Imperial Germany had a parliament and a free press and would likely have developed into a full fledged democracy in time.
It did indeed have a parliament, but that parliament (as you well know) was almost entirely toothless. The votes cast by the people (on an ironically broad franchise) had no influence over government policy. The military, the state bureaucracy, and the country's social and economic elites were opposed to democracy on principle. The excessively elevated status of the military in particular was a massive barrier to democratisation (as leading Social Democrats knew only too well). The development of anything that can be meaningfully described as a democracy could only have happened after a revolution.
This is very interesting, I do not know much about it. Where would be a good place to read about Imperial German parliamentary politics and structures in further depth?
Poll
