There are ten national elections after WW I in Germany, which lead to the Nazi situation in 1932. Few historians sit down and go over the trend of these....so let me offer some brief analysis of how you get from 1919 to 1932.
January 1919: Thirty million Germans will go and vote. There are 18 parties in the running. Only six parties will get one million or more votes. The top three parties? The SPD took 37-percent of the vote, with the Centre Party (mostly a pro-Catholic political group) taking 19.5-percent. The German Democratic Party took 18.5-percent, and they mostly were a liberal and left-leaning group. The German National People's Party was what you'd call a fairly right-wing group and took around 10-percent of the vote. The chief concern for this election was simply to get something going and emerge out of the non-Kaiser period.
Eighteen months later, June 1920: The next election will occur. It's safe to say that the initial signs of the Bundestag being weak.....are there. There are fewer voters in this election.....28.5-million. No one much ever says why. The SPD? They lost a fair sum.....going down to 21.7-percent. A relatively young political party will emerge here....the USPD....mostly just a watered-down version of the SPD....getting roughly 18-percent of the vote. The German National People's Party takes 15-percent. The German People's Party shows up and gets around 14-percent of the vote. There's also this relatively new Bavarian party (mostly conservatives from Bavaria) who get around 4.2-percent of the vote.
Four years go by, May 1924: It's mostly a splintered vote, with 29.7-million Germans showing up to vote. Mostly the same parties but the Communist Party shows some decent numbers (12.6-percent of the public vote). The Nationalist Socialist Freedom Party is noted in this election (the Nazi-Party has been outlawed because of the coup attempt in Munich).....it's mostly the lead-in group of the Nazis....and they get 6.5-percent of the national vote. Altogether, seventeen NEW parties appear on the ballots. It's an indicator of public frustration.
Eight months pass, the Bundestag dissolves: Big indicator that there is no real compass direction for the political apparatus. So a new election. The main four winners of the May election.....mostly get the same numbers as before. The Nationalist Socialist Freedom Party actually got fewer votes this time around. Thirty and a half-million people show up to vote.
Four years will pass, June 1928: 31.1-million Germans show up to vote, and the SPD does fairly well. They take almost 30-percent of the vote. The Communists take almost 10-percent of the vote. The Nazi-Party? They take only 2.6-percent of the vote.
Just over two years pass, and the Bundestag dissolves, September 1930: Wall Street crash has already occurred and is affected the economy. The SPD has taken 24-percent of the vote. But now, an odd thing has occurred where the Nazi-Party has taken 18.3-percent of the vote. Seventeen new parties appear out of thin air. One of them....the Party Against Alcohol (shocker, they actually took 1,171 votes). Polarization is now openly discussed. The Bundestag can't resolve issues or take a firm hand on economic woes.
Two years will pass, the Bundestag dissolves, and in July 1932 a new election: The Nazis take 37-percent of the vote, and the SPD fall to second place. The Communists are in 3rd place with 14-percent of the vote. 37-million people show up to vote (highest number in that 'modern' era). Over forty new parties created out of thin air. There's a party called the 'Farmers, House, and Property Owners', which takes in 9,500 votes. There's a new party called the 'Dissatisfied Party', which takes 1,341 votes. Across the nation, there are disgruntled people, who are frustrated with the Bundestag and direction of the parties.
Five months will pass, the Bundestag dissolves, and in November 1932, a new election. The Nazis take 33-percent of the vote (showing somewhat of a peak five months before). There's at least 15 new political parties coming out for this campaign.
Four months pass, the Bundestag dissolves, and in March of 1933....another election. This time, the Nazis get 44-percent of the vote. Most of this new party garbage has disappeared, with only fourteen parties running. There are 39 million Germans who show up to vote. It's the last real election for Germany.
Six months pass, the Bundestag dissolves, various procedures now exist and in November of 1933....it's a vote for or against one single party....the Nazis. No other parties will participate. Forty-three million Germans will vote....of which eight-percent will vote against the Nazis...the rest support them. The turn-out for that election? Ninety-five percent of the registered voters.
What really happened between 1919 and 1933? The Bundestag could not reach a stage where public comfort was satisfying. The issues that came up....could not be resolved, and the media that existed at the time drove various discussion in the public about what the real 'answer' was. If you counted between 1919 and 1933, there's over 100 political parties which came into being, and most simply dissolved away. Having elections every two years because of the Bundestag dissolving? That probably became one of the ten big issues.
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