Hysteresis and Selection in the Rise of Fascism: The `Ordinary Men' of the Nazi Party

TL;DR

This study digitizes NSDAP membership data, linking it to census records, revealing how party membership evolved and its social implications, including connections to Jewish deportations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive digitized dataset and analysis of Nazi Party membership, uncovering patterns of demographic change, social clustering, and political consequences.

Findings

Party membership increasingly resembled the general population over time.

SS members remained younger, more educated, and more fanatical.

Local membership increases correlated with subsequent Jewish deportations.

Abstract

We digitize and analyze the near-universe of National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) membership records and link them to newly digitized population and industrial censuses. Four findings emerge. First, as the party expanded, its membership came to resemble the broader population more closely in occupational, demographic, and religious terms. Second, SS members remained distinctly different: younger, more educated, and more fanatical, as proxied by membership portraits. Third, within communities, coworkers, and families, early membership generated hysteresis, with subsequent entrants drawn from the same groups. Finally, local increases in party membership are associated with subsequent deportations of Germany's Jews.