1936 Reichstag Election Ballot – Adolf Hitler List, Oberbayern-Schwaben, Pencil-Marked

Description

This original 1936 Reichstag election ballot was printed for Wahlkreis Oberbayern-Schwaben for the vote of 29 March 1936. Under the slogan Reichstag für Freiheit und Frieden (“Reichstag for Freedom and Peace”) it presents the single National Socialist list: Adolf Hitler in large Fraktur type, then Heß, Frick, Göring, Goebbels, Wagner and Wahl. A pencil cross has been drawn in the single voting circle.

What is printed on this 1936 Reichstag election ballot?

Reichstag für Freiheit und Frieden
Wahlkreis Oberbayern-Schwaben
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
Adolf Hitler
Heß – Frick – Göring – Goebbels – Wagner – Wahl

The layout sets out a clear hierarchy. The party name sits at the top, Hitler’s name dominates the centre, and Rudolf Heß, Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels are reduced to surnames on one line beneath him. The last two names, Adolf Wagner and Karl Wahl, were the Gauleiters of München-Oberbayern and Schwaben, the two party regions covered by this electoral district.

What is missing from the ballot?

What the 1936 Reichstag election ballot leaves out is as revealing as what it shows. There are no rival parties, no alternative lists and only one circle to mark. By 1936 every other party had been banned, and the vote of 29 March, held three weeks after the remilitarisation of the Rhineland on 7 March and combined with a referendum endorsing it, offered a single approved list. Jewish Germans had lost the right to vote under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. The regime announced 98.8% support; historians treat the result as the product of a staged plebiscite, not a free election.

Was this ballot actually cast?

The pencil cross shows how the form was meant to be completed, but without provenance from a polling station it cannot be proved that this particular sheet went into a ballot box. It is therefore described as a period ballot with a pencil voting mark. No claim is made about the voter or the polling station.

Why collect it?

Electoral material can be tied to an exact date and place, which makes it one of the most precise kinds of political ephemera. This ballot combines the 1936 slogan, the district identification, the regional names and a surviving voting mark. A second marked ballot of the same district is listed as DOC217, and the 1938 vote can be compared through our unmarked Anschluss referendum ballot (DOC216). For background on the documents of the period, see our collector’s guide to WW2 German documents.

See also the 1938 Anschluss ballot with a bold “Ja” mark (DOC213).

A third pencil-marked example from the same district is listed as our 1936 Hitler election ballot (DOC201).

Collector’s Note

Two ballots from the same district are never quite the same object: each cross was drawn by a different hand. When comparing examples, look at the mark as closely as the print; on this one the cross is light and slightly off-centre within the circle.

Condition

Original period condition:

• General age toning with light surface marks and minor spotting.
• Slight edge wear.
• Printed border and type clear and strongly legible.
• Pencil cross present in the voting circle.

No loss affects the printed area. The coin and pencil in the photograph are display props and are not included. The photograph shows the actual ballot offered and forms part of this condition description.

Frequently asked questions

Which election?
The Reichstag election and referendum of 29 March 1936.

Which district?
Wahlkreis Oberbayern-Schwaben.

Who were Wagner and Wahl?
Adolf Wagner, Gauleiter of München-Oberbayern, and Karl Wahl, Gauleiter of Schwaben.

Does the cross prove the ballot was cast?
Not on its own; there is no polling-station provenance.

Are the coin and pencil included?
No. They are photographic props only.

Historical Responsibility Notice

This ballot is offered exclusively as a historical artefact for collecting, preservation, education and research. Names and wording of the period are reproduced only because they form an inseparable part of the original document. Autographs & Militaria does not endorse or glorify National Socialism or the political system it represents.

References & Further Reading

• Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power, 1933–1939 (London: Allen Lane, 2005) – the Rhineland remilitarisation and the March 1936 election.
• Dieter Nohlen and Philip Stöver (eds.), Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2010) – official results of the 1936 Reichstag election.
• Deutsches Historisches Museum, handbill calling for the Reichstag election of 29 March 1936 (via Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek).