Berlin was one of the cradles of social democracy. It was here that the German Social Democrats (SPD) became the Reichstag’s largest party in 1912, more than a decade before the first British Labour government. It was here that the Nazis met with their staunchest resistance, as Sturmabteilung thugs fought vicious street battles in their efforts to subjugate what Goebbels called “the reddest city in Europe outside Moscow”. In the years after the war it was two SPD mayors, Ernst Reuter and Willy Brandt, who turned West Berlin into the symbolic vanguard of the free world. In what was once an international beacon of socialism, the SPD has withered…

Source: The Times May 23, 2019 16:12 UTC