History GCSE: Nazi Germany

Weimar Germany
1. Early Threats
  1. Left-Wing
    1. Spartacists
      1. What did they want?
        A Germany ruled by workers' councils or soviets.
      2. What was Ebert's response?
        He sent in the Freikorps, anti-Communist ex-soldiers and street-fights ensued, ending with both Liebknecht & Luxemburg being captured and killed. However around 100 civilians and 17 Freikorps soldiers died during the fighting.
      3. Leader(s)
        Karl Liebknecht & Rosa Luxemburg
      4. What did they do?
        In January 1919, 50,000 Spartacists rebelled in Berlin by striking and barricading roads.
    2. Bavarian
      1. What did they want?
        A Bavarian republic separate from the Weimar republic.
      2. What did they do?
        As early as November 1918, Independent Socialists had set up a republic in Bavaria. It was lead by Kurt Eisner, who was Ebert's ally. However, a right wing student shot Eisner dead in February 1919. The Communists seized the opportunity, and the Soviet Republic of Bavaria came into being.
      3. What was Ebert's response?
        The army and the Freikorpswas asked to deal with the problem. The main city in Bavaria - Munich - was put under siege and by April food in the city was in very short supply. On May 1st, 1919, soldiers from the army assisted by the Freikorps took over Munich killing at least 600 people - including children.
      4. Leader(s)
        Communist Party
  2. Right-Wing
    1. Kapp Putsch
      1. What did they do?
        Marched along with 5000 Freikorps into Berlin and took over the capital.
      2. Leader(s)
        Dr. Wolfgang Kapp
      3. What did they want?
        A new militaristic government of an expanded Germany.
      4. What was Ebert's response?
        At first he fled due to the Army refusing to fire on them, but he then appealed for a mass strike which resulted in, after a few days, Kapp fleeing due to the capitals complete halt, with no water or transport.
    2. Munich Putsch
      1. What did they do?
        On 8th November 1923. Around two-thousand men marched to the centre of Munich and, in the ensuing confrontation with police forces, sixteen Nazis and four policemen were killed
      2. What did they want?
        Overthrow the Government
      3. Leader(s)
        Adolf Hitler & Erich Ludendorff
      4. What was Ebert's response?
        Police rounded up the forces and kill 16 Nazis. Hitler flees in a car but is sentenced to 5 years in jail, but only serves 9 months in the comfortable open prison of Landsberg Castle . Ludendorff faces the armed police.
  3. Treaty of Versaille
    1. Cost Of The Treaty
      1. Germany lost: 10% of its land, all of its overseas colonies, 12.55 of its population, 16% of its coal and 48% of its iron industry; in addition the army was reduced to 100,000, it was allowed no air force, navy was reduced, they had to accept the blame for starting the war and they had to pay reparations.
    2. Effect On German Support
      1. Many Germans were appalled by the harsh conditions of the treaty, and, even though Ebert had a hard time signing the treaty, many Germans believed that the Weimar republic was to blame for the treaty. Ebert's opponents claimed that Germany had not lost the war on the battlefield but had been stabbed in the back by weak politicians.
2. Invasion of the Ruhr / Hyperinflation
  1. 1921
    1. April
      1. The Treaty of Versailles is signed and Germany agrees to pay £6600 million of reparations, paid in yearly £50 million instalments.
    2. First instalment is paid to Britain and France
  2. 1922
    1. Germany doesn't have the money for the second instalment and nothing was paid, so Ebert does his best to play for time and negotiate concessions from the Allies
  3. 1923
    1. January
      1. The French run out of patience and French and Belgian troops march, legally under the Treaty of Versailles, into the Ruhr, and begin to take goods and materials - as they too have war debts to the USA.
    2. The Government orders a passive resistance from the workers, meaning they go on strike, yet his just annoys the troops kill 100 workers and expel 100,000 protestors.
    3. This passive resistance and violence caused the hault in industrial production in Germany's most important region - which causes the collapse in the German currency.
    4. Hyperinflation
      1. Because it had no goods to trade, the Government simply printed money. for the Government this seemed an attractive solution. It paid off its debts with worthless marks, including war loans of over £220 million. The great industrialists were able to pay off all their debt as well.
        This set of a chain reaction. with so much money in circulation, prices and wages skyrocketed, but people soon realised that this money was worthless. Workers needed wheelbarrows to carry home their wages, which were being paid daily instead of weekly. And the price of something could change between joining the back of the queue. One loaf of bread cost 201 billion marks by November 1923 and billion mark notes were being quickly handed out. The people worse affected, however were the middle class and people with savings as they became worthless.
        It was clear t all, both inside and outside Germany, that the situation needed urgent action. In August 1923 a new Government under Gustav Stresemann took over. He called off the passive resistance in the Ruhr. He called in all the worthless marks and burned them, replacing them with a new currency called the Rentenmark. he negotiated to receive American Loans under the Dawes Plan. he even renegotiated the reparations payments. The economic crisis was solved very quickly. some historians suggest that this is evidence that Germany's problems were not as bad as Politicians had made out. It was also increasingly clear that hyperinflation had been a blow to the Weimar Government as their right-wing opponents now had another problem to blame them for, and the government had lost the support of the middle class.
3. Stresemann Years
  1. Acheivements
    1. Culture
    2. Politics
    3. Economy
  2. Problems
4. Government System
  1. Impact of the War on Germany By 1918
    1. Germany was virtually bankrupt
      1. The War left 600,000 widows and 2 million children without fathers - by 1925 the state was spending about 1/3 of its budget on war pensions.
      2. National income was 1/3 of what it had been in 1913.
      3. Industrial production was 2/3 of what it had been in 1913
    2. The war had deepened divisions in German Society
      1. There were huge gaps between the living standards of the rich and poor.
      2. Many German workers were bitter at the restriction placed on their earnings during the War, while the factory owners mad vast fortunes from war.
      3. During the War women were called up to work in the factories. Many saw this as damaging to the traditional family values and society as a whole.
    3. Germany had a revolution and became an unstable democratic republic
      1. Stresses led to a revolution in October - November 1918.
      2. Many ex-soldiers and civilians despised the new democratic leaders and came to believe that the heroic Field Marshall Hindenburg had been betrayed by weak politicians.
  2. President
    1. Article 48 - this said that, in an emergency, the president did not need the agreement of the Reichstag, but could issue decrees.
    2. Stayed out of day-to-day running of parliament.
    3. Elected every 7 Years.
  3. Chancellor
    1. Day-to-day running of Reichstag
    2. Appointed by President, decided by whose party had the most votes.
    3. Needed the support of half the Reichstag to make decisions
  4. Reicstag
    1. Voted every 4 years through Proportional Representation - where if a party got 20% of the votes it got 20% of the seats.
    2. Anyone above the age of 20 could vote.
    3. Role was to vote on new laws.
Consolidation of Power
1. Reichstag Fire
  1. On 27th February 1933 The Reichstag went up in flames and an enraged Hitler blamed the communists as the Dutch communist Marianus van der Lubbe. He then demanded an emergency decree that was issued by president Hindenburg on the 28th suspending all parts of the Constitution that guarantee freedom of speech, liberty, the press and assembly. Hitler used these powers, that stayed in place for 12 years, to arrest 4000 communists on the 28th; frighten voters and break up meetings.
2. Enabling Act
  1. On March 24th 1933 the Enabling Act was passed. To pass it needed at 2/3 majority, whereas they only 288. So Hitler bribed other parties and made a deal with the Catholic Centre Party that if they voted for then the Catholics and their schools would be left alone. Therefore only the SDP voted against them, and the final tally was 444 for and 96 against as 26 Social Democrat Deputies went into hiding. The Act made him a legal Dictator as he could pass any law with out consulting Reichstag and Hindenburg could do nothing as it was passed democratically.
3. Night of the Long Knives
  1. TNOTLK came about because Hitler was forced to choose between the Army and the SA. He chose the Army because: Röhm was openly gay; Röhm was an internal threat, the SA. had conflicting views with Hitler, The Army had wider support and the Army was more disciplined. Therefore to get rid of the S.A on the 29th & 30th June 1934 squads broke into the homes of Ernst Röhm and other SA leading figures along with 400 communists and people who had no connection to Röhm - like ex-chancellor Von Schleicher - arrested them for treason. They were then executed over the whole weekend and Hitler was thanked by President Hindenburg for having "nipped treason at the bud". The SA was not disbanded but never regained its importance as many of its members were absorbed by the SS or the now pleased Army.
4. Hindenburg Dies
  1. Paul von Hindenburg dies on the 2nd of August 1934, and Hitler takes over as Führer - supreme leader of Germany - making the army swear an oath to him as leader of Germany. The Army agreed to stay out of Politics, and in return Adolf Hitler invested huge sums of money in rearmament, brought back conscription and made plans to make Germany a great military power again.
5. March Elections
  1. On March 5th 1933 the Nazis got their largest ever vote of 288 seats, equal to 44%, meaning with the support of smaller nationalist parties they had a majority.
6. Removal Of Civil Rights
  1. On 31st March Every provincial parliament is shut down. They are reorganised to have the same constitution as the Reichstag – the Nazis are therefore in control. Then on 7th April - Managers appointed for each province - they are all members of the Nazi party. They are given the right to appoint and dismiss officers.
7. Hitler as Chancellor
  1. On 30th January Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Chancellor but: only three out of 10 ministers were members of the Nazi party the Nazis had less than half the seats in the Reichstag Hindenburg could dismiss Hitler at any time.
Life in Nazi Germany
Control and Opposition in Nazi Germany
Rise of the Nazis
1. Nazis in the Early 1920s
2. Depression
3. Hitler Taking Power
4. Nazi Campaigning Tactics
5. Munich Putsch
6. Nazis in the Wilderness

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History GCSE: Nazi Germany

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