1935 Free City of Danzig parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in the Free City of Danzig on 7 April 1935. The Nazi Party emerged as the largest party, receiving 59% of the vote and winning 43 of the 72 seats in the Volkstag.[1] Voter turnout was reportedly over 99%.[2]

1935 Free City of Danzig parliamentary election
7 April 1935
All 72 members of the Volkstag
Turnout99%
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Albert Forster Arthur Brill
Party NSDAP Social Democratic Centre
Seats won 43 12 10
Seat change 5 1
Popular vote 139,423 37,729 31,522
Percentage 59.31% 16.05% 13.41%
Swing 9.19% 1.64% 1.22%
Senate President before election

Arthur Greiser
NSDAP

 Elected Senate President

Arthur Greiser
NSDAP

Campaign

Hermann Rauschning, the Nazi President of the Senate of Danzig, was removed from his position by Albert Forster and replaced by Arthur Greiser in November 1934.[3] Rauschning appealed to the public not to vote for the Nazis in the 1935 elections.[4]

Political opposition to the Nazis was repressed,[5] with several politicians being imprisoned and murdered.[6][7]

Results
Party Votes % Seats +/–
Nazi Party139,42359.3143+5
Social Democratic Party37,72916.0512–1
Centre Party31,52213.41100
Weise List9,8054.173–1
Poles8,2943.532+1
Communist Party of Germany7,9163.372New
Others3730.160–
Invalid/blank votes–––
Total235,062100720
Registered voters/turnout237,165––
Source: Gonschior.de

Aftermath

At the opening session of Danzig’s parliament on 30 April 1935, the representatives of the democratic parties declared that its composition did not reflect the will of the people and that an examination of the election should take place. The fastest way to new elections would have been the self-dissolution of the Volkstag but this was rejected by the majority of its members. Directly after the election, the democratic parties submitted a series of appeals against the election result with Danzig’s Supreme Court. On 30 October 1935, a hearing was held before the First Civil Senate of the Danzig Supreme Court, chaired by its President, Walter von Hagens. The court looked at the reported cases and heard 988 witnesses. On 14 November 1935, the verdict was proclaimed. The Supreme Court found many cases of electoral fraud and confirmed the opposition parties’ view that state institutions had interfered in favour of the Nazi party (NSDAP). However, the election result was not declared entirely invalid. Instead, it was decided that the Nazi party would be deducted 3% of votes in the cities and 10% in the rural communities. In eighteen rural communities, the election manipulations were deemed so severe that the local results there were declared invalid. In total, the Nazi party lost 10,804 votes and was deducted a seat in the parliament, which went to the Social Democrats.

The economic policy of Danzig's Nazi-led government, which increased the public issues for employment-creation programs,[8] and the retrenchment of financial aid from Germany led to a devaluation of more than 40% of the Danziger Gulden in 1935.[9][10][11][12][13][14] The gold reserves of the Bank of Danzig declined from 30 million Gulden in 1933 to 13 million in 1935 and the foreign asset reserve from 10 million to 250,000 Gulden.[15] In 1935, Poland protested when Danzig's Senate reduced the value of the Gulden to parity with the Polish Zloty.[16]

References
  1. Die Freie Stadt Danzig: Wahlen 1919–1935 Gonschior.de
  2. Die Freie Stadt Danzig Volkstagswahl 1935 Gonschior.de
  3. Sodeikat, Ernst (1966). "Der Nationalsozialismus und die Danziger Opposition" (PDF) (in German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 139 ff.
  4. Matull, Wilhelm (1973). "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung: Abriß ihrer Geschichte, Leistung und Opfer" (PDF) (in German). Holzner. p. 419.
  5. Ratner, Steven R. (1995-02-15). The new UN peacekeeping. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN 0-312-12415-5.
  6. Sodeikat, p.170, p. 173, Fn.92
  7. Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", p. 440, 450.
  8. Burckhardt, Carl Jakob. Meine Danziger Mission (in German). p. 39.
    Lichtenstein, Erwin (1973). Die Juden der Freien Stadt Danzig unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (in German). p. 44.
  9. Mason, John Brown (1946). The Danzig Dilemma, A Study in Peacemaking by Compromise. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2444-9. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
  10. Loew, Peter Oliver (February 2011). Danzig – Biographie einer Stadt (in German). C.H. Beck. p. 206. ISBN 978-3-406-60587-1.
  11. Loose, Ingo (2007). Kredite für NS-Verbrechen (in German). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. p. 33. ISBN 978-3-486-58331-1.
  12. Andrzejewski, Marek (1994). Opposition und Widerstand in Danzig (in German). Dietz. p. 99. ISBN 9783801240547.
  13. Cieslak, Edmund; Biernat, Czeslaw (1995). History of Gdańsk. Fundacji Biblioteki Gdánskiej. p. 454. ISBN 9788386557004.
  14. Matull, "Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbewegung", pp. 417, 418.
  15. Intelligence Service Economic Intelligence Service; Service, Intellige Economic Intelligence (2007-03-01). Commercial Banks 1929–1934. League of Nations. p. LXXXIX. ISBN 978-1-4067-5963-1.
  16. Ruhnau, Rüdiger (1971). Danzig: Geschichte einer Deutschen Stadt (in German). Holzner Verlag. p. 103.
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