Nazi Saturation

Germans take their civic duties just about twice as seriously as U. S. citizens. In 1928 in the largest U. S. election, 37,000,000 votes were cast out of a population of 120,000,000. Last week Germany, with a population of 63,000,000 cast nearly 37,000,000 votes for a new Reichstag. Police throughout Germany were kept on 48-hour emergency duty. No mass meetings were allowed. No drink stronger than beer might be sold. Despite these precautions nine people were killed and over 100 wounded in brawls through the country over the weekend. Still, compared with the disorder of recent weeks, correspondents found election day itself orderly.

Results-- Hardly had the polls closed than the prime result of the election flashed round the world: once again Adolf Hitler had failed to win legal control of the Government. He piled up the biggest vote in his party's history, but with one Reichstag seat for every 60,000 votes cast he was still 53 seats short of a working majority. The five principal German parties emerged last week with the following seats as compared with the last Reichstag election (September 1930): 1932 1930 National Socialists (Hitler) 230 107 Socialists 133 143 Communists (Ernst Thalmann) 89 77 1932 1930 Centrists & Bavarian People's Party (Bruningj 96 87 Nationalists (Alfred Hugen-berg) 37 41

There will be 607 Deputies in the new Reichstag, largest, in German history. Simplifying the returns, it means that the Nazis and other Right Wing Parties will have a total of 277 seats. The Socialists and other Left Wing Parties will muster 241 seats not counting the all-important group of 89 Communists. European observers saw no reason for Chancellor von Papen to resign his Government, felt that the unexpected strength of the Socialist and Communist vote would bind him to milder utterances and a more moderate foreign policy unless he and Minister of Defense von Schleicher attempt to rule by open dictatorship.

Saturation. In spite of their tempestuous campaign and the assistance given them by the Junker Cabinet, the Hitlerites polled almost exactly the same number of votes that they did in the April presidential election. German observers have com pared the growth of Hitlerism to the growth of the Ku Klux Klan in the U. S. saying that its appeal was irresistible to a certain class of citizens -- in the case of Germany, the conservative, impoverished lower middle class. Thirteen million Ger mans voted for Adolf Hitler in April. That, observers felt, was nearly 100% of the class. Since then Naziism has neither gained nor lost, has apparently reached its saturation point. German Republicans feel that it is really on the downgrade, pointed out last week that three months ago there must have been thousands of Germans who would have voted for Hitlerite Deputies when they would not vote for Adolf Hitler in opposition to the National Hero VON HINDENBURG.

Return of Bruening. There is one way that the Nationalist groups can have a parliamentary majority without dissolving the Reichstag: they might force the Junker Cabinet to declare the Communist Party outlaw, thus throwing out 89 Deputies and giving the Right Wing a working majority of 36. The morning after election day Nazi papers loudly demanded just such a move. It seemed unlikely that the "Cabinet of Monocles" would comply. Those 89 Communists represent over 5,000,000 voters of a very dangerous temper. The Communist Deputies will be extremely useful to Herr von Papen from time to time in keeping the Hitlerites in their place. That being so, the balance of power last week was in the thin, capable hands of ascetic former Chancellor Heinrich Bruening. His personal party, the Catholic Centrists, had made good their campaign slogan "Back to Buening!" (see cut) to the extent of nine seats over 1930. The Socialists, his former opponents, were willing to accept him as a leader to stem the tide of Nationalism. Like David Lloyd George in Britain, Heinrich Brueining is probably the shrewdest politician in his country. Newspapers were quick to point out the similarity between his position and that of Britain's tricky Welshman from 1929, when Labor came to power, until the Conservative landslide of last year. They did not mention that for all the fame of his Balance of Power, Lloyd George was never able to do much with it.

Yellow, smiling Kurt von Schleicher, moving spirit of Germany's Junker Cabinet, was not at all ruffled by election returns last week. Calmly he proceeded with his plans to reorganize the entire Prussian State Government, fill all offices with militarists.

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