Adolf Hitler Received 99% of the Votes in a Referendum

On 29th March 1936, a parliamentary election was held in Germany. The election was to decide whether the voters approved of the military occupation of the Rhineland and a single party list for the new Reichstag composed exclusively of Nazis and nominally independent guests of the party. The election was huge turnout and surprise resulting in the Adolf Hitler’s favor with 99.0% votes in his side. In a publicity stunt, a handful of voters were packed aboard the airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, which flew above the Rhineland as those aboard cast their ballots.

This was the first German election held after enactment of the Nuremberg Laws, which had removed citizenship rights including the right to vote from Jews and other ethnic minorities. In the previous elections and referenda under Nazi rule, Jews, Poles and other ethnic minorities had been allowed to vote without much interference, and even indirectly encouraged to vote against the Nazis especially in districts that were known to have large populations of ethnic minorities. Their removal from the electoral process accounted for much of the large drop in invalid and negative votes, which fell from over five million in 1934 to barely half a million in 1936. The Nazis also lowered the voting age, in large part so as to ensure that the electorate was about the same size as in 1934.