History glossary
Social Democrats
Germany's main democratic socialist party and one of the last parliamentary opponents of Hitler's dictatorship.
- Category
- Political party
- Region
- Germany
- Date range
- Founded 1875
What it means
The Social Democrats, or SPD, were Germany's major democratic socialist party. In March 1933 they were the only party present in the Reichstag to vote against the Enabling Act. The Nazis banned the SPD in June 1933 as they destroyed independent political life.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Holocaust
From legal discrimination to genocide, the Holocaust traces twelve years of escalating persecution that killed six million Jews and millions of others across Nazi-occupied Europe.
Nazi Germany
From Weimar collapse to WWII, Nazi Germany imposed totalitarian rule, expansion, and genocide.
Weimar Republic
A fragile democracy marked by crisis and innovation, whose collapse paved the way for Nazi rule.
The Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences
From the armistice of November 1918 to Hitler's rise in 1933, this story traces how the Treaty of Versailles — its punishment, its borders, its reparations, and its resentments — helped shape the conditions for a second world war.
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
From the ashes of World War I to the Night of the Long Knives, this story traces the political rise of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.
Origins of the Cold War
From the Grand Alliance to the Truman Doctrine, this story traces how the United States and Soviet Union shifted from wartime cooperation to global confrontation.
