The SPD were just as happy to equate the KPD with the Nazis as the KPD was to call the SPD social fascists.
Voting alongside the Nazis on a referendum is not the same thing as “openly allying with the Nazis.” The status quo at the time was austerity in the middle of a massive economic crisis, it was fundamentally unsustainable. The KPD didn’t want the Nazis to be able to dominate opposition to that. It’s true that they underestimated them, but the answer was not (as the SPD did) throwing their weight behind austerity measures for the sake of stability, it wouldn’t have changed a single thing if they had.
It still remains the fact that the person who put Hitler into power was Hindenburg, who was backed by the SPD.
The SPD were just as happy to equate the KPD with the Nazis as the KPD was to call the SPD social fascists.
Voting alongside the Nazis on a referendum is not the same thing as “openly allying with the Nazis.” The status quo at the time was austerity in the middle of a massive economic crisis, it was fundamentally unsustainable. The KPD didn’t want the Nazis to be able to dominate opposition to that. It’s true that they underestimated them, but the answer was not (as the SPD did) throwing their weight behind austerity measures for the sake of stability, it wouldn’t have changed a single thing if they had.
It still remains the fact that the person who put Hitler into power was Hindenburg, who was backed by the SPD.