1) Support 5: Who Voted for the Nazis?

Question 1

Up until the 1980s what was the common belief?

Answer 1

Up until the 1980s, the common belief was that the Mittlestand or the Petit-Bourgeois were the key group.

Question 2

However by the 1990s, why did historians change their minds?

Answer 2

Due to 2 reasons: 
i) Placing people in social groups caused problems and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism in Eastern Europe, historians became more judgemental of the belief that the working class had no interest in Hitler.

ii) Computers allow data to be analysed in different ways and more historians looked at Germans as individuals or in the context of a local area.

Question 3

What did the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe mean?

Answer 3

That new information became available.

Question 4

Despite all this, what is the evidence strongly in favour of?

Answer 4

The theory that the Mittlestand voted disproportionately for the Nazis.

Question 5

What appears to be a greater influence on the voting behaviour than social class?

Answer 5

Religion and local influence.