Luis Bosshart (Harvard Academy Scholar)

"Coordination and Selection in the Rise of Fascism: The ‘Ordinary Men’ of the Nazi Party"

We digitize and analyze the near-universe of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) membership records and link them to population and industrial censuses. We use these data to document the geography of party membership, the selection of members, and the dynamics of entry. We find that ninety percent of the variation in membership arises between neighboring villages within counties, with one-quarter recording no members. Early party members were socially selected, but these differences disappeared as the party grew. SS members remained distinct: younger, more educated, and more likely to exhibit Nazi insignia in membership portraits. Entry occurred in discrete waves, with later members disproportionately following earlier members from the same communities, workplaces, and families. These patterns suggest that social interaction and coordination transformed a selective political organization into a mass movement. Consistent with this interpretation, while selection of members diminished over time, local membership levels diverged after the arrival of an early joiner across otherwise similar matched municipalities. Finally, this variation in party membership is associated with subsequent deportations of Germany’s Jews.