Liberals into Nazis

George S. Vascik

Miami University Hamilton Downtown

March 5, 2010

Liberals into Nazis

• My project– Sources– Historical GIS

• Why were Germans who voted Liberal before World War I early supporters of the Nazis?– What did German Liberals believe?– What my research shows

My project: Peasants and Jews

Quantity of data

• 37 newspapers and records found in 30 archives and libraries

• 290,000+ independent; 120,000+ dependent variables for 582 polling places

• 2000+ hours to create database; 1500+ hours to create GIS; 200+ hours for conference papers

Vascik with 1/35 of his data set

simple GIS

GIS and more discrete units

GIS and data over time

Focus area of this study

Hamburg

Bremen Berlin

Polling places

Types of data

• village-level election results

• population and area• soil and landscape

type• land tax• livestock holdings• confession

• settlement types• railroads,

transportation connectivity

• lists of supporters with occupational information

• campaigning (ads and tempo)

Findings on pre-War Agrarianism and anti-Semitism• before the Great War, party-political anti-

Semites were contained within a broad Agrarian-led coalition

• the most important variables in determining Agrarian voting patterns were tax valuation, population density, and transportation connectivity

• landscape form (Marsch, Geest, or Moor) framed the Agrarian/Liberal competition

Agrarian dominance, 1893-1912

The Impact of the Great War

• “no War, no Hitler”

• The Reichstag election of May 1924

• The success of the Racist (Völkisch) coalition, which included the Nazis

1924_1 1928 1930 1932_1

P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2

All/tax hectare 0.907 0.0 0.273 0.2 0.444 0.1 0.000 5.9

All/pop. density 0.295 0.2 0.728 0.0 0.750 0.0 0.351 0.2

All/RR distance 0.178 0.8 0.119 1.1 0.017 3.0 0.776 0.0

1924_1 1928 1930 1932_1

P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2

All/tax/density 0.576 0.2 0.536 0.2 0.729 0.1 0.000 6.4

All/tax/distance 0.398 0.9 0.156 1.7 0.025 3.8 0.096 2.2

All/density/dist 0.285 1.2 0.223 1.4 0.057 3.0 0.118 2.0

All/den/tax/dist 0.454 1.2 0.249 1.9 0.061 3.9 0.015 4.9

Determinants of Racist success in all villages(multiple variables)

Determinants of Racist success in all villages(single variable)

Racist percentage of vote,1924

Racist percentage of vote,1924

VSB

Racist percentage of vote,1924Wittmund

Bremervörde

Völkisch votes in relation to pre-War Agrarian hegemony, May 1924

Völkisch votes in relation to pre-War Liberal hegemony, May 1924

1924_1 1928 1930 1932_1

P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2

Ag/tax hectare 0.000 13.8 0.000 12.9 0.000 12.4 0.000 7.4

Ag/pop. density 0.000 13.4 0.000 11.1 0.000 12.3 0.027 0.5

Ag/RR distance 0.000 11.3 0.007 4.5 0.001 7.2 0.001 7.2

1924_1 1928 1930 1932_1

P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2 P value

R2

Ag/tax/density 0.000 14.3 0.000 13.0 0.000 12.5 0.000 7.9

Ag/tax/distance 0.000 12.9 0.020 4.5 0.003 7.3 0.000 9.1

Ag/density/dist 0.000 11.7 0.018 4.6 0.003 7.2 0.006 5.7

Ag/den/tax/dist 0.000 13.7 0.040 4.6 0.007 7.3 0.000 11.9

Determinants of Racist success Liberal villages(multiple variables)

Determinants of Racist success in Liberal villages(single variable)

Understanding anti-Semitism

• Why did the anti-Semitic Racist parties exert such appeal in traditionally Liberal areas after 1918?– “Triumph on the Periphery”

• Why was Nazism resisted in Conservative and traditionalist areas?– “Guardians of Tradition or Agents of

Change?”

Why Wittmund?

Votes for the VSB in the election of May 1924

Historic political variables

Post-War political landscape

German liberalism• What did German liberals believe?

– Nationalism, a strong Germany– Rule of law and constitutional order

• Neither “democratic” nor egalitarian

– “modern”• Secularist, opposed to religious orthodoxy• Pro-capitalist market economy

– Education - “Bildung”

• Who was Liberal?– Most economically progressive and market-integrated farmers– Small business owners, merchants– The local “great and good”

Why Liberals became Nazis

• Fear of revolution

• Economic trauma

• Effective Racist propaganda

Why Liberals became Nazis

• Fear of revolution– Proximity to port cities and

naval bases– Workers’ and Soldiers’

Councils (soviets)– Looting, strikes– Presence of Home

Defense Forces– The “Jewish” nature of the

revolution– Republican parties seen

as supporters and beneficiaries of the revolution

Revolutionary marines in Wilhelmshaven

Why Liberals became Nazis

• Economic trauma– Confiscatory nature of

the war economy and economic controls

– Open markets - loss of agricultural protection under the Treaty of Versailles

– Inflation and stabilization• Best farmers took on

most debt• Credit shortage• 30% interest

Why Liberals became Nazis

• Effective propaganda– Formerly Liberal

areas had least experience of modern politics

– Proximity to small Racist groups in harbor towns

– Hard-driving, young activists

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Jan Blankemeyer

Coming in April

• If Liberals were drawn to Nazism, but about Conservatives?

• “Loyal to the End: Ludwig Alpers and the Monarchist Opposition to the Rise of National Socialism”

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Ludwig Alpers

http://www.peasantsandjews.org

http://www.muohio.edu/vascikgs/