This is very good. Fun fact: I live next to a massive DDR era statue of to Ernst Thälmann's face. It's like 2 stories tall! My buddy over here in East Berlin. Now I know more about him!
Man, that’s crazy. It never occurred to me he’d be honored (Germany being rather strict about not honoring bad guys!), but, of course, he would have been an absolute hero for the East Germany regime, so it makes sense!
Couple of side notes: the SPD (social democrats) were a leftist organization; despite this, as you mentioned, Thalmann and the KDP denounced them as fascists.
Also, here are the 1928, 1930 and July 1932 election results for the Reichstag for the six largest parties (parties are ordered from left to right):
Thank you for reposting this. I came here expecting to need to dig to find this again...
Thanks James, excellent post, and a much needed reminder given what’s been going on these past few months!
This is very good. Fun fact: I live next to a massive DDR era statue of to Ernst Thälmann's face. It's like 2 stories tall! My buddy over here in East Berlin. Now I know more about him!
Man, that’s crazy. It never occurred to me he’d be honored (Germany being rather strict about not honoring bad guys!), but, of course, he would have been an absolute hero for the East Germany regime, so it makes sense!
Couple of side notes: the SPD (social democrats) were a leftist organization; despite this, as you mentioned, Thalmann and the KDP denounced them as fascists.
Also, here are the 1928, 1930 and July 1932 election results for the Reichstag for the six largest parties (parties are ordered from left to right):
1928: KPD: 10.6%; SPD: 29.8%; Centre: 12.1%; DVP: 8.7%; DNVP: 14.2%; NSDAP: 2.6%
1930: KPD: 13.1%; SPD: 24.5%; Centre: 11.8%; DVP: 4.5%; DNVP: 7.2%; NSDAP: 18.3%
July 1932: KPD: 14.3%; SPD: 21.6%; Centre: 12.4%; BVP: 3.5%; DNVP: 5.9%; NSDAP: 37.3%