In the fourteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag. This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the use of a peculiar proportional representation electoral system that encouraged regional or small special interest parties and in part due to the many challenges facing the nascent German democracy in this period. After the Nazi seizure of power, they used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to effectively eliminate their chief adversaries, first the Communists (March 1933) and then the Social Democrats (22 June 1933) through arrests, confiscation of assets and removal from office. Other parties were pressured into disbanding on their own or were swept away by the "Law Against the Founding of New Parties" (14 July 1933) which declared the Nazi Party to be Germany's only legal political party. Weimar political parties Left-wing Alte Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (ASPD) — Old Social Democratic Party of Germany. A regional party based in Saxony that split from the SPD in 1926. It never gained a mass following and disbanded in 1932. Kommunistische Arbeiter-Partei Deutschlands (KAPD) — Communist Workers' Party of Germany. An ultra-leftist party that split from the KPD in April 1920. They rejected participation in the Reichstag and called for immediate revolutionary action. Immediately after its formation the party endured a series of splinters and lost much of the little influence it had. (Against the government) Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) — Communist Party of Germany. Formed at the very end of 1918 out of a number of left-wing groups, including the left-wing of the USPD and the Spartacus League. It was a Marxist-Leninist party that advocated revolution by the proletariat and the creation of a communist regime according to the example of the Soviet Union. It was the main far-left party for the majority of the Weimar period. The party's major paper was the Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag). (Against the government) Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Opposition) (KPO) — Communist Party of Germany (Opposition). Split from the KPD in 1928, representing the "Right Opposition" of the Bukharinists against the Stalinist "Center" and the Trotskyist "Left Opposition". It never intended to be a real political party, but to influence the KPD. Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) — Social Democratic Party of Germany (between 1917 and 1922 also called Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei (MSPD) – Majority Social Democrats). Founded in 1875, it was one of