Only 15% of German workers structurally matched left-wing parties in personality

Evidence

Without doubt, the most important result is the small proportion of left-wingers [from the total of the three groups Social Democrats, left-wing socialists and Communists] who were in agreement in both thought and feeling with the Socialist line. In critical times the courage, readiness for sacrifice and spontaneity needed to rouse the less active and to overcome the enemy could only be expected from a rather small group of 15%. Although the Left had the political loyalty and votes of the great majority of workers, it had by and large not succeeded in changing the personality structure of its adherents in such a way that they could be relied upon in critical situations. On the other hand, a further 25% of Social Democrats and Communists were in broad though less firm agreement with their party and showed no signs of any personality traits which would have contradicted their left-wing approach. They could be counted on as reliable, but not as fervent, supporters. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 708

Categorization

• XREF: This is the Frankfurt School’s famous empirical finding that party loyalty had not penetrated workers’ personality structure — connects to their whole critique of authoritarian personality research and to the failure of the German Left to resist fascism. — connects to: Only 15 percent of Weimar left-wing voters were radical in both thought and feeling — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 193; Most left-wing party supporters lacked a matching radical personality type. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 707; A fifth of German proletarian party supporters held authoritarian attitudes — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 709 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: This is the empirical core of the authoritarian character studies that led to the later Berkeley ‘Authoritarian Personality’ work — worth tracing how these 1930s findings became the postwar project.

Broader Connections

• A fifth of German proletarian party supporters held authoritarian attitudes #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 709
• Ethnocentric and anti-democratic attitudes sometimes coexisted with left-leaning political views #complicates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 495