In the words of one historian, “the gutter had come to power.” A united front of the SPD, the KPD and the trade unions could have transformed the situation completely. The German labour movement was the strongest in the world. Such a force could have split the wavering middle class from the fascists and ground the Hitler movement into the dust.
The National Socialists, however, were able to take power, scandalously, without any resistance (“without even breaking a window pane”, to use Hitler’s words). The labour leadership were completely bankrupt. To appease the Nazis, Otto Wels, the chairman of the SPD, resigned from the Bureau of the Labour and Socialist International. The SPD leaders took disgraceful disciplinary action against the Berlin Socialist Youth and others who took clandestine measures against the fascist regime. They denounced their own comrades abroad who attacked Hitler. They grovelled before the Fuehrer as the iron heel of fascist reaction bore down on the neck of the German working class.
In early May, the police had occupied the SPD buildings and press and had confiscated its property. Yet the leadership stooped even lower to appease Hitler, and voted – at least those who were not in prison – for his foreign policy.
A month later, in a reign of terror, the SPD was outlawed. The Catholic Bavarian People’s Party dissolved itself, as did the Centre Party, followed by the People’s Party and Democrats. On 29 June, Hitler’s coalition partners, the National Party, “voluntarily liquidated itself” as the SA took over its offices.
On 14 July a new law was decreed: “The National Socialist German Workers’ Party constitutes the only political party in Germany.” Hitler had done in months what it took Mussolini years to accomplish.