THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE NAZI VOTE - CONTEXT, CONFESSION, AND CLASS IN THE REICHSTAG ELECTION OF 1930

Competing theories of why voters in Weimar Germany chose the NSDAP (Na zi party) have been only partially supported; the notion of a ''catch- all'' party, with voters in different classes and social groups, is ga ining adherents. Previous research has treated the German electorate a s a national unit. Regional and local elements of the voting surface h ave been generally ignored, even though strong historical and material conditions generated important deviations from the national trends. U sing descriptive spatial statistics, this article documents the import ance of spatial heterogeneity and dependence in the 1930 Nazi vote. A mixed structural-spatial model, in which key variables from the severa l theoretical explanations of the NSDAP vote are included with geograp hic variables, demonstrates the importance of spatial and contextual e ffects. Regional variations from the average NSDAP vote (18.3 percent in 1930) persist even after religious and class effects are controlled . Accordingly, domain-specific models based on the regions of Weimar G ermany are preferable to national models. The former indicate that spe cific combinations and relative significances of the explanatory facto rs vary from region to region. Domain-specific models sustain electora l geography's central tenet, namely, that places and contexts influenc e voting choices in addition to the social characteristics of the vote r. Context introduces a new and important element in the interpretatio n of the Nazi rise to power.