germany

• Stab in the Back Theory


  The belief that Germany could have won the war and that politicians had stabbed the army in the back at the end of the war
• Weimar Constitution


  Set up Germany's first modern democracy by providing for a directly elected president and parliament (the Reichstag), setting up a senate (Reichsrat), and providing a chancellor (prime minister).
• Treaty of Versailles


  the treaty imposed on Germany by the Allied powers in 1919 after the end of World War I which demanded exorbitant reparations from the Germans
• Spartacists


  Left-wing Marxists in Germany who hoped to bring about a communist revolution in 1919.
• Kapp Putsch


  March 1920
• Invasion of the Ruhr 1923


  French and Belgian troops were sent to occupy the German industrial city of Ruhr in response to the German government being unable to pay reparations for WWI
• Hyperinflation


  A very rapid rise in the price level; an extremely high rate of inflation.
• Gustav Stresemann


  German Foreign Minister who assumed leadership of government and got the French to move out of the Ruhr amoungst other things
• Kellog-Briand Pact (1928)


  All the powers agreed to stop fighting and to settle all disputes peacefully with the advices/rulings of the League. Their armies would be used for self defense instead of war.
• Locarno Treaty


  (1925) Pact that secured the frontier between Germany and France and Germany and Belgium. It also provided for mutual assistance by France and Italy if Germany invaded its border countries.
• Dawes Plan


  1924. A plan to revive the German economy, the United States loans Germany money which then can pay reparations to England and France, who can then pay back their loans from the U.S.
• Young Plan


  1929. Reduces reparations by 75% and gives Germany 59 years to pay
• George Grosz


  produced numerous paintings and drawings, such as Fit for Active Service, that were critical of the Wiemar republic and the army
• Bauhaus School


  German architectural school that created the International Style
• Adolf Hitler


  Austrian born Dictator of Germany, implemented Fascism on Germany
• The SA


  The Nazis private Army
• The Munich Putsch


  8th November 1923. Failed attempt by the Nazis to take over the Bavarian government.
• Bamberg Conference


  February 1926. Meeting of leading Nazis where Hitler reorganized the party putting in place many new organisation
• Wall Street Crash


  October 1929. Economic crash in the USA with severe effects on Germany
• KPD


  German Communist Party
• Josef Goebbels


  German propaganda minister in Nazi Germany who persecuted the Jews (1897-1945)
• Heinrich Bruning


  Chancellor from March 1930-May 1932. Did not hold Reichstag majority. Nazis became second largest party during his ruling. The SA were very violent during this time, and made the government seem weak. Economic depression continued and his agrarian reforms angered farmers.
• Paul von Hindenburg


  President of the Weimar Republic of Germany who appointed Hitler Chancellor in 1933
• Von Papen


  German chancellor under president von Hindenburg after Bruning
• Von Schleicher


  Chancellor between December 1932 and January 1933 between Von Papen and Hitler
• The Reichstag Fire


  February, 1933; the Reichstag was set on Fire and called a communist plot;Hitler convinced president Hindenburg to suspend all civil rights for Communists, socialists, liberals, and trade unionists
• The enabling act


  March 1933. Enabled Hitler to get rid of the Reichstag parliament and pass laws without reference to parliament
• The DAF


  Nazi Trade UNion organisation set up when all trade unions were banned in may 1933
• The Lander


  German state parliaments banned by the Nazis in January 1934
• The Night of the Long Knives


  Purge of the Nazi party including leader such as Ernst Rohm in June 1934
• Death of Hindenburg


  August 1934. Led to Hitler combining the posts of chancellor and dictator. (The Fuhrer)
• Schutzstaffel (SS)


  an elite military unit of the Nazi party that served as Hitler's bodyguard and as a special police force.
• Sicherheitsdienst (or SD)


  Intelligence body of the SS
• Gestapo


  Nazi secret police
• Concentration Camps


  prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.
• Gleichschaltung


  Hitler's technique of using Nazi-controlled associations, clubs, and organizations to coordinate his revolutionary activities.
• People's Court


  24 April 1934- Hitler forms the Nazi People's Courts, where judges have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Nazis.
• Concordat


  agreement between the pope and the ruler of a country
• Reich Church


  A Nazi-controlled Protestant Church
• triumph of the will


  Propaganda film about the Nazi conference and rally of 1934