With the whole Fatherland convinced that last week's Reichstag election could produce no Government upset, Germans voted almost without violence for the first time in years, with these striking results:
First blatant Adolf Hitler's brown-shirted Nazi (National Socialist) Party was "tamed" by the first setback received since they started two years ago on their skyrocket rise. The Nazis dropped from 230 Reichstag seats to 195 and in each of Germany's 35 electoral districts their vote fell off, nowhere by less than 10,000 ballots. Nazis suffered their worst setback in President Paul von Hindenburg's home district of East Prussia.
Second the Fatherland's Communists more than won back last week the votes they lost to Nazis in the previous Reichstag election (TIME, Aug. 8). The Red gains fulfilled Herr Hitler's campaign prediction that aristocratic Chancellor von Papen's reactionary Cabinet would prove "an involuntary stalking horse for Bolshevism."
For the first time Berlin went Communist, with 861,000 ballots, the Nazis dropped from first to second place with 720,000 and the Socialists who in former years topped Berlin's poll were third with 646,000.
Nationally the Communists rose from fourth to third largest party, the Socialists held their second place, and the Nazis, despite their chastening losses, remained Germany's largest party.
Third the only party supporting von Papen's Cabinet, the Nationalist Party led by the "Hearst of Germany," Dr. Alfred Hugenberg, failed to climb from its rank of fifth largest German Party, though it did increase its vote.
Thus, by no stretch of the imagination, can German voters be said to have approved the dictatorship of a Cabinet which rules Germany under decrees signed by President Paul von Hindenburg.
In Berlin it was rumored that since Chancellor von Papen is now clearly "Not the People's Choice," he may be replaced by some other Chancellor, leaving the Cabinet still directed by its real strong man, Defense Minister Lieut.-General Kurt von Schleicher, the astute, intriguing Machiavelli of 1932.
Returns in the present Seventh Reichstag election compare as follows with those of the Sixth Reichstag which was elected July 31 and dissolved by Presidential decree as it was in process of voting "no confidence" in the von Papen Cabinet (TIME, Sept. 19). Popular vote: Vote Per-Vote Per-Party (last week) cent (last July) cent
Nat. Soc. 11,705,265 33.1 13,732,779 37.3
Socialist 7,231,404 20.4 7,951,245 21.6
Communist 5,970,833 16.9 5,278,094 14.3
Cath. Cen. 4,228,322 11.9 4,586,501 12.5
Nationalist 3,061,626 8.6 2,172,941 5.9
Bav. Peo. 1,081,595 3.1 1,190,453 3.2
People's 659,703 1.9 434,548 1.1
Other Parties1,44O,263 4.1 1,498,718 4.0
Totals 35,379,011 100.0 36,845,279 100.0
Reichstag Seats:
Gain or
New Old Loss National Socialists 195 230 -35 Socialists 121 133 -12
Communists 100 89 +11 Centrists 69 75 -6 Bavarian People's Party 19 22 -3
Nationalists 51 37 +14 People's Party 11 7 + 4 Other Parties 16 15 + 1
Seat Totals* 582 608 -26