Who Voted for Hitler?
 

First off, just a little comic relief. I have to read a book as part of my bibliography for an essay on Weimar Germany/rise of the Nazis and it made me smile. The title page says:

WHO VOTED FOR HITLER? not me
and then an arrow pointing to: 'me neither'

Anyway now the serious bit, especially for the history students on this board. Who did vote for Hitler and why?

By that I mean, what do you know of this phenomena: coercion versus consent, propaganda, elimination of opposition

reasons:

economic crises, imperial ambitions

Just thought it might be interesting to discuss a story from people's own knowledge. Then again it might not be, but oh well.

Erm...there was no real election. He was appointed as chanellor by Hindenburg after Brüning, Papen and Schleicher couldn't solve the problems that were caused by the economic crisis. He didn't even like him. But there was noone else who could have done the job. Well, they didn't know how it would end. Well, later they could only vote for a party...what means NSDAP yes or no...no big choice.

Middle classes were big supporters of Hitler I believe. After the Depression and Hyperinflation, many people looked to radical parties for the solutions. As the middle classes (those with the savings that were lost/became worthless) were badly affected, the Nazi support from these groups increased.

But for example, surely it varied by region. In protestant farm areas for example support was very popular, whereas in Catholic areas there was much anti-Nazi sentiment. The party never actually had a majority in free elections, and that was after eliminating one of their major rivals, the Communists (were they the 2nd or 3rd party in 1933?).

It seems they received passive support from the population.

Yes, it did. In one town (can't remember its name), the Hitler got a lot of votes even though he never visited the area.

Obviously some parts were not in a Nazi majority

Even in a total democracy a party doesn't need to get anywhere near a majority of the votes to win an election so sayign he never had a majority doesn't prove much.

As far as I'm aware, ALOT of people supported him and what he stood for. If there are masses of people who majorly disagree with an extreme government then chances are there would have been a coup or at least some resistance which doesn't appear to have happened in Germany circa 1933-39

Also, he did do a brilliant job with the economy.

yup. For all the bad things he did, he did some good stuff too.

It is a shame though that the bad things he did totally outweigh the good he did and what he could have done.. if he wasn't a total nutcase..

The party did good things for the economy yes, but it was at the cost of many prisoners and 'inferiors' who basically provided a mass workforce at little cost.

Let me change the question then to "who supported Hitler" weather actively or passively..