Electoral Success and Constituency of the NSDAP in Austria, 1927-1932: Social Base and Party-Political Backgrounds

"Electoral Success and Constituency of the NSDAP in Austria, 1927-1932: Social Base and Party-Political Background". By 1930, the NSDAP had already become the second strongest party in the German Reich and two years later, in 1932, the party had managed to gain by far the most electoral votes. Interestingly, the simultaneous results of the Austrian NSDAP were strikingly low. The Austrian NSDAP did not succeed to overcome its status as a mere splinter party. Based on empirical data, the authors nevertheless argue in this article that a similar success for the Austrian NSDAP could have had been possible if the projected national elections intended, but never realized, for the year 1934 had taken place. To prove this thesis, this article examines the composition of the different party-political backgrounds of Austrian NSDAP voters and analyzes socio-cultural factors influencing the party's potential rise. Further, a comparison with similarly structured regions in Germany, particularly Bavaria, will provide further support. The results show that Austrian and German NSDAP feature a variety of extensive parallels, supplied by both movements tendency of a catch-all party character but also by the effects of similar resistance and contagions factors.