stats paper 1

• Kaiser Wilhelm II


  Is in total control of Germany
• Kaiser Wilhelm II


  • He is unstable and has a chip on his shoulder about Britain
  • He believed in WELTPOLITIK (World Politics). This means that Germany should have a big say in the world.
• Industrialisation


  1. Germany become more industrial

  2. More workers move to cities to work in factories

  3. Many workers support The SPD

  4. The SPD became the largest party in the Reichstag in 1912
• Navy Laws


  • More naval ships were built
  • Started an arms race with Britain to build the most ships
  • The SPD was against the building of ships as they thought money could be spent on the people
• Germany loses WW1 because Britain blockades German ports
• 300000 civilians starve
• The November Revolution


  1. Kaiser Wilhelm II is over-thrown after riots in Germany

  2. A new government (the Weimar Govt.) is created
• The Weimar Constitution


  • Germany loses WW1
  • Germany has proportional representation (this creates weak governments)
  • The President can rule by emergency decree in a crisis (Article 48)
• Many ex-soldiers feel they have been betrayed by the new Weimar government (stab in the back theory)
• The Spartacists Uprising


  1. Communists try to take power in Berlin

  2. The rebellion is put down by the Freikorps (ex-WW1 soldiers)

  3. The leaders (Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered)
• The Treaty of Versailles


  • The peace treaty that ended WW1
  • Germany has to pay £6.6 billion
  • Germany loses 12% of land
  • Germany's army is limited to 100000 men
• The Kapp Putsch


  1. A right wing ex-army officer takes over Berlin

  2. The army refuses to attack him

  3. The putsch ends when the workers go on strike
• Hyperinflation


  1. Germany refuses to pay any more reparations

  2. The French invade the Ruhr and the German workers go on strike

  3. The German currency becomes worthless
• The Munich Putsch/the Beer Hall Putsch


  1. Hitler tries to take control of Germany and fails

  2. 17 Nazis and 4 police officers are killed

  3. Hitler is put on trial for treason and gets 9 months in prison

  4. In prison he writes Mein Kampf
• Gustav Stresemann


  • He is Chancellor for 100 days and Foreign Minister for five years
  • Introduces a new currency called the Rentenmark (stops hyperinflation)
  • Signs treaties with foreign countries (the Locarno Treaty in 1925)
  • Borrows money from the USA (the Dawes Plan 1924) $800 million
  • He temporarily sorts out Germany's problems
• Weimar Culture


  • Bauhaus- a type of modern architecture
  • Modern Art
  • Nightclubs- cabaret
  • Films- the first sc-fi film Metropolis was made in Berlin in 1927
• The Nazis do badly in this period (1924-1929)
• They win 2.6% of the vote in 1928
• Hitler reorganises the Nazi Party. In the long run this helps them become successful
• The Nazis use the SA to intimidate people into voting for them
• The Depression


  1. The Wall Street Crash happens in 1929

  2. The USA calls back the loans it leant Germany under the Dawes Plan

  3. The German economy does really badly

  4. 6 million are unemployed. One third of Germany lives on benefits
• Politics 1929-1932


  • The Weimar government is weak and can't deal with the economic situation
  • People start to lose faith in democracy
  • People think a strong leader can rescue Germany
  • Anti -democratic parties (like the Nazis and the Communists) do well in elections
• The Nazis win 37% of the vote in July 1932
• The Nazis win 33% of the vote in November 1932
• Why do people oppose the Nazis 1929-1932?

  • They are anti-democratic
  • Left wing people don't like the fact that they are supported by some big businesses
  • The Nazis are violent. 500 people are killed during the July 1932 election, many by the Nazis
  • They Nazis are racist
• Hitler becomes Chancellor (January 30th 1933)


  1. Hindenburg and von Papen decide to make Hitler Chancellor

  2. Von Papen is Hitler's vice-Chancellor

  3. Von Papen and Hindenburg think they can control Hitler

  4. Goring is made Minister for the Interior for the State of Prussia (February 1933)

  5. Goring makes it legal for the police to shoot people

  6. Goring makes the SA reserve policemen (they can now legally shoot people)
• Reichstag Fire Decree (February 28th 1933)


  1. The Reichstag is burnt down by a Dutch Communist

  2. Hitler claims that Germany is in a state of emergency

  3. He passes the Reichstag Fire Decree

  4. The Decree bans free speech; it lets Hitler control newspapers and allows people to be arrested without trial

  5. 4000 people are arrested the day after the fire

  6. Hitler bans the Communist Party using this law
• The Day of Potsdam (March 1933)


  1. Hitler opens the new Reichstag

  2. He wears a suit and tries to appear like a normal leader

  3. He bows to Hindenburg to show how much he respects him
• The Enabling Act (March 1933)


  1. This is the law that makes Hitler legal dictator of Germany

  2. It is passed by a vote in the Reichstag

  3. The Catholic Centre Party vote for it after Hitler signed a deal with the Catholic Church called the Concordat

  4. The SPD are the only party not to vote for it
• Banning of political parties and trade unions

  1. In the summer of 1933 other political parties are banned

  2. Trade Unions are banned on May 1st 1933

  3. Hitler is able to do this because of the Enabling Act
• Night of the Long Knives (June 30th 1934)


  1. The SA wants to take over the army. The army does not want this to happen

  2. Hitler backs the army

  3. Hitler has the leadership of the SA killed (including the leader Ernst Rohm)

  4. The army is so grateful to Hitler that they swear an oath of allegiance to him
• Death of Hindenburg (August 2nd 1934)


  1. Hindenburg dies on August 2nd 1934

  2. Hitler combines the role of President and Chancellor

  3. His new official title is Der Furher (the leader)
• Nazis and Young People 1933-1939


  • The Nazis change the curriculum in the schools. PE becomes really important
  • The Hitler Youth is a club for young people. It is popular between 1933-1939 as you get free holidays
  • It becomes compulsory after 1936
  • Swing Youth resist the Nazis by smoking, drinking and listening to jazz
  • The Edelweiss Pirates resist the Nazis by not joining the Hitler Youth and signing anti-Nazi songs
• Nazis and Women


  • The Nazis believe women should stay at home and have children
  • Women get medals for having more children (Mother's Cross)
  • Women are encouraged not to wear make and up and wear simple clothes
  • Women should not have jobs
  • The slogan which summed up Nazi policy was kinder küche kirche (children, church, kitchen)
• Terror

  • The Nazis build concentration camps. There are 25000 people in concentration camps at the end of 1933
  • The SS (Hitler's bodyguard) run the concentration camps
  • The Gestapo are the secret police. They spy on people and tap their phones
• Nazis and the Churches

  • The Nazis did not really like Christianity and wanted to either control it or destroy it
  • They signed a deal with the Catholic Church called the Concordat. In the Concordat the Nazis promised to leave Catholic schools alone
  • The Nazis broke their deal and shut down Catholic schools in 1939
  • The Nazis made all Protestant Churches join together in a church called the Reich Church
  • The Nazis established their own pagan religion called the German Faith Movement
  • The Confessional Church is set up. It is an anti- Nazi Protestant Church
  • Archbishop von Galen protests against the Nazis euthanasia program Action T4
  • In 1941 the Catholic Church resists Nazi moves to remove crucifixes from schools
• Nazis and the workers

  • The organisation that replaced the trade unions was called the DAF
  • Anyone under the age of 25 had to spend six months in the RAD. The RAD was a semi-military organisation where men would build things
  • Strength through Joy (KdF) was set up to provide workers with rewards for working hard. Rewards included cruises, hikes and courses. The KdF offered a scheme where you could save up for a car
  • Beauty of Labour was set up to improve the working conditions of factories
  • Some workers resist the Nazis by meeting up illegally to discuss Communist ideas. They are known as the Red Orchestra
• Nazis and the economy

  • The Nazis reduced unemployment from 6 million to 302000
  • They did this by introducing conscription, building motorways and making weapons in factories
  • In 1936 the economics minister, Dr Schacht, was sacked and replaced with Herman Goring
  • Herman Goring started the Four Year Plan to get Germany ready for war
  • Under the Four Year Plan Germany stopped making consumer products and focused on making guns instead
• The persecution of the Jews

  • The Nazis believed that Aryans (northern Europeans) were the master race
  • The Nazis organised boycotts of Jewish businesses in 1933
  • The Nuremburg Laws made it illegal for Jews to marry a German
  • Kristallnacht happened in 1938. This was the first time Jews were attacked. 200 Jews were killed
• Propaganda


  • The Nazis used propaganda to control what people thought
  • The Nazis favourite propaganda tool was the radio. They made a cheap radio called a People's Receiver so everyone could own one. In 1939 70% of Germans owned a radio
  • The Nazis controlled newspapers
  • The Nazis made entertainment films with a subtle message (like Jud Suss in 1940)
  • The Nazis organised rallies every autumn
  • Hitler is portrayed as a superhuman figure in propaganda