Weimar Maps III

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've done maps of elections in the Weimar Republic before (and you can find them via the Special Threads thing) but this time I'm doing a few with a new outline map. And also that was ages ago. Thus, a new thread. Updates will come when they come.

For those who are new to this general field, this might be useful:



The areas in various shades of blue (and with a separate key) were provinces of the largest state (Prussia) rather than states of their own. The two areas in dark grey were not part of the Republic but were League of Nations territories. The map, I should note, is heavily simplified in certain areas because I'd like to keep whatever shreds of sanity that I still possess...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've decided to start with some demographic maps rather than electoral ones, as context can be useful. To start with, some confessional maps:

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Very nice maps, I will observe that topic.
May I ask what program you use to draw them?

[Sol]

What was other, generally?

[palandio]

I can't give you numbers, but the regional patterns look like if many "others" had been atheists.
Almost all Communist politicians of that time were "Dissidents". Social Democratic politicians were Protestants, Jews, Catholics, but very often also "free religious", "Dissidents" or something like that. Also some liberal politicians didn't belong to the big churches.
Voters that voted for Marxist politicians had a higher church affiliation on average than the politicians they voted for, but still some regions like Saxony had a tradition of "free religious" or atheist thought, partially even traceable to the period before the electoral rise of socialism in the second half of the 19th century.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, and in the 20s there were a couple of campaigns in Saxony to try to encourage people to cancel their Church memberships.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Kaiserreich and Weimar Germany has some of the most ridiculous internal borders in the history of modern European States. This is what happens when you unite a bunch of entities whose shape and size resulted from historical contrivances without rectifying boundaries.

Anyway, cool thread.

[YL]

Kaiserreich and Weimar Germany has some of the most ridiculous internal borders in the history of modern European States. This is what happens when you unite a bunch of entities whose shape and size resulted from historical contrivances without rectifying boundaries.

The creation of Thuringia had actually made them slightly less ridiculous at this point, but you still have things like that bizarre exclave of Oldenburg in the southern Rhine Province.  And how many detached parts did Braunschweig have?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Employment by industry:

[Cranberry]

Really interesting maps, Al!

Kaiserreich and Weimar Germany has some of the most ridiculous internal borders in the history of modern European States. This is what happens when you unite a bunch of entities whose shape and size resulted from historical contrivances without rectifying boundaries.

Even more hilarious are the names of a few of them - I always have to laugh when I read Lippe

[Zuza]

I didn't know Saxony was that industrialized. No surprise it was a stronghold of social democracy.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Employment Grade:

[palandio]

Comparing the maps on industry of employment and employment grade you can see the large differences in agricultural employment structure, even between the heavily agricultural regions like Eastern Prussia and Bavaria.

Ostelbien typically refers to the rural regions in the north-east, particularly Eastern Prussia, Western Prussia, Posen, Pommern, Mecklenburg, the rural parts of Brandenburg and the northern part of Silesia. Agriculture in these regions was organized in large estates that were usually owned by the Junker, that is rural nobility. The agricultural workforce consisted mostly of dependent laborers [first category in the employment grade maps].

In the rest of the country, particularly the South and the West the farms were much smaller. The workforce usually consisted of the farm owner [second category in the employment grade maps, his (or sometimes her) family [third category] and possibly (on relatively rich farms) a small number of menial stuff and in some regions seasonal labourers. Often seasonal laborers would have another employment (be it their own tiny farm) for the rest of the year.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

On the right are states and provinces, on the left constituencies.* On the top the maps show percentage lead for approximate ideological bloc/camp/whatever, on the bottom the same but just for parties.

_{*Don't have a definitive map to work from, and the maps I do have to work from disagree on a few details so errors are absolutely possible regarding the exact boundaries. But that's a fairly minor issue.}

Yeah I seem to have forgotten to block out the not-used parts of the key for three parties. This isn't something really worth bothering to correct for the moment, but might later if feeling sufficiently obsessive.

[President Johnson]

Interesting maps! Thanks for posting.

[DavidB.]

"Die Grenzwacht hielt im Osten" already starts playing in my head while looking at that font Great maps, Al!

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Very nice maps. Are you planing to do such also for elections in 20s?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Very nice maps. Are you planing to do such also for elections in 20s?

Yes

[Hnv1]

How come Lübeck and Hannover lost their city state status but Bremen retainer it?

[Aboa]

How come Lübeck and Hannover lost their city state status but Bremen retainer it?

Hannover never was a city-state, Lübeck was given to Prussia in 1937 to compensate enlarging of Hamburg at its expense. After the war referendum for re-establishing the city-state wasn't allowed as Lübeck had already lost it's independence before 1945.

[parochial boy]

Didn't Hitler have a personal hatred of Lubeck or something, which is why it lost its independence, or have I just made that up?

[Aboa]

Didn't Hitler have a personal hatred of Lubeck or something, which is why it lost its independence, or have I just made that up?

I think that's mostly a myth, supposedly the city prevented his appearance there in 1932 though actually city voted to allow the rally and it was moved outside the city due to local NSDAP being unable to pay for the usual safety requirements and fees. I think it's bit unlikely that Hitler somehow acquired some eternal hatred for the city from that.

[rob in cal]

  Lubeck also held its local elections one week after the November 32 Reichstag election and the NSDAP vote fell even more than it had the week before, further sign of them losing momentum.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Approximate party camps/blocs/etc - note that o/c half of the parties in each hated each other, but this is about the electorate rather than inter-party relations. The Nazis have their own category (though some other small parties end up in it for earlier elections), the Socialist category is o/c SPD and KPD (USPD to feature in earlier elections), the Catholics Zentrum and BVP, the Liberals DDP/DStp and DVP. The 'Conservative' category is by far the broadest: along with the DNVP - who it should be stressed were rather more nationalist and right-wing than 'conservative' would imply in most other contexts - it also includes the CSVP (a centre-right splinter of the DNVP for the practicing Protestants), and the various parties of agrarian and middle class protest. There are other ways of grouping the parties, and the patterns these show are not uninteresting or unimportant, but this one is the classic and is used for that reason.

[Filuwaúrdjan]