How Nazi Repression of Priests Boosted Postwar Christian Democratic Support in Bavaria

Why Study Elite Repression?

Most research on the political legacies of violence focuses on mass repression of civilians. Leonid Peisakhin and Didac Queralt shift attention to selective repression of local elites and ask whether punishing community leaders changes political behavior among ordinary residents who were not directly targeted.

Case and Question: Nazi Repression of Catholic Clergy in Bavaria

The authors study Nazi-era repression of Catholic priests in Bavarian municipalities to test a clear hypothesis: when elites are targeted for state violence, affected communities may react politically—potentially turning toward parties that symbolize the persecuted identity. The central empirical question is whether historical repression of clergy is associated with greater support for the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) after World War II.

Data and Approach: Municipal Records and Electoral Returns

Peisakhin and Queralt link historical records documenting repression of Catholic priests at the local level with municipal electoral returns in postwar elections and in later periods. They analyze how the presence of priest repression predicts vote shares for Christian Democrats across places and over time, comparing affected and unaffected communities while accounting for historical context.

Key Findings

• Municipalities where Catholic priests were repressed during the Nazi era were more likely to vote for Christian Democrats in the immediate postwar elections.
• The association persists into later elections, indicating an intergenerational legacy, although the effect size diminishes over time.
• These patterns hold for ordinary community members who were not themselves direct victims of repression, suggesting elite-targeted violence can reshape mass partisan alignments.

Broader Implications

The study expands the literature on the long-term political effects of state violence by showing that targeting local elites can leave durable political and social legacies in communities. This finding matters for scholars interested in political socialization, religion and politics, and the formation of partisan identities in post-conflict societies, and it raises questions about how elite-targeted repression influences democratic recovery and party competition.