My rough understanding is that the NSDAP electorate was very broadly a lower-middle class, primarily Protestant group early on, but by the late 1920s and early 1930s had become noticeably more educated and bourgeois, with young professionals, civil servants, etc. being particularly supportive.
How accurate is the above, and furthermore, do historians consider the demographics of the early Nazi electorate particularly significant to understanding the rise of National Socialism in Weimar Germany?
Thanks in advance!
Pretty correct but to provide some more context
In the early 20s the Nazis appealed primarily to the lower middle class of shopkeepers, farmers, officers, civil servants and then ex-soldiers. The middle class were said to have been caught between capitalism from above and worker unions from below. Anti-semitism and nationalism had been growing prior to ww1 and the impact of the war and subsequent hyperinflation hurt the lower middle class and destroyed their savings, with the upper middle and upper classes somewhat protected due to owning property and land.
Many veterans believed the "Stab in the back" myth, but the Nazis also pulled from the Free Corps - essentially paramilitary forces or veterans associations. Many soldiers returned home with their weapons and joined free corps. Because of the treaty of versaills the German military was limited so they often supported the formation of these free corps and even helped train them. The free corps were often sympathetic to the far right, and fought against the Communist revolutions that spread accross Germany in the post-war period.
Support for the party declined when Hitler was imprisoned and the party was banned, with the Nazis members basically just joining a new party established to circumvent the ban called the Greater German Racial Community, which allied with a coalition of Folkish (far right and racist) parties for the 1924 elections. The Folkish parties did particularly well in Mecklenburg and Bavaria.
Nazi support declined after this due to the Dawes Plan which combated hyperinflation and led to a more secure German economy. In 1929 however the Young Plan proved incredibly controversial - it renegotiated the amount of reperations Germany would have to pay to a lower amount and was a good deal for Germany but it highlighted the fact Germany was paying reperations and accepted war guilt. The Nazis were helped by the fact that the media supported their stance on the Young Plan, spreading the Nazi message and giving them credibility. The subsequent Depression then gave more credence to the Nazi idea that democracy in Germany had failed.
The depression pushed more unemployed and workers to the Nazi party, while media support and Goebbles propaganda helped reach rural voters and upper classes. By 1930 it could be said that the Nazi party was the only party in the Weimar period that could claim significant support from all sectors of society. But even then they struggled to win over the urban working classes.
Sources:
Ian Kershaw - Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris
Adrian Weale - The SS: A New History