The history of the Weimar Republic is inextricably linked with the history of political parties. Like the republic itself, these parties did not appear out of nowhere and did not vanish into thin air. The roots of most of them lay in the Kaiserreich, and after a 12-year Nazi hiatus, most were reestablished or served as the foundation for the creation of new parties that shaped the political life of both German states in the second half of the 20th century.