In this study they explore the impact of the failed revolutions of 1848, which sparked a wave of emigration out of Germany, on the rise of the Nazi Party. They show that the intensity of emigration during the period 1849-54 significantly affected electoral preferences eighty years later. Their estimates suggest that emigration during this period accounts for 10 to 20 percent of the votes received by the Nazis in 1928. Their results suggest that the well-known contribution of the so-called Fortyeighters to democracy building in the US came at the price of less democracy in Germany.