Abstract
This chapter discusses three main issues for socialists: first, whether to defend Weimar democracy or to see it as merely a cover for the continuation of the previous regime of the big landowners and capitalists. The Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was opposed to defending Weimar democracy, while the German Social Democrats (SPD) saw itself as the upholder. Second, once the decision had been made to defend Weimar democracy there was a choice of constitutional or extra-constitutional methods. The third issue was this: was it necessary, in order to defend democracy, to extend and deepen it, to establish a more all-embracing democratic system by democratising the various state institutions such as the judiciary, the civil service and the army which the Weimar Republic had taken over unchanged from Imperial Germany? These were the main issues at stake in the arguments over democracy within Social Democracy in the late 1920s.Keywords: Communist Party of Germany (KPD); German Social Democrats (SPD); Weimar democracy
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