Munich 488 ff de The Long Road to the West Background After the 1928 German federal election, a five-party grand coalition was formed under Hermann Müller of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Following the collapse of the coalition on 27 March 1930, President Hindenburg appointed Centre Party politician Heinrich Brüning as chancellor. He formed a seven-party coalition government that was two seats short of a majority and did not include the SPD, the party with the most seats in the Reichstag.26 October 2010 Heinrich Brüning https://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/finde/langDatensatz.php?urlID=1585&url_tabelle=tab_person 30 May 2025 Internet-Portal "Westfälische Geschichte" de Brüning's government was confronted with the economic crisis caused by the Great Depression in Germany. He sought to balance the budget and stimulate exports through a policy of deflation which would require an unpopular policy of tight credit and a rollback of wage and salary increases (an internal devaluation).Patch William L. Christian Democratic Workers and the Forging of German Democracy Cambridge University Press 2018 978-1-108-42411-0 Cambridge, UK 22–23 The Reichstag rejected Brüning's budgetary measures in July. With the backing of President Paul von Hindenburg, the bill was enacted using emergency powers allowed under the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag then overturned the emergency decree 236 to 222, with the yes votes coming from the Social Democrats, Communists, Nazis and a minority of the German National People's Party.Winkler Heinrich August Heinrich August Winkler Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie C.H. Beck 1993 3-406-37646-0 Munich 387 de Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the First German Democracy At Brüning's request, Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag on 18 July 1930.Timeline of the Weimar Republic: July 1930 https://www.weimarer-republik.net/en/weimar-gateway/timeline-of-the-weimar-republic/1930/july-1930/ 30 May 2025 The Weimar Republic - Germany’s first democracy The new election was held on 14 September 1930. Electoral system Reichstag (Weimar Republic)#Electoral systemThe Reichstag was elected via party list proportional representation. For the purpose, the country was divided into 35 multi-member electoral districts. A party was entitled to a seat for every 60,000 votes won. It was calculated via a three-step process on the constituency level, an intermediate level which combined multiple constituencies, and finally nationwide, where all parties' excess votes were combined. In the third nationwide step, parties could not be awarded more seats than they had already won on the two lower constituency levels. Due to the fixed number of votes per seat, the size of the Reichstag fluctuated between elections based on the number of voters.Aleskerov F. Holler M.J. Kamalova R. 21 February 2013 Power distribution in the Weimar Reichstag in 1919–1933 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10479-013-1325-4 Annals of Operations Research 215 April 2014 25–37 10.1007/s10479-013-1325-4 subscription The voting age was 20 years. People who were incapacitated according to the Civil Code, who were under guardianship or provisional guardianship, or who had lost their civil rights after a criminal court ruling were not eligible to vote.Reichswahlgesetz. Vom 27. April 1920 Reich Electoral Law of 27 April 1920 http://www.documentarchiv.de/wr/1920/reichswahlgesetz_1920.html 16 February 2025 document Archiv de The president was directly elected every seven years. He was head of the armed forces and had significant powers to dissolve the Reichstag, nominate a chancellor and invoke emergency powers through Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.The Weimar Republic (1918–1933) https://webarchiv.bundestag.de/archive/2016/0318/htdocs_e/artandhistory/history/parliamentarism/weimar.html 24 May 2025 Deutscher BundestagWeimar constitution In 1930, Germany was formally a multi-party parliamentary democracy, with President Paul von Hindenburg (1925–1934) the head of state. However, beginning in March 1930, Hindenburg appointed governments without a parliamentary majority which systematically governed by emergency decrees, circumventing the democratically elected Reichstag. Campaign The Centre Party shifted to the right after Ludwig Kaas became its leader.Childers 1983 189–190 The Nazi Party had increased their share of the vote in state elections since the 1928 federal election.Childers 1983 131–132 In spring 1930, Adolf Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels head of the party's Propaganda Division, and he oversaw the party's Reichstag campaign.Childers 1983 138 Nazi Party membership rose from 108,717 in 1928 to 293,000 by September 1930. Another 100,000 people joined the party between the election and end of the year. The party had forty-nine newspapers, six of which were daily.Childers 1983 194 The SPD designated the "bourgeois block" of centrist parties and the Nazis as their enemies and, with the KPD, held rallies in Berlin on 1 August 1930 under the motto "Never again war". Some 30,000 people participated in the SPD rally in the Lustgarten and 15,000 in the KPD demonstration at the Winterfeldtplatz. On 23 August, KPD members attacked a Nazi event in Bunzlau. Three people were killed and two seriously injured in fighting with the police. The KPD election campaign climaxed with a rally in the Berlin Sportpalast on 12 September.June 2025 thumb|Election poster of the Centre Party The text reads: "Elect the leaders of the German Centre Party, the men of action, of truth and responsibility; the guarantors of reconstruction, the opponents of slogans and of the radical incitement of the people! Elect List 3." Results The election had a voter turnout of 82%, the highest since the 1919 election.Childers 1983 140 The Nazis increased their number of seats from 12 to 107.Pollock 1930 993 The Social Democrats (SPD) remained the strongest party with 143 seats, a loss of 10 seats from the 1928 election. The only other major party to significantly increase its seats was the Communist Party, which won 13% of the vote, securing 77 seats, 23 more than in the previous election. The Centre Party increased their seat count by seven to 68 but dropped to fourth from third place in both seat count and popular vote when compared with the 1928 election. The German National People's Party's (DNVP) support plummeted. They lost 32 of their previous 73 seats and dropped to fifth from second, chiefly due to the fragmentation of the party under Alfred Hugenberg's leadership.Beck Hermann The Fateful Alliance: German Conservatives and Nazis in 1933 Oxford Berghahn Books 2009 978-1845456801 50–51 Due to his more hardline positions, moderate voters moved to the newly formed Christian Social People's Service (CSVD), Conservative People's Party (KVP), and Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party (CNBL).Bessel Richard Richard Bessel Social Change and Political Development in Weimar Germany Feuchtwanger E.J. Croom Helm 1981 085664921X 147, 148, 277 The DNVP received 13% of the vote in rural areas, twice as much as it received in urban areas.Childers 1983 158 The German People's Party (DVP) continued to haemorrhage seats, losing 15 and only attaining 4.5% of the popular vote. They ceased to be a notable political force after the July 1932 elections. The 28 other political parties shared the remainder of the votes. In his book Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, Seymour Martin Lipset argued that the majority of NSDAP's new voters came from "liberal bourgeois center parties", which, with the exception of the Catholic Centre Party, lost almost 80% of their popular support.Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics Seymour Martin Lipset Seymour Martin Lipset Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1960 978-0-8018-2522-4 141 This was substantiated by other political scientists such as Rudolf Heberle de Rudolf Heberle, who noted that "the conservatives were weakest where the Nazis were strongest and the Nazis were relatively weak where the conservatives were strong",From Democracy to Nazism: A Regional Case Study on Political Parties in Germany Rudolf Heberle :de:Rudolf Heberle Grosset & Dunlap 1970 9780865270763 113 as well as Günther Franz, who wrote that "the majority of the National Socialist voters came from the bourgeois center parties."3486409832 Günther Franz Günther Franz Die politischen Wahlen in Niedersachsen 1867 bis 1949 de Bremen-Horn Walter Dom Verlag 1957 28 This analysis was challenged by Karl O'Lessker, who instead claimed that the NSDAP's surge in support between the 1928 election and the 1930 election was due to attracting former non-voters and appealing to conservatives who previously voted for the German National People's Party.O'Lessker Karl 1968 Who Voted for Hitler? A New Look at the Class Basis of Naziism https://www.jstor.org/stable/2775640 American Journal of Sociology 74 1 63–69 0002-9602 O'Lessker's counter-argument was widely debated and criticized by scholars such as Allan Schnaiberg, who argued that O'Lessker's interpretation of statistical data carried "major errors" and was of "questionable validity".Schnaiberg Allan Allan Schnaiberg A Critique of Karl O'Lessker's 'Who Voted for Hitler?' American Journal of Sociology 74 6 1969 10.1086/224723 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/224723 subscription According to Abraham H. Miller & James S. Robbins, while "even after the criticism of his analysis, O'Lessker refused to concede that it was anything other than defecting Nationalists and previous non-voters who transformed the Nazis into Germany's second largest party", his "analysis did not carry the day, and Lipset's interpretation remains the one most widely accepted".Who Did Vote for Hitler? A Reanalysis of the Lipset/Bendix Controversy Abraham H. Miller James S. Robbins Polity 21 4 1989 University of Chicago Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/3234718 664 The German National Association of Commercial Employees reported that half of its members voted for the Nazis.Childers 1983 173 184 of the seats in the Reichstag were held by parties that refused to participate in any coalition government.Pollock 1930 991 File:Weimar Reichstag 1930.svg Social Democratic Party 8575244 −5.23 143 −10 Nazi Party 6379672 +15.62 107 +95 Communist Party of Germany 4590160 +2.51 77 +23 Centre Party 4127000 −0.26 68 +7 German National People's Party 2457686 −7.22 41 −32 German People's Party 1577365 −4.20 30 −15 Reich Party of the German Middle Class 1361762 −0.61 23 0 German State Party 1322034 −1.03 20 −5 Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party 1108043 +1.31 19 +10 Bavarian People's Party 1058637 −0.04 19 +2 Christian Social People's Service 868269 New 14 New German Farmers' Party 339434 −0.59 6 −2 Conservative People's Party 290579 New 4 New Reich Party for Civil Rights and Deflation–Christian Social Reich Party 271291 −0.88 0 −2 Agricultural League 193926 −0.10 3 0 German-Hanoverian Party 144286 −0.23 3 −1 Christian Social Peoples Community 81550 New 0 New Polish People's Party 72913 0.00 0 0 Schmalix Greater German List 26707 New 0 New German House and Property Owners' Party 25530 −0.05 0 0 Conservative People's Party–German-Hanoverian Party 22218 New 0 New Independent Social Democratic Party 11690 −0.04 0 0 Free Association of Craftsmen, Retailers, and Tradesmen 9531 New 0 New Radical German State Party 8841 New 0 New German Unity Party for the True National Economy 6915 New 0 New Disabled Veterans and Survivors of the German Side, Including the Found 6704 New 0 New German Cultural Party of Intellectual Professions, Employees and Officials 6181 New 0 New Tradesmen, Craftsmen, Home Owners 3644 New 0 New Schleswig Club 1785 0.00 0 0 Humanity Party and the New Community 1626 New 0 New Evangelical voters 1326 New 0 New Party Against Alcohol 1171 New 0 New Workers Party for Creative Workers 907 New 0 New Prussian-Lithunanian People's Party 666 New 0 New Renter and People's Reich Party 653 New 0 New People's Party of the Lusatian Sorbs 288 New 0 New Friesland 237 0.00 0 0 268028 +86 42982912 Gonschior.de Aftermath The 1930 election left the Social Democrats and KPD with almost 40 percent of the seats in the Reichstag between them. In November 1931, the SPD suggested that the two parties work together, but KPD leader Ernst Thälmann rejected the offer, with the KPD newspaper Die Rote Fahne calling for an “intensification of the fight against Social Democracy”. Addressing the Nazi electoral breakthrough in the 1930 elections, Thälmann insisted that if Hitler came to power he was sure to fail and drive Nazi voters into the arms of the KPD. As late as February 1932, Thälmann was arguing that “Hitler must come to power first, then the requirements for a revolutionary crisis [will] arrive more quickly”.Winner David How the left enabled fascism https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/10/how-left-enabled-fascism New Statesman The German newspaper General-Anzeiger (and other papers) reported on a dispute in 1930 between the Nazi Party and the German National People's Party (DNVP), their representatives being Wilhelm Frick and Oskar Hergt respectively, concerning the seating arrangement in the Reichstag after the election:General-Anzeiger. 1889-1945 - Deutsches Zeitungsportal https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/Z6PF6KV6MPQT4VLMIEK2B2LGZOS6YWUY?issuepage=1 www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de General-Anzeiger 15 April 2026 deVolksblatt für Harburg, Wilhelmsburg und Umgegend - Deutsches Zeitungsportal https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/IXCYEBS6AQVXUE57UMFCLXQX7GHSFLO7?query=%22weitesten%20rechts?%22&issuepage=1 www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de 24 July 2026 deWho is furthest to the right? Berlin, September 23. In the Reichstag on Tuesday afternoon, President Löbe gathered representatives of the various parties to discuss the question of seating, which had become difficult due to the increase in the number of seats. At the end of the meeting, a dispute arose between the representatives of the German Nationals and the National Socialists over which of the two parties was the more explicitly right-wing party. Representative Hergt once again asserted his party's claim to the seat on the far-right wing of the House. Representative Dr. Frick protested against this demand. He believed that this question had been settled once and for all, namely in the sense that the National Socialists were the most right-wing party. The claim of the National Socialists was provisionally recognized in today's discussion, however subject to any agreement between the two parties or any other decision by the Council of Elders after the Reichstag has convened. As a result of the election, Brüning was not able to form a majority in the Reichstag and continued to rule by decree, implementing harsh austerity measures that brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.Halperin Samuel William http://archive.org/details/germanytrieddemo00halp Germany tried democracy; a political history of the Reich from 1918 to 1933 1965 New York, W.W. Norton Internet Archive 978-0-393-00280-5 449 Governance by decree became the new norm and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government.Halperin Samuel William http://archive.org/details/germanytrieddemo00halp Germany tried democracy; a political history of the Reich from 1918 to 1933 1965 New York, W.W. Norton Internet Archive 978-0-393-00280-5 403 Following the 1932 presidential election, the newly re-elected Hindenburg refused to sign any more decrees, and Brüning resigned.Strauss Franz Josef Die Erinnerungen 1987 27 A new cabinet was formed under the leadership of Franz von Papen (derisively labelled the "cabinet of barons"1933-02-06 GERMANY: Hitler Into Chancellor https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,745087,00.html 2024-06-29 Time en-US 0040-781X), but he was unable to form a majority in the Reichstag, receiving support only from the German National People's Party (DNVP) and the German People's Party (DVP); after a few months of ineffectual leadership, Hindenburg called a snap election.Henry Ashby Turner http://archive.org/details/hitlersthirtyday00turn Hitler's thirty days to power 1996 Addison-Wesley Internet Archive 978-0-201-40714-3 8 Reactions The success of the Nazi Party in the election lead to a number of differing reactions. On 31 December 1930, the German newspaper Annaburger Zeitung reprinted a story from Völkischer Beobachter concerning a poll about possible involvement of the Nazi Party in government:Annaburger Zeitung : Wochenblatt für Annaburg und die umliegenden Gemeinden; amtliches Publikations-Organ für Amts- und Gemeinde-Behörden - Deutsches Zeitungsportal December 31, 1930 https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/L7X5ZZZKJ6NWF273LXOXRZ2E6IQX42GC?query= 15 April 2026 deThe Participation of the National Socialists in the Government. What the Völkische Beobachter says about it: Since the new elections to the Reichstag, the question of a reorganization of the Reich government continues to be vigorously discussed in public. The main issue is whether the National Socialists should enter the Reich government on the basis of their great electoral success or not. Left-leaning circles have repeatedly spoken out against the participation of the National Socialists in government affairs, while the parties to the right of the Center Party are actively advocating for the involvement of the National Socialists in the government. A right-wing Berlin newspaper recently conducted a survey among right-wing economists and politicians on the expediency of National Socialist participation in the Reich government. This survey came to the overwhelming conclusion that the National Socialists should be given the opportunity to assume responsibility in the Reich government. Among others, former Reichsbank President Dr. Schacht and the People's Party Reichstag deputy Colonel General von Seekt spoke in favor of this. On the same day, the Annaburger Zeitung reported on French reactions to the 1930 German federal election:Annaburger Zeitung : Wochenblatt für Annaburg und die umliegenden Gemeinden; amtliches Publikations-Organ für Amts- und Gemeinde-Behörden - Deutsches Zeitungsportal https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/newspaper/item/L7X5ZZZKJ6NWF273LXOXRZ2E6IQX42GC?query= www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de 15 April 2026 de Germany and France. It will not be so easily forgotten in Germany that, unlike America and England, France responded to the election result of September 14th with a comprehensive withdrawal of the credit invested in our economy. Twice, then, Paris had used this credit policy weapon for a purely power-political purpose: in 1929, to force Germany to accept the Entente demands at the Young Conference in Paris. And a few weeks ago, this weapon was used again to prevent what France considered an imminent shift in German politics to the right. Thus, one finds in a right-wing Parisian newspaper the view that only the fear of a "new credit freeze"—the concession inherent in it is, incidentally, quite valuable!—is preventing Germany from "throwing itself into the arms of Hitler's people" already; for Germany and its government are undoubtedly moving further and further to the right. References Works cited Childers Thomas Thomas Childers The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919–1933 University of North Carolina Press 1983 0807815705 Nohlen Dieter Philip Stöver Elections in Europe: a data handbook 2010 Nomos Verl.-Ges Baden-Baden 9783832956097 1. Pollock James James K. Pollock The German Reichstag Elections of 1930 American Political Science Review American Political Science Association 1930 24 4 989–995 10.2307/1946755 1946755 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1946755 Germany Federal Category:Federal elections in the Weimar Republic Germany