Bidspirit auction | Ballot for the Nazi Party

Ballot for the Nazi Party in the coerced elections of November 1933 - Ballot for the Nazi Party in the single-party elections to the German Reichstag in the Hessen-Nassau electoral district (Wahlkreis Hessen-Nassau), held on November 12, 1933. These elections took place shortly after the Reichstag fire by the party, and were accompanied by an unprecedented campaign of propaganda and intimidation throughout the cities of Germany. These elections established Hitler as the sole and undisputed ruler of Nazi Germany. The ballot presents the list of candidates of the Nazi Party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Hitlerbewegung): At the head of the list: Adolf Hitler. Rudolf Heß - Hitler's deputy in the party. Joseph Goebbels - Minister of Propaganda. Franz Seldte - founder of the ”Steel Helmet” organization (Stahlhelm) and Minister of Labor. Wilhelm Frick - Minister of the Interior. Ernst Röhm - commander of the SA (eliminated a year later during the ”Night of the Long Knives”). Franz von Papen - former Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. Hermann Göring - commander of the Luftwaffe. Walther Darré - Minister of Food and Agriculture (”Blood and Soil” ideologue).  Alfred Hugenberg - leader of the German National People's Party (DNVP) and media magnate. Following the Reichstag fire and the passage of the ”Enabling Act” in March 1933, the Nazi regime abolished all opposition parties and outlawed them. The November 1933 elections were, in effect, a predetermined ”referendum” - voters received only a single ballot bearing the Nazi list of candidates (along with a list of collaborating conservatives included as ”guests”), with a single circle on the right to be marked as approval of the list. On November 12, 1933, the citizens of Germany were not invited to elect leaders - they were invited to salute at the ballot box. These elections, held alongside a referendum on Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations, constituted the first large-scale totalitarian display of the propaganda machine directed by Joseph Goebbels. There were no opposition parties (all had already been dissolved or outlawed only a few months earlier), and there was no possibility of choosing otherwise. Voters marched to the polling stations as the streets were flooded with enormous posters, SA marches, and military music. The principal slogan relentlessly broadcast over the radio into every home was: ”One People, One Führer, One 'Yes'.” Citizens who refrained from going to the polls received ”home visits” from SA men, who forcibly escorted them to the polling station in full view of their neighbors. The official results were entirely predictable: the regime reported an astronomical turnout of 95.3%, with 92.1% of all voters having ”approved” the Nazi list of candidates. These were the final death throes of Weimar democracy, and this ballot - simple and innocent in appearance - served as the seal of legitimacy for the absolute dictatorship of the Third Reich. Size: 15x21 cm. Stains. Good condition.