Palatinate (electoral district)

27 Palatinate Pfalz
Former electoral constituency for the Reichstag
Location within the Weimar Republic
State	Bavaria
Electorate	520,430 (1919) 647,678 (1933)
Major settlements	Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern, Pirmasens, Zweibrücken, Landau, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, Speyer
Former constituency
Created	1919
Abolished	1938

Palatinate was one of the 35 electoral districts (German : Wahlkreise) used to elect members to the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic. It sent members to the Reichstag in nine democratic elections between 1919 and 1933. It existed nominally in the show elections to the Nazi Reichstag until 1938.

Its boundaries corresponded to the contemporary Regierungsbezirke of Palatinate within the Free State of Bavaria. It was constituency 27 in the numbering scheme. ^[1] Following the Saar plebiscite of 13 January 1935, the Saar was incorporated into Nazi Germany on 1 March 1935. The new territory was merged with the Palatinate, and the electoral district was renamed Palatinate–Saar. ^[2]

Electoral system

The constituency was created for the 1919 election. ^[3] Under the proportional representation electoral system of the Weimar Republic, voters cast a vote for party lists. Parties were awarded a seat for every 60,000 votes in a constituency. Excess votes were aggregated at two higher levels of seat distribution: an intermediate level combining multiple constituencies, where extra seats were awarded to parties' constituency lists, and a national level where seats were awarded to national lists of each party or alliance. ^{[4] [5]}

Results (1919–1933)

Vote share

Party		1919	1920	1924 I	1924 II	1928	1930	1932 I	1932 II	1933
	KPD		0.8	13.5	8.1	7.1	10.5	10.7	12.9	9.0
	USPD	1.6	10.8	0.3	0.7	0.1
	SPD	37.9	24.4	23.3	26.8	29.0	22.4	17.6	16.1	16.8
	DDP	13.2	8.9	5.5	6.7	3.9	2.3	0.4	0.6	0.5
	Centre			10.6	11.6	26.4	25.6	23.8	22.5	22.7
	BVP	27.6	26.1	17.6	15.6	[a]
	DVP	19.7	29.1	16.3	23.5	14.7	6.6	1.4	2.1	1.2
	DNVP			6.4	4.4	2.8	0.8	1.1	1.8	2.5
	Nazi			5.7	1.9	5.7	22.8	43.7	42.5	46.5
Other				0.6	0.5	10.4	7.4	1.3	1.4	0.7
Turnout		86.5	73.7	71.9	80.2	71.0	76.8	87.2	84.1	91.3
Source: Wahlen in Deutschland

Deputies

Election	Distribution	Seats
1919		6
1920		4
May 1924		3
Dec 1924		4
1928		4
1930		4
Jul 1932		8
Nov 1932		7
1933		8
Source: Wahlen in Deutschland

References

1. "Voters and Elections in the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933". GESIS . 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
2. Zentner, Christian; Bedürftig, Friedemann, eds. (1997) [1991]. The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich . New York: Da Capo Press. pp. 825–826. ISBN   978-0-306-80793-0.
3. "Law on the Elections to the Constituent German National Assembly (Reich Election Law) of 30 November 1918". Documentarchiv.de (in German). 3 January 2004. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
4. "Reichstag Electoral System". Wahlrecht.de (in German). 25 February 2006. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
5. "Reich Election Law of 27 April 1920". Documentarchiv.de (in German). 3 January 2004. Retrieved 13 November 2024.

External links

• "The German Reich - Overall". gonschior.de (in German). Retrieved 12 November 2024.
• "Explanation of the Electoral System". Wahlen in Deutschland (in German). 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2024.

Notes

1. Joint list with Centre.