The Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (the Nazi Party) was founded in Germany in 1920 as an extreme-right alternative to communism for working-class voters. Similarly to the Communist Party, early Nazi ideologies were largely opposed to capitalism, business elites, and the centrist political establishment, however their approach was much more nationalistic and militaristic. Throughout the 1920s, as Adolf Hitler consolidated his power and became party leader in 1925, party rhetoric shifted focus to become increasingly anti-communist and anti-Semitic, while the socialist element was gradually erased. With the onset of the Great Depression in 1930, the Party saw its popularity increase and it grew to become the largest political party in July 1932, before Hitler assumed power in January of the following year. Early election performance As a new party whose presence was largely concentrated in Bavaria, the Nazi Party performed reasonably well in their first federal election, taking around seven percent of the nationwide vote. This success was largely in response to the perceived failures of the German political class following defeat in the First World War and their adherence to the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the hyperinflation crisis in the postwar years. Despite this, they were still considered a fringe party by most, and received around half of the number of votes of their communist rivals. As the economy began recovering in mid-1924, the Nazi Party saw their popularity wane, and they received just three percent of the vote in the subsequent two elections. Nazi ascension After the 1928 election, Germany was ruled by a so-called "Grand Coalition" of four traditional political parties. When the Great Depression began, Germany was one of the hardest-hit economies in the world, and the Nazi Party used this as an opportunity to draw voters away from the Grand Coalition. Voters were drawn for a variety of reasons, such as voting for radical change in the face of economic disaster, support for increased militarism and police enforcement, or because they agreed with anti-Semitic and racist ideologies. A common misconception is that the Nazi Party's success was due to support from the urban working class, however evidence shows that rural or small-town populations and the middle class (particularly small business owners) made up the core of the Nazi voter base. As support for the Communist Party also grew, many business leaders threw their support behind the Nazi Party, and it became the largest party in the Reichstag in July 1932. Becoming a dictatorship The leader of the largest party was traditionally named Chancellor of Germany, but President Von Hindenburg withheld from appointing Hitler until January 31, 1933. On February 27, an arson attack on the Reichstag parliament building was (supposedly) carried out by a Dutch communist, which the Nazi Party then used as a basis to attack its political opponents and hold yet another election on March 6. The election saw the Nazi Party increase their presence in parliament (although they did not achieve a majority), while the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act were implemented as a result of the attack, and gave sweeping powers to the Nazi Party. Communist gatherings were de facto banned, up to 10,000 political opponents were arrested within two weeks of the fire, and the first concentration camp was opened at Dachau to house these prisoners. These measures would become a large part of the legal foundation of Hitler's dictatorship, and inspire the concentration camp system used during the Holocaust. The election of 1933 would be the last multi-party election held in all of Germany until the 1990s, as all new and existing parties were outlawed in July 1934. The three federal elections held between 1933 and 1938 were sham elections, with the Nazi Party members (and some chosen "guests") being the only candidates on the ballot.

In the federal elections held between 1924 and 1933, it was not until 1930 when the Nationalist Socialist (Nazi) Party became a major force in German politics. Despite their popularity in the 1924 election in the midst of the hyperinflation crisis, their popularity waned as the German economy improved in the late-1920s. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the largest political party in interwar-Germany until 1932 - despite this, they never held a clear majority and just three of the 13 Chancellors of the Weimar Republic were from the SPD. With the onset of the Great Depression in 1930, the Nazi Party's popularity grew, and it overtook the Communist Party as the largest of the hard-right or-left parties, with over six million votes in 1930. Less than two years later, the Nazi Party more than doubled its vote tally and became the largest party in the Reichstag, and consolidated its power in the following two elections, before outright banning all other political parties in 1934.

This data collection contains electoral and demographic data at several levels of aggregation (kreis, land/regierungsberzirk, and wahlkreis) for Germany in the Weimar Republic period of 1919-1933. Two datasets are available. Part 1, 1919 Data, presents raw and percentagized election returns at the wahlkreis level for the 1919 election to the Nationalversammlung. Information is provided on the number and percentage of eligible voters and the total votes cast for parties such as the German National People's Party, German People's Party, Christian People's Party, German Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, and Independent Social Democratic Party. Part 2, 1920-1933 Data, consists of returns for elections to the Reichstag, 1920-1933, and for the Reichsprasident elections of 1925 and 1932 (including runoff elections in each year), returns for two national referenda, held in 1926 and 1929, and data pertaining to urban population, religion, and occupations, taken from the German Census of 1925. This second dataset contains data at several levels of aggregation and is a merged file. Crosstemporal discrepancies, such as changes in the names of the geographical units and the disappearance of units, have been adjusted for whenever possible. Variables in this file provide information for the total number and percentage of eligible voters and votes cast for parties, including the German Nationalist People's Party, German People's Party, German Center Party, German Democratic Party, German Social Democratic Party, German Communist Party, Bavarian People's Party, Nationalist-Socialist German Workers' Party (Hitler's movement), German Middle Class Party, German Business and Labor Party, Conservative People's Party, and other parties. Data are also provided for the total number and percentage of votes cast in the Reichsprasident elections of 1925 and 1932 for candidates Jarres, Held, Ludendorff, Braun, Marx, Hellpach, Thalman, Hitler, Duesterburg, Von Hindenburg, Winter, and others. Additional variables provide information on occupations in the country, including the number of wage earners employed in agriculture, industry and manufacturing, trade and transportation, civil service, army and navy, clergy, public health, welfare, domestic and personal services, and unknown occupations. Other census data cover the total number of wage earners in the labor force and the number of female wage earners employed in all occupations. Also provided is the percentage of the total population living in towns with 5,000 inhabitants or more, and the number and percentage of the population who were Protestants, Catholics, and Jews.

Already in an early study about the connection between school education and voting behavior in Prussia during the German Empire (see the study of Monika Wölk: “Der preußische Volksschulabsolvent als Reichstagswähler 1871 – 1912“, GESIS Archiv-Nr.: ZA8482) the author of the present study used school generation specific voting behavior as a methodological construct to determine the impact of school education on the voter´s decisions at the Reich elections. The investigation, sponsored by the German research community (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)), about the voter’s generations in Prussia between the German Empire and the Republic is based on this previous work. School generations, defined as graduates of the elementary school in a specific area shaped by specific school-political principles in Prussia, build voting groups within the Prussian voting population. The author inspects their voting motivation concerning continuity or discontinuity in the transition from the authoritarian German Empire to the democratic Republic of Germany and investigates it with her special research question and methodological approach. In the first part of the study the author combines the social-historical quantitative preparation of the material of the age statistics of the population in the chosen research areas with the systematic qualitative analysis of historical educational prerequisites of those parts of population. The school generations (after years of birth) are classified after collective school periods of the elementary school graduates (Volksschulabsolventen (SchVA)): SchVA 1816-1840: “Time of reform“, SchVA 1840 – 1847: “before march“ SchVA 1847 – 1854: „Revolution 1848“, SchVA 1854 – 1872: „Regulative“, SchVA 1872 - 1879: „Falk“, SchVA 1879 – 1892: „Puttkammer“, SchVA 1892 – 1899: „Bosse“, SchVA 1899 – 1918: „1900“, SchVA 1918 – 1927: „Weimar“. In the second part of the study the author continues with considerations and models for the interpretation of the structural changes in the system of political parties from the authoritarian society of the German Empire to the pluralistic, parliamentary presidential governed democracy of the Weimar Republic. In the presentation of the competing models of historical and political-sociological research the author constructs a basis for rating the question on which grid of political directions the voting behavior at the Reich elections before and after the First World War could be based. The comparative trend analysis of school time-stamped generation groups and their voting decisions presented in the third part of the study verifies the work of the second part about the developed models of party systems and its consistency for the generation specific development of the voting population. The voting behavior is broken down into two major alternative parties: The “Reich faithful’s” and the “enemies of the Reich” in the German Empire and the left-right dichotomy as a reverse equivalent of opposition and governmentalism in the Weimar Republic. Data Tables in HISTATA. Tables from the text part (Average values of chosen administrative districts, for each administrative district see the tables of the appendix under part B)A.01a Proportion of school generations of the population over 25 or 20 years (1871-1933)A.01b Proportion of generation groups in the voting population over 25 or 20 years (1871-1933)A.02a Voting behavior after discontinuity models of the German party system – model A (1871-1933)A.02b Voting behavior after discontinuity models of the German party system – model B (1871-1933)A.03 Voting behavior in the left-right continuum of the Protestant party system (1871-1933)A.04 Voting behavior in the polarity of governmentalism and opposition (1871-1933)A.05 Youth generations and voting behavior (1919-1933)A.06 Left parties of the Weimar Republic and the generation group “reaction” (1919 – 1933)A.07a Administrative district of Gumbinen: Votes by left-right polarity and generation groups (1871-1933)A.07b Administrative district of Allenstein: Votes by left-right polarity and generation groups (1919-1933)A.07c Berlin: Votes by left-right polarity and generation groups (1871-1933)A.08 School generations and left-liberal voting potential, Berlin and administrative district Liegnitz (1871-1933) B. Tables from the data appendixB.I. Proportion of school generations of the population over 25 years or 20 years in selected Prussian administrative districtsB.II. Election results of the German Reich election in selected Prussian administrative districtsB.III Votes by left-right polarity and generation groups in selected Prussian administrative districts Register of the tables in HISTAT: A. Tables from the text part(Average values of chosen administrative districts, for each administrative district see the tables of the appendix under part B).A.01a Proportion of school generations of the population over 25 or 20 years (1871-1933)A.01b Proportion of generation groups in the v...