German federal election, 1930

German federal election, 1930

14 September 1930
All 577 seats in the Reichstag 289 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	82.0%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Otto Wels Adolf Hitler Ernst Thälmann Party SPD NSDAP KPD Leader since 1919 28 July 1921 October 1925 Last election 153 seats, 29.8% 12 seats, 2.6% 54 seats, 10.6% Seats won 143 107 77 Seat change 10 95 23 Popular vote 8,575,244 6,379,672 4,590,160 Percentage 24.53% 18.25% 13.13% Swing 5.23% 15.69% 2.51%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ludwig Kaas Alfred Hugenberg Ernst Scholz Party Centre DNVP DVP Leader since September 1928 1928 1929 Last election 61 seats, 12.1% 73 seats, 14.2% 45 seats, 8.7% Seats won 68 41 30 Seat change 7 32 15 Popular vote 4,127,000 2,457,686 1,577,365 Percentage 11.81% 7.03% 4.51% Swing 0.26% 7.22% 3.97%
Seats in the Reichstag after 1930 federal election.
Chancellor before election Heinrich Brüning Centre Elected Chancellor None (Brüning remained unelected Chancellor)

The German federal election occurred on 14 September 1930.^[1] Despite losing 10 seats, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SDP) remained the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 143 of the 577 seats, whilst the Nazi Party (NSDAP) dramatically increased its number of seats from 12 to 107.^[2]

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The two major parties of the Weimar Coalition, the SPD and Zentrum (Centre Party) had no high gains or losses – in contrast to their partner DVP, but the two results of the elections seen as dramatic were the NSDAP reaching more than 100 seats, and big gains for the Communists (KPD) – an additional 23 seats.

Background

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) had won the most votes and had led the ruling coalition in every previous post-World War I election before the election of 1930. Otto Wels, the party leader, had been Chancellor from 4 May 1924 to 30 July 1932. 

In the 1924 elections, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) received 26% of the popular vote, securing 131 parliamentary seats, an increase of 31 seats over the previous election. In the 1928 election, the SPD secured 29.8% of the vote and 153 seats, up 22 from the 1924 federal election. In 1928 the only other party that gained seats was the Communist Party, led by Ernst Thalmann, which received 10.6% of the vote count while securing 54 seats, up nine from the previous election. The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) won just 2.6% of the vote, which equated to a loss of 2 seats. 

Electoral system

In 1930 the German government was a Multi-Party Parliamentary Democracy, led by Paul von Hindenburg (1925-1933). The parliamentary democracy awarded one seat in the Reichstag per 60,000 votes. All citizens over 21 could vote, and through a system of proportional representation, a new parliament was elected every four years to deal with issues related to taxes, trade, defense, etc. The Executive was elected every seven years and was primarily in control of the armed forces, however, they also had significant powers to dissolve the Reichstag, nominate a Chancellor, veto laws, and utilize article 48.

Campaign

In 1930 there were 37 individual parties running for office. Of these parties, only ten secured over 3% of the popular vote. The broad range of parties led to many wasted votes. This electoral paradigm made it difficult to secure an absolute majority, and as a result, Germany suffered through multiple polarized coalition governments during the Weimar Republic.  In fact, the frequent and drastic changes in government left many Germans distrustful of democracy. The top five political parties participating in the 1930’s election held drastically polarized ideologies. Three of the main five parties leaned to the right: The NSDAP, the Center Party, and the DNVP. The SDP and Communist party leaned far-left.

Results

The 1930 German election drew 82% voter turn-out, an unprecedented event. The incumbent political party, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), garnered the popular vote and won 143 seats, a loss of 10 seats from the previous election. The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) rose to the 2nd largest party with 18.25% of the vote and took home 107 seats, a remarkable additional 95 seats over the last election. The only other party to gain seats was the Communist Party, which won 13.13% of the vote, securing 77 seats, a gain of 23 additional seats than the last election. 34 other political parties shared the remainder of the votes. The excessive amount of small political parties created vast amounts of wasted votes in the previous election of 1928, however, in the 1930 election there were less political parties on the ballot; therefore, there were less wasted votes. Parties that didn't secure a seat acquired 413,000 wasted votes. ^[3] This broad-based coalition government with polarized political ideologies created inefficiency within the Weimar Republic.

The Gallagher Index result was 1.33

References

Elections in Germany
Parliamentary elections	1848 1867 (Feb) 1867 (Aug) 1868 1871 1874 1877 1878 1881 1884 1887 1890 1893 1898 1903 1907 1912 1919 1920 1924 (May) 1924 (Dec) 1928 1930 1932 (July) 1932 (Nov) 1933 (Mar) 1933 (Nov) 1936 1938 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1983 1987 1990 1994 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013 2017
Presidential elections	1925 1932
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1926 1928 1929 1933 1934 1936 1938
See also elections in Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia East Germany East Prussia Lower Silesia