Key Words

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Armistice: Ceasefire.

Coalition: a government by two or more political parties

Consitution: system of rules by which a country is governed.

Judiciary: Judges

Kaiser: emperor

Orator: fluent and talented public speaker

Putsch: an uprising/ attempt to overthrow the government

Reichstag: german parliament

Reparations: compensation for war damages, paid by the defeated state.

Spartacists: name of the german communist party.

Hyperinflation: when prices go up very quickly

Passive Resistance: to resist authority in a peaceful, non violent way

The Ruhr: industrial area of Germany producing coal, iron and steel.

Propaganda: false/misleading information given out to spread certain points of view.

Wall Street Crash: wall street is the name of the New York stock exchange. Share prices fell disastrously in October 1923

Democracy: where people choose the government from a number of parties.

Dictatorship: one-party state governed by one person who has total control

Fuhrer: German for leader

Purge: to remove enemies by terror

State Parliament: each German state (such as Bavaria or Saxony) elected its own parliament

The SS: originally a private bodyguard for hitler but later the organisation that removed opposition to the Nazi government.

Third Reich: third empire (Hitler wanted an eternal third empire so he needed loyal children who could be brainwashed and keep up his ideals in the future)

Censorship: when unacceptable parts of books, films, broadcasts etc. are suppressed.

Concentration camps: prisons where inmates were treated with great brutality and forced labour.

Concordat: agreement

Gestapo: Nazi secret police

Indoctrination: brainwashing people into accepting ideas

Police State: a TOTALITARIAN state e.g where the police force are in control over the people

Edelweiss: this flower was the symbol used on badges worn by the Edelweiss Pirates. It means 'noble' or 'white'

Conscription: compulsory military service

Eugenics: study of improving the qualities of the human race

Labour Exchanges: job centres

Lebensraum: literally 'living space'

Autarky: self sufficiency

Autobahns: german motorways

Invisible Unemployed: unemployed people not counted in official figures

Real Wages: wages adjusted to allow for inflation. what workers could actually buy/afford with their wages

Rearmament: building up armed forces and weapons

Anti Semitism: opposition and attack on Jews

Aryan: Nazi term for someone of supposedly pure germanic stock

Final Solution: the Nazi policy to exterminate all Jews in Europe

Ghetto: An area of city or town used to house one racial group

Untermenschen: German word for sub-humans (including Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, gypsies, blacks, mentally ill)

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