German election, 1928
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Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which occurred on May 20, came one year after the ban on Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
participating in political activities was officially lifted. As a result, the recently reformed Nazi Party was present in the elections. However, as the table below shows, the NSDAP polled less than 3% of the vote and were consigned to just 12 seats in parliament. This was due to Hitler, who had been incarcerated in Landsberg prison
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison is a penal facility located in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west of Munich and south of Augsburg....
for his involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
until Christmas 1924, concentrating on re-establishing himself as the leader of the party following his release, rather than its electability.
| Party | Vote percentage (change) | Seats (change) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... (SPD) |
29.8% | +3.8% | 153 | +22 |
| German National People's Party German National People's Party The German National People's Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the NSDAP it was the main nationalist party in Weimar Germany composed of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and... (DNVP) |
14.3% | −6.2% | 73 | −30 |
| Centre Party Centre Party (Germany) The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church... (Z) |
12.1% | −1.5% | 61 | −8 |
| Communist Party of Germany Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956... (KPD) |
10.6% | +1.7% | 54 | +9 |
| German People's Party German People's Party The German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:... (DVP) |
8.7% | −1.4% | 45 | −6 |
| German Democratic Party (DDP) | 4.8% | −1.5% | 25 | −7 |
| Reich Party of the German Middle Class Reich Party of the German Middle Class The Reich Party of the German Middle Class , known from 1920-25 as the Economic Party of the German Middle Classes , was a liberal German political party during the Weimar Republic. It was commonly known as the Wirtschaftspartei or WP.... (WP) |
4.5% | +2.2% | 23 | +11 |
| Bavarian People's Party Bavarian People's Party The Bavarian People's Party was the Bavarian branch of the Centre Party, which broke off from the rest of the party in 1919 to pursue a more conservative, more Catholic, more Bavarian particularist course... (BVP) |
3.1% | −0.6% | 17 | −2 |
| National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) | 2.6% | −0.4% | 12 | −2 |
| Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party The Christian-National Peasants' and Farmers' Party was an agrarian political party of Weimar Germany. It developed from the German National People's Party in 1928.... (CNBL) |
1.9% | — | 9 | — |
| Right-Wing People's Party | 1.6% | — | 2 | — |
| German Farmers' Party German Farmers' Party The German Farmers' Party or German Peasants' Party was a German agrarian political party during the Weimar Republic, existing from 1928-33.... (DBP) |
1.6% | — | 8 | — |
| Agricultural League Agricultural League The Agricultural League was a German agrarian political party during the Weimar Republic. It was led by landowners with property east of the Elbe and was allied with the German National People's Party.... |
0.7% | −0.9% | 3 | −1 |
| German-Hanoverian Party (DHP) | 0.6% | −0.3% | 4 | ±0 |
| Sächsische Landvolk | 0.4% | — | 2 | — |
| Other | 2.7% | −0.4% | 0 | ±0 |
| Total | 100.0% | 491 | −2 | |
The only two parties to gain significantly were the Social Democrats (SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
) who polled almost a third of votes, and the Communist Party (KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
), completing a thorough victory of the left-wing. However, although the SPD now had 153, they still failed to gain a clear majority, resulting in another coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
led by Hermann Müller
Hermann Müller (politician)
' , born in Mannheim, was a German Social Democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister , and twice as Chancellor of Germany under the Weimar Republic...
. Following his appointment, Müller, who had already been Germany's Chancellor for 4 months in 1920, created a Grand Coalition
Grand coalition
A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government...
of members of the SDP, DDP, Catholic Centre Party and DVP
German People's Party
The German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
. The coalition though, was plagued by internal divisions right from the beginning, with each party more concerned with their self interest than the interest of the government and eventually Müller asked President Paul Von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
for emergency powers. When Hindenburg refused, Müller resigned, marking the end of the 'last genuinely democratic government of the Weimar Republic' on 27 March 1930.
Despite the Nazi Party's poor overall result in 1928, their electability was actually increasing with the stirring of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
—in some rural areas, the first to be hit by the depression, the NSDAP polled over 10% of the vote, a trend which would continue until Hitler's consolidation of power in the early to mid 1930s.