How successful was the Social Democratic Party in the 1912 German election?

In the 1912 German election, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) achieved a significant victory, marking the final general election of the German Empire. The party captured 34.8 percent of the national vote and secured 110 seats in the Reichstag, establishing itself as the largest party in the legislature.12

By this time, the SPD had successfully cultivated a mass base in German society, and its electoral strength was such that it had more voters supporting it than the next two largest parties combined. This success reflected a broader trend of the increasingly urban electorate turning toward the Social Democrats in successive elections, despite the empire's authoritarian political structure. Following this victory, the party began to cooperate at the local level with the Progressives and occasionally with the Centre Party, signaling potential, though uncertain, shifts toward representative democracy within the empire before the outbreak of World War I.12