Market1935 Free City of Danzig parliamentary election
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1935 Free City of Danzig parliamentary election

The sixth and last elections to the Volkstag, the parliament of the Free City of Danzig, were held on April 7, 1935. Whilst a Volkstag election was not due until 1937, the ruling National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) brought a snap election hoping to acquire a two-thirds majority in the assembly required to modify the constitution of the Free City of Danzig. The NSDAP massively dominated the election campaign, with the state machinery being mobilized to canvass for votes. Opposition parties were harassed and routinely violently attacked, especially in rural areas. In the end the NSDAP failed to achieve the two-thirds majority, and in spite of winning an absolute majority of votes and seats the election was widely seen as a set-back for the party. The opposition parties demanded that the election be declared invalid and petitioned the Danzig courts and the League of Nations demanding fresh elections.

Background
, the leader of the NSDAP in the Free City of DanzigThe National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) had won a majority of votes and seats in the 1933 Volkstag election. Hermann Rauschning, a former German National People's Party (DNVP) politician who had joined the NSDAP, became the Senate President of the Free City of Danzig. But the relationship between Rauschning and the NSDAP party organization soon turned sour, as Rauschning favoured a line of international detente and adherence to the international treaties governing the Free City whilst the NSDAP party organization called for hard-line approach towards the opposition (demanding measures such as banning the Social Democratic Party, arresting Catholic priests, etc.). A key issue increasing the tensions between Rauschning and the NSDAP gauleiter (party organization leader) Albert Forster was the financing the Great National Socialist Job Creation Program, a program modeled on the anti-unemployment scheme of the German Reich. But whilst in the German Reich the government could fund its unemployment scheme through public debt, the Bank of Danzig could not do the same due to restrictions imposed by the League of Nations mandate. And though the Great National Socialist Job Creation Program had limited impact on unemployment in the Free City of Danzig, it prompted the Free City of Danzig government to introduce budget cuts for other state activities as well as reductions in public sector salaries and pensions. With the ousting of the unpopular and moderate Rauschning, Forster could reinforce his hold over the party and the Free City of Danzig. In the wake of the January 13, 1935 Saar plebiscite (in which 91% of the voters had supported reunification with Germany), the NSDAP moved to dissolve to Volkstag and call for fresh elections two years ahead of schedule. Forster and NSDAP were hoping to take advantage of the Saar vote momentum and seeking to gain a two-thirds majority. In the November 18, 1934 District Assembly (kreistag) elections in the and districts the NSDAP had won 77.18% of the vote - making the goal of a two-thirds Volkstag majority seem probable to Forster. ==Campaigning==
Campaigning
List 1 - National Socialist German Workers Party (Hitler Movement) The National Socialist list was headed by Arthur Greiser (Senate President, Danzig-Oliva), (farmer, Zugdam), (Senator, Danzig) and Johann Gobert (fisherman, Palschau). The Social Democrats held seven campaign meetings during the electoral campaign, one of them in a large hall. Per historian Christopher Pallaske (1999), the pre-electoral violence against the Social Democrats took 'pogrom-like proportions'. List 3 - Plenikowski List The Communist Party had been banned in the Free City of Danzig on May 28, 1934. The communists contested the election under the banner 'Plenikowski List'. Its leader Gustav Pietsch was a sea captain, who had moved to Danzig in 1918. Pietsch had been active in the Frontkämpferbund veterans' union, which was linked to the DNVP. All in all, there was 60 candidates on the list. On March 31, 1935 a demonstration was held in Danzig, with banners carrying slogans like "Down with Election Terror", "No Progress in Danzig without Harmony with Poland" and "Poles vote for List 7". The following day the Polish-language newspaper '''' was banned for allegedly disrupting relations between the Free City of Danzig, Poland and the League of Nations. ==Results==
Results
Overall election result By district Result in Danzig-Schidlitz Schidlitz was traditionally a red working-class suburb, which retained some rural characterists. Whilst the Social Democrats had obtained 18.8% of the vote in the Danzig City suburbs and 15% in outlying areas, they managed to obtain 25.3% of the vote in Danzig-Schidlitz. Elected deputies ==Aftermath==
Aftermath
Reactions Prior to the election, the NSDAP had been very confident that to polls would deliver a resounding victory and a stable two-thirds Volkstag majority. For example, three days before the election Göring stated that "[t]he battle is already won before it has begun!". But whilst the NSDAP increased its share of votes and seats, the party had not achieved the desired two-thirds majority. In the international press the election result was framed as a set-back for the ruling National Socialists, with headlines such as 'Hitler foiled in Danzig election' (News Chronicle, April 8, 1935). The Jewish Telegraphic Agency bulletin after the election wrote "The Jewish population of Danzig today welcomed the results of yesterday's parliamentary elections as removing for the first time the threat that the Jews of Danzig would be placed in the same position as the Jews of Germany." Lodzer Volkszeitung, the organ of the German Socialist Labour Party of Poland (DSAP), highlighted that the in Danzig City proper the gap between the ruling National Socialist and opposition was not that significant, and emphasized that Social Democrats had gained 5,000 votes and Centre Party another gained 2,500 votes in the city. In the aftermath of the polls the National Socialist press outlets struggled to identify plausible explanations for the failure to achieve the two-thirds majority, one argument raised was that the NSDAP had managed to gain 30,000 additional voters in spite of the incumbent National Socialist government having taken unpopular measures. Reportedly, the regional SS leader Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski argued that voters had reacted negatively to corrupt practices and arrogance of NSDAP leaders, and that Greiser's divorce and SA leader 's slander campaign against Greiser had damaged the confidence in the party. Following the elections all of the opposition parties, except the Polish List, filed a lawsuit alleging various irregularities such as illegal manipulations, threats of dismissals for public employees refusing to support the NSDAP, that the secrecy of the ballot had not been respected and that non-citizens had been brought in by bus and train to vote. The election was declared invalid in 18 electoral precincts. On December 5, 1935 a meeting of the Election Committee conducted a recalculation of the seat distribution of the Volktag on the basis of the November 14 court ruling. In the adjusted list of elected Volkstag members issued by the Election Committee, the NSDAP had removed six of its deputies previous announced elected - Senate President Arthur Greiser, Lothar Rettelsky, Wilhelm von Wnuck, , and the Bank of Danzig president were no longer listed as Volkstag deputies. The five new NSDAP Volkstag members were now Erich Schelm, , Franz Schramm, Karl Gall and Herbert Schulz. The seat that was now transferred from NSDAP to the Social Democrats was taken by , house-wife from Danzig. ==Local elections==
Local elections
In parallel to the Volkstag election, there were also a District Assembly (kreistag) election in and a city council election in Zoppot. There were also municipal elections in Danziger Höhe, in which Polish lists obtained a total of 15 seats (an increase from 5 in previous elections). Danziger Höhe District Assembly Zoppot City Council ==References==
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