Weimar Election Maps II

[minionofmidas]

It's not perfect to navigate, but the 1933 Reichstag elections by district are here.

Now all we need is a map of the boundaries at that precise point...

[minionofmidas]

Thanks Hans, beautiful link!

[minionofmidas]

Playing around with 1919 election results... the way the USPD received votes in random outcrops is perfectly strange.
Of course, of course, the elections were held two months after the end of the war. The party had been getting organized more or less clandestinely for the two previous years. It obviously got votes where it had a "face". And probably in the areas where there were violent strikes in 1917 - an issue I know far too little about.

But, still. Upper Franconia shall serve as a random example. This is by Kaiserreich-era constituency. I'm sort of ordering from most Catholic to most Protestant here. Really, I'm ordering for effect, of course.

Bamberg BVP 57, SPD 29, DDP 13, DNVP 1, USPD 0.2
Kronach SPD 43, BVP 41, DDP 9, DNVP 4, USPD 2.2
Forchheim BVP 37, SPD 34, DNVP 15, DDP 12, USPD 0.9
Bayreuth SPD 52, DDP 20, DNVP 20, BVP 6, USPD 2.1
Hof USPD 47, DDP 26, SPD 17, DNVP 8, BVP 2

Lmao.

[minionofmidas]

47% is of course an extremely strong showing, but compare Lower Franconia.

Aschaffenburg BVP 52, SPD 35, DDP 10, USPD 3.1, DNVP 0.6
Lohr BVP 60, SPD 26, DDP 11, DNVP 1.9, USPD 0.7
Kitzingen BVP 47, SPD 27, DDP 24, DNVP 2.8, USPD 0.1 (54 votes. There are results for similar-sized areas elsewhere with an actual clean zero votes. There's also an area where the USPD didn't get a slate organized, forget where that was. Trier maybe.)
Würzburg BVP 44, SPD 34, DDP 19, DNVP 1.5, USPD 1.1
Neustadt an der Saale BVP 58, SPD 22, DDP 15, USPD 3.9, DNVP 1.0
Schweinfurt BVP 43, SPD 24, USPD 19, DDP 13, DNVP 2.6

Still strange.

[minionofmidas]

Bamberg BVP 57, SPD 29, DDP 13, DNVP 1, USPD 0.2
Kronach SPD 43, BVP 41, DDP 9, DNVP 4, USPD 2.2
Forchheim BVP 37, SPD 34, DNVP 15, DDP 12, USPD 0.9
Bayreuth SPD 52, DDP 20, DNVP 20, BVP 6, USPD 2.1
Hof USPD 47, DDP 26, SPD 17, DNVP 8, BVP 2

I come from this constituency. In the Kaiserreich was nearly the complete SPD in Hof against the war and all SPD Members of Parliament of this region was in the USPD. After the revolution  in November 1918 in this region was the "Arbeiter und Soldatenrat" (Workers and Soldiers Soviet) in power and not only for a few days, no nearly a half year.

Ah, but such soviets existed elsewhere too - remember that this election was quite early (january 10th, I think) - though frequently (as in Frankfurt) they were never, not even for a fleeting moment, the real seat of power. The bit about all the leading SPD people having joined the USPD is probably quite important.

[minionofmidas]

I was only aware of that pattern in Saxony (ie; Leipzig v everywhere else) - interesting.

NO NO NO, Leipzig, Plauen and the Sächsische Schweiz v everywhere else!!!!

Oh, also Thuringia. Where USPD vs SPD support follows statelet lines.

Sachsen-Meiningen: SPD at almost 60, USPD at 1 or so
Sachsen-Alteburg: SPD at 56, USPD at 0.odd
Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, two more easterly constituencies: SPD at 50, USPD at a couple
westerly constituency: SPD at 37, USPD at 17
Sachsen-Coburg: SPD at 55, USPD at a couple
Sachsen-Gotha: USPD at 54, SPD at 5*
Reuß sr line: USPD 43, SPD 20
Reuß jr line: USPD 50, SPD 15
Schwarzburg-Sondershausen: USPD 55, SPD at a couple
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt: SPD 60, USPD at a couple
Prussian bits: Nordhausen constituency USPD 43, SPD 15
Erfurt etc constituency USPD 40, SPD 22
Mühlhausen etc constituency SPD 25, USPD 25
Eichsfeld SPD 17, USPD 5 or so
Schmalkalden SPD 38, USPD 33 or two thirds of their RB Kassel vote

*Yes, Coburg and Gotha had been one state until 1918. Or two states with a joint head of state, really. They split as a result of the removal of the duke. And then, of course, Coburg didn't want to join this radical new state of Thuringia, and ended up joining Bavaria instead.
Meanwhile, the two Reußisch states had merged in december of 1918.

[minionofmidas]

NO NO NO, Leipzig, Plauen and the Sächsische Schweiz v everywhere else!!!!

Plauen? Interesting bearing in mind later voting patterns. Does that mean just the town, or does it include the rural district?

It means the 1871-1918 Reichstag constituency. In Saxony, only some of these closely match local government units.

[minionofmidas]

NO NO NO, Leipzig, Plauen and the Sächsische Schweiz v everywhere else!!!!

Plauen? Interesting bearing in mind later voting patterns. Does that mean just the town, or does it include the rural district?

It means the 1871-1918 Reichstag constituency. In Saxony, only some of these closely match local government units.

That's a shame, because there's an important difference

(Plauen the town voted majority Nazi in at least on election in '32, but the KPD was fairly strong as well - taking about 20% or so. Plauen the rural district though...)

It would certainly have been larger than just the town. Not sure if it included all the district or just part of it. (I have this, in handwriting, someplace. I also know where a book is where I could copy it again. But is it worth that?)

[minionofmidas]

It seems that the constituency may have included Plauen city, Oelsnitz district, and most of Plauen rural district (sans the northeastern portion around Reichenbach).

[minionofmidas]

"AH" is for Amthauptmannschaft. They were renamed Kreise by the nazis, in their general streamlining of german administrative structures. They were also similar in size, a bit on the large side population-wise (though not Oelsnitz, obviously - the Upper Vogtland being one of the least densely populated parts of Saxony.)

[minionofmidas]

My, my, Southwestern Saxony certainly had "interesting" politics back then. Also - I wonder how Duesterberg's vote went in the second round, hmm...

Somehow I find the Catholic variant of the same theme even more "interesting".

Lower Westerwald, May 1932
Center 46, NSDAP 22, KPD 19, SPD 7
The Commies actually came second in 1930 (and in may 1924) but on 12% of the vote.

[minionofmidas]

No idea. It does seem odd, doesn't it?

[minionofmidas]

Okay, I have a theory. It goes like this (and doesn't apply in areas where the SPD had a minority foothold before 1918, such as Upper Bavaria).
There was no reason to vote SPD simply out of traditionalism as there was no SPD tradition.
And the moderate working class/union man/pro-democracy guy, happy with the changes compared to the Kaiserreich but not at all interested in further revolution, yeah well, the Center Party did a pretty good job of keeping him on board - its status as the representation of Catholic Germany depended on it. But not at keeping militant people disappointed with the revolution's scope on board. So they'd be voting Communist.

[minionofmidas]

Your map appears to be wrong around Wetzlar, not showing that it's actually two enclaves, not one.



Anywhere north of the southern bottleneck was ceded to Prussia in 1866, but the boundary of the Wetzlar District was not changed - the area simply became the Biedenkopf district in Wiesbaden RB. (The territory between the two bottlenecks was transferred to Wetzlar district in the fall of 1932 though, at the same time that Wetzlar was transferred to Hessen-Nassau, Rinteln was transferred to Hanover, and Ilfeld was transferred to Saxony Province.)