862.00/2810: Telegram
The Ambassador in Germany (Sackett) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 1—10:45 a.m.]
153. Substantially complete election returns up to 10 o’clock this morning give following approximate results in round figures:
36.8 million votes cast by eligible electorate of 44.4 million. Approximate popular votes of leading parties: Nazis 13.7, Social Democrats 7.9 million, Centrist and Bavarian Peoples Party combined 5.8 million, Communists 5.2, Hugenberg Nationalists 2.1.
Translated into Reichstag seats, 607 seats in all, the foregoing figures are equivalent, respectively to 230, 133, 98, 89, 37. The remaining 20 seats are divided among six additional small groups.
The percentage of votes cast just under 83 is about 1 percent greater than in the Reichstag elections of 1930 but some 3 percent less than the first Presidential elections last March. While this shows relatively keen interest in the elections the vote was not as heavy as we have hoped and expected.
[Page 303]While 304 votes will be needed for a majority in the new Reichstag the Nazis and Hugenberg Nationalists combined together with all the small parties which might be expected to vote with them do not dispose of more than 283 seats.
As a result of yesterday’s elections the new Reichstag will reflect the change that has taken place in German political life through the great growth of the Nazi movement in the last 2 years. The elections did not, however, bring about any very substantial change in the voting strength of the five principal parties as shown in the two Presidential elections and the Prussian Diet elections this spring.
The Nazis with a vote of 13.7 million show a fraction over 37 percent of the total vote as against a popular vote of 13.4 million and a percentage of 36.8 in the second Presidential election of last April.
Thus it cannot be said that this result constitutes a decisive setback for the Nazis but on the other hand it does tend to indicate that the consistent level of strength which they have attained and been able to maintain is about the maximum that they can hope for.