Reply #26: Why do people ignore the fact that democracy was unpopular in Germany...

[JVS]

to begin with? The nationalism that put Hitler into power was not a new phenomenon or odd happening, but rather it was a return to what was considered normal to the society at the time. German Nationalism was much more acceptable among the German middle and upper class than the SPD and its democracy were. In the last pre-WWI election, 1912, the SPD was the most leftist party and became the largest party in the Reichstag, but had still only managed to get 34% of the votes. In 1918 the Kaiser's government collapsed and the SPD decided to found a republic, the problem was that only the SPD (the party of the left-most 1/3 of the people) wanted a democracy. The biggest weakness of democracy is that if the public doesn't want democracy it can vote in people who will end it. They didn't want democracy and already by the mid 20's the system was breaking down.