Template:Did you know nominations/1934 German referendum

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by PrimalMustelid talk 18:32, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

1934 German referendum

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... ~~that opposition to Hitler in the 1934 German referendum was doubled from the one a year prior?~~ Source: "Hitler endorsed by 9 to 1 in poll on his dictatorship, but opposition is doubled" by Frederick T. Birchall from the NYT.
ALT1 ... ~~that opposition to Hitler in the 1934 German referendum doubled compared to the one held the previous year?~~ Source: "Hitler endorsed by 9 to 1 in poll on his dictatorship, but opposition is doubled" by Frederick T. Birchall from the NYT.
ALT2 ... ~~that opposition to Hitler in the 1934 German referendum doubled compared to the 1933 German referendum?~~ Source: "Hitler endorsed by 9 to 1 in poll on his dictatorship, but opposition is doubled" by Frederick T. Birchall from the NYT.
ALT3 ... ~~that according to the official results, opposition to Hitler's agenda in the 1934 German referendum doubled compared to the 1933 German referendum?~~ Source: "Hitler endorsed by 9 to 1 in poll on his dictatorship, but opposition is doubled" by Frederick T. Birchall from the NYT.
ALT4 ... that in the 1934 German referendum some areas recorded more votes than there were eligible voters? Source: The Third Reich in Power by Richard J. Evans, p. 110.
- Reviewed:
- Comment: This is my second DYK nomination, so please let me know if I did something wrong! (Also, I do not believe I am required to do a QPQ.)

Improved to Good Article status by HouseBlaster (talk). Self-nominated at 00:18, 8 February 2024 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/1934 German referendum; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

No QPQ required. Article is eligible. No copyvio, well sourced. Long enough. Hook is sourced and interesting, but I do find the wording "was doubled from the one a year prior" a bit awkward. Srnec (talk)

The hook fact appears to be absent from main body text. Gatoclass (talk) 03:07, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

The article says Overall support for the government was lower than in the referendum of 12 November 1933, when the government had received support from 95.1% of the total electorate. It has the 1934 results. You can clearly see that opposition must have doubled, since it could not have been more than 4.9% in 1933. Srnec (talk) 03:41, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

I have added two alts with (hopefully) less awkward phrasing, and have explicitly added the information to the text. House Blaster (talk · he/him) 04:18, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Okay, firstly, the hook fact must be in the article, not merely inferred. Readers should not be expected to do the math themselves. Apart from which - how would I know from those figures that "opposition ... doubled"? There might have been fewer overall voters the first time, or a much larger number of informal votes.

In any case, comparing the two referenda looks like an apples to oranges thing to me, as they were on very different subjects. So it seems a little misleading, if not WP:SYNTHish, to characterize the result as "opposition to Hitler" specifically. Gatoclass (talk) 04:24, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm good with HouseBlaster's additions and, on reflection, the source supports the hook, so let's not waste any more time on this one. Gatoclass (talk) 04:33, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

For clarity, my preference would be for ALT2—does that work for you? House Blaster (talk · he/him) 03:24, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Sure, why not? Gatoclass (talk) 05:52, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

The way these hooks are worded wrongly suggest that the referendum results reflect actual opposition to Hitler, or at least the actual votes cast (when there was widespread fraud). I think it would be better to write something like, "that twice as many oppose votes were recorded ... ?" (t · c) buidhe 09:40, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
Does ALT3 work for you? House Blaster (talk · he/him) 15:50, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
Perhaps take the hook in an entirely different direction? There is clearly too much ambiguity in the word "double", since Buidhe takes it to mean "twice as many oppose votes were recorded" when percentages are actually in view. Srnec (talk) 00:29, 4 March 2024 (UTC)
ALT4 added. House Blaster (talk · he/him) 01:30, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

AGF verified ALT4; other hooks struck for clarity. Gatoclass (talk) 04:30, 4 March 2024 (UTC)