The 14 September 1930 German National Election

There are several interesting pieces to this one particular election, which in the end.....leads onto the Nazi Party and Hitler.

First, this is a election which should NOT have occurred until spring of 1932 (the last regular election was May 1928, and normally....German national elections are on a four-year cycle).

But this issue of the Wall Street stumble in 1929, and the various economic woes that came upon Germany.....triggered a response by the Chancellor and his coalition.  Hermann Mueller (SPD Party) was the Chancellor, and chaos occurred throughout the last month or two of 1929, and into early part of 1930.

Around the last week of March (1930)....the coalition fell apart.  The President of Germany at the time....Hindenburg.....went to a simple solution, appointing a Centre Party figure (Heinrich Bruning) as a Chancellor....with the government to be basically a minority government. 

Hint: minority government can function but if you get into a voting situation.....they don't typically have the votes to pass critical measures.

This is precisely what happens in the spring of 1930.

Bruning had the emergency measures package ready to go, and the majority of the Bundestag said 'no'.....with Bruning using emergency powers on his part to make the measures exist.  The rejection vote?  Massive, with the SPD Party, the Nazis, and the Communists all voting against the measure. 

This minority government lasted for around a hundred days.  Then came the request by Bruning....to dissolve the mess, and have another fresh election.   

On 14 September, the out-of-cycle election occurs. 

Hitler's Nazi Party had broken off from the German National People's Party (1928 election) and was running on it's first national election.  Result?  Second place with 18-percent of the vote.  The SPD cleared 25-percent and then ran into issues with the formation of the government.   The partnership would end up with Hitler and his group.

One of the more interesting aspects of this election.....even with 18-percent of the vote.....there is only one state/district that had a majority of Nazi votes (East Prussia on the far northeast side of Germany).  In virtually all other districts and states.....the Nazis managed a second or lesser place finish.

So the 1929 crash, and the out-of-cycle election....paving the way for the Nazi Party to surge in 1932?  More or less.