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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Since the reëlection of President von Hindenburg on April 10, eight German Länder have held parliamentary elections. Five, i.e., Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, Hamburg, and Anhalt, held Landtag elections on April 24; Mecklenburg-Schwerin elected a new parliament on May 4; Oldenburg reconstituted its legislative body on May 29; and on June 19 the voters of Hessen went to the polls (for the fourth time in seven months) to replace the Landtag elected on November 14 and subsequently declared illegal by the courts. These eight Länder comprise eighty-three per cent of the population of Germany, and the elections enumerated have brought into clear relief present political tendencies throughout the country: the rapidly growing strength of National Socialism; the increasing dissatisfaction with Socialistic attempts to overcome the economic crisis; the progressive disappearance of the middle parties, with the exception of the Catholic Center; and the relatively slow growth of Communistic influence. The table on the following page undertakes to present the results of the elections and to show the political status in the seventeen German Länder as it is today.
1 Besides the more important parties were such groups as the Partei der Erwerbslosen, Menschheitspartei, Eadikale Partei, Nationale Minderheiten in Deutschland, and the Nationale Opposition der Vereinigten Reiehsbankläubiger. Of the 22,069,849 votes oast, representing 81 per cent of the qualified voters, five parties—National Socialists, Social Democrats, Center, Communists, and German Nationalists—polled 93 per cent.
2 This figure in former elections was 40,000. For provisions dealing with Prussian Landtag elections, see Verfassung des Freistaats Preussen, November 30, 1920, and the Landeswahlgesetz of December 3, 1920, with supplements.
3 Frankfurter Zeitung, April 26, 1932, p. 5Google Scholar.
4 On the state-wide list of the National Socialists there were the names of 24 active civil servants and 14 pensioned public officials, 10 of whom were former army officers. In both district and state-wide lists, about 25 per cent of the candidates were agriculturists. Frankfurter Zeitung, April 8, 1932.
5 The Social Democratic state-wide list, for example, contained the names of 24 candidates, seven of whom were holding public office, twelve others being executive secretaries or officials of trade union or party organizations.
6 Data concerning the ages of candidates in the Landtag elections are not available. Of 184 National Socialists and Communists elected to the Reichstag in 1930, 20 were under thirty and 104 were between thirty and forty.
7 It is known, for example, that certain industrial organizations in western Germany are quite definitely represented by National Socialists on the board of directors and secretarial staff of the Reichverband der Deutschen Industrie, although it would not be fair to state that this organization is officially National Socialist.
8 It has happened that such organizations as the Deutsche Beamtenbund have made contributions to party war-chests with the understanding that certain nominees would be given advantageous positions on the party lists.
9 Decree of April 13, 1932.
10 Letter of President Hindenburg to Secretary of the Interior Groener, April 15. The opposition of certain army officials and military interests to the dissolution of the S.A. finally led to the resignation of Groener from his post as head of the Department of the Interior.
11 This so-called “National-Concentration” cabinet reflects, in general, the prewar, military, agrarian, and industrial interests which are now to be found in the German Nationalist, and to a certain extent in the National Socialist, party. In a speech before the German Reiehsrat on June 9, the minister of interior (Gayl) stated that he considered monarchy the best form of government for Germany, but that a constitutional reform at present would not be timely. Frankfurter Zeitung, June 10, 1932, p. 1Google Scholar.
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