Abstract
The relative strength of competing explanations of Nazism is examined by using a sample of Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) members joining from 1925 to 1933, culled from the Berlin Document Center. Results of a national multivariate model, regressing NSDAP membership rate at the Kreise (county) level on key indicators of competing theories, lends support to what recent analysts have concluded about the Nazi electorate. The NSDAP is best characterized as a catchall party with strongest membership support found in Bavaria and Northwest Germany. Tests for spatial autocorrelation reveal spatial clustering. A spatial-effects model is estimated and results support the political-confessionalism thesis, with mass-society and lower-middle-class explanations invalidated. The spatial lag term is significant, which may represent the importance of preexisting networks to Nazi mobilization and the likelihood that the joining process was one of hierarchical diffusion. Finally, results from regional models emphasize the varied political geography of Nazi membership.
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