GERMANY

• GERMANY IN 1914

  • 700,000 men in military
  • very good army and navy
  • in 30 years production in economy had quadrupled
  • kaiser had complete control over which oarty was voted in
• CONSTITUTION IN 1914

  • very unfair
  • unelected kaiser had complete control over the members of the SDP
• GERMANY AFTER WAR

  • many farmers forced to war so less food produced - only 50% of required food produced
  • england blocked ports and lack of farming meant lots of starvation and disease
  • kaiser fled leaving SDP in charge
• ARMISTACE

  • signed November 11th 1918.
  • germany became republic with SDP in charge
• NEW CONSTITUTION

  STRENGTHS

  • article 1 - all men and women over 25 could vote
  • article 22 - proportional representation

  WEAKNESSES

  • article 48 - president can rule by emergency decree
• What problems did Weimar have to deal with immediately?

  • very unpopular peace treaty
  • violent protests
  • crisis of unemployment
• Impacts of TOV

  • give alsace lorraine back to france
  • army limited to 100,000 men and no navy
  • had to accept war guilt clause
  • £6.6 billion in reparations
• why were weimar called november criminals

  • because the germans had been told they were winning so weimar, who accepted the war guilt clause , were now linked to defeat and humiliation
• who wanted to destroy the SDP?

  • spartacists
  • kapp putsch
  • munich putsch
• SPARTACISTS ATTACK

  • 1919
  • Rosa and Karl
  • communists
  • Revolt in Berlin
  • The Freikorps acted quickly and killed many rebels
  • but they managed to lesson support of the workers in Berlin by spreading awareness
• KAPP PUTSCH

  • 1920
  • wanted to return to Kaisers germany and have a strong military again
  • Wolfgang Kapp led 5000 Freikorps into Berlin
  • Ebert sent the army in but they refused to shoot at german citizens
  • Ebert made everyone in Berlin go on strike and Berlin came to a halt - Kapp couldn't gain control
• MUNICH PUTSCH

  • 1923
  • Hitler hated Eberts government and wanted to destry the TOV
  • he hijacked a local government meeting and announced he was taking over Bavaria
  • He was joined by Ludendorff and SA began taking over government buildings
  • Ebert sent in the police and Hitler was sent to jail for five years
• FIRST CRISIS OF 1923

  INVASION OF THE RUHR

  • Germany failed to make theoir second reparations payment to France
  • French and Belgium troops invaded and occupied the Ruhr - the richest and most economically important area in Germany
  • Ebert asked the workers to passive resist
  • the workers stopped working, causing the economy to weaken
• SECOND CRISIS OF 1923

  HYPERINFLATION - CAUSES

  • the workers in the Ruhr still had to be paid even though they were on strike so Ebert just printed more money that he didn't actually have
  • Kaiser spent excessive amounts of money on war effort and there wasn't enough left to pay reparations
  • The government didn't commit to either cutting government spending or raising taxes so they just printed more money
• HYOERINFLATION

  • in 1923 a loaf of bread cost 250 marks, a few months later it cost 201 billion marks
• GUSTAV STRESEMANN

  how did he help with hyperinflation?

  • he stopped the printing of money and replaced ll old money with a new currency called the Rentenmark. This ended hyperinflation

  how did he help with the ruhr crisis?

  • DAWES PLAN - helped germany gat an 800 million mark loan from USA
  • YOUNG PLAN - reduced reparation they had to pay

  how did he help germanys relationships with other countries?

  • Joined the league of nations in 1926
  • LOCARNO TREATY - declared that france belgium and germany would never go to war over their borders
• TREATY OF RAPALLO

  • attempting to change the TOV and restore germanys status as a world power
  • restored relations with USSR but this did not help as at the time they were both seen as outcasts
• IMPACTS OF GREAT DEPRESSION 1929

  • weimar raised taxes and businesses shut - by 1932 40% of factory workers were unemployed
  • less disposable income so less leisure activities
  • SDP lost many votes due to raised wages so they fell out of their coalition
  • The Weimar were blamed for poor living conditions so people began to fall back on extremist parties
• WHY VOTE NAZI?

  • fear of communism
  • Hitlers 25 point plan which involved
  • destruction of treaty
  • anti-sematic views
  • improved education
  • reduced unemployment
  • hitler had the SA which was very strong
• HOW DID HITLER BECOME CHANCELLOR?

  • 1932 - nazis had most seats in reichstag but Hindenburg refused to make him chancellor
  • instead he made Papen chancellor
  • Hitler made a deal with Von Papen. he pursuaded Hindenburg to let hitler be chancellor and papen vice-chancellor. Hindenburg agreed, thinking he would be able to control Hitler.
  • January 1933 Hitler became chancellor but he had to pass any kaws through the democratic reichstag
• THE REICHSTAG FIRE

  • FEB 1933 Reichstag building set on fire
  • a dutch communist was found in the building and blamed
  • this increased hitlers power because he now had evidence that the communists were trying to stage a takeover
  • he could now persuade hindenburg to pass the ENABLING ACT which allowed him to pass laws without thr Reichstags permission as well as arrest and imprison political opposition
• NIGHT OF THE LONG KNIVES

  • 1934
  • SA were becoming too powerful and Rohm was the leader
  • Hitler was worried Rohm might try to take over
  • so he ordered the SS to arrest SA leaders. Rohm was shot and many otheres were killed.
• HINDENBURGS DEATH

  • 1934
  • Hitler declared himself president and chancellor - FUHRER
  • Now he was the head of state and commander of the army
  • every soldier swore an oath of personal loyalty to hitler
  • this was the final step in consolidating his power
• HOW DID NAZIS CONTROL GERMANY?

  • Gestapo - could go into homes and arrest people without trials
  • SD were intelligence gathering
  • SS oversaw everyone
  • Goebbe;s aimed to brainwash the population through propaganda
  • they took over culture, arts and burnt jewish and communist books
• WHAT WERE HITLERS 3 MAIN AIMS?

  • reduce unemployment and improve economy
  • expand and rearm military
  • make germany self-sufficient
• THE NEW PLAN

  • 1933
  • Dr Schacht
  • imports limited
  • government spending in a large range of industries
  • rebuilding cities
  • Hitler wanted Germany to rearm and become self sufficient faster so he handed power to GOERRRING
• THE FOUR YEAR PLAN

  • 1936
  • Dr Goering
  • increased raw material production
  • used forced labour for war
  • further reduced imports

  Both plans improved progress toward one aim however the only way to become completely self-sufficient was to take over the countries themselves
• HOW DID HITLER TACKLE THE ECONOMIC CRISIS?

  • NATIONAL LABOUR SERVICE
  • to give young men a respect for work
  • men aged 19-25 were forced to complete 6 months of training
• GERMAN LABOUR FRONT

  • set up to protect those in work
  • contracts of weimar were rewritten
  • replaced trade unions, banning all strikes and wage requests
• How did he control the work force?

  STRENGTH THROUGH JOY

  • sponsored leisure activities of hard working loyal germans
  • Improved working conditions
  • way of controlling germans leisure time
  • Volkswagon scheme which people would pay to recieve a car but none of them did because production stopped
• TREATMENT OF WOMEN

  Hitler wanted them to focus on the 3 Ks - CHILDREN, KITCHEN, CHURCH

  to ensure women focused on this :

  • taxed unmarried families heavily
  • ensured contraception was hard to access
  • women were given incentives to have children such as the LAW FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MARRIAGE
  • women were dismissed from proffessional roles in 1933

  These policies for women were unsuccessful because all it did was squeeze women into underpaid, hard jobs.
• YOUTH IN NAZI GERMANY

  Hitler aimed to indoctrinate young germans into the political and radical ideas of nazism.

  • e set up the HITLER YOUTH and GERMAN LEAGUE OF MAIDENS, making them compulsory in 1936
  • this prepared women to be good in the house and boys to serve in the military
• TREATMENT OF JEWS

  • nuremburg laws introduced through th 1930s in order to isolate jews from normal german society and make their lives very difficult

  1933- boycotting shops, lawyers and teachers fired, books burnt

  1935 - jews lost their citizenships and the right to vote

  1938 - change their names, stamped J on passports, children excluded from schools and unis
• KRISTALLNACHT

  • 9th November 1938
  • turning point in persecution of Jews
  • Nazis had been successful in removing jews socially from society, now physically through kristallnacht
  • a jew shot an official in an embassy in Paris and the Nazis seized this opportunity to attack Jewish homes, shops and synagogues
  • 100 Jews were killed
  • 30,000 sent to concentration camps
• HOW DID LIFE CHANGE ON THE HOMEFRONT?

  1939

  • there were many military successes, people trusted Hitler and were hopeful they would win the war
  • no effects on civilians, propaganda celebrated succeses

  1942

  • Tide turned
  • Allies intensive bombing programme
  • around 800,000 civilians were killed in the allies bomb raids
  • Germans now saw that they were loosing the war and nazi support decreased

  1943

  • total war
  • every aspect of economy and society was contributing to the war effort
  • extreme rationing
  • no hope
  • disease and starvation
• TREATMENT OF THE JEWS AFTER 1939

  1939

  • Ghettos
  • Jews were put in ghettos where conditions were crowded, food was inadequate, and they were exposed to harsh and extreme weather conditions
  • not directly killing Jews

  1941

  • shootings
  • turning point of genocide
  • German soldiers led behind fleeing Jews and muder squads killed them
  • in 1941 500,000 Jews were killed this way

  1943-45

  • final solution
  • gas chambers constructed in concentration camps
  • 6 million jews killed this way
• YOUTH OPPOSITION

  • EDELWIESS PIRATES -small groups of young people who opposed to the Nazis control of their lives and political ideas
  • they made fun of the Hitler youth and spread anti nazi propaganda
  • leaders killed and hundreds of members sent to concentration camps
  • WHITE ROSE - students who were angry with how nazi policies were affecting Germany
  • published anti nazi material
  • leaders were executed
• MILITARY OPPOSITION

  • July bomb plot 1945
  • senior figures in the military believed that hitlers leadership was dooming germany to defeat
  • Stauffenburg wanted to leave a briefcase with a bomb at a military conference
  • someone moved the briefcase so hitler was unarmed
  • 6,000 were executed
  • the fact that the military turned against their own leaders showed the amount of opposition he faced during the war years
• CHURCH OPPOSITION

  CATHOLIC CHURCH

  • preached against hitlers ideas on euthenasia of disabled people and concentration camps
  • catholic bishops openely spoke against him and were arrested

  PROTESTANT CHURCH

  • confessional church formed as a response to hitlers reich church
  • 800 church leaders sent to concentration camps
• REASONS FOR GERMANYS DEFEAT

  • fought a war on two fronts
  • russian winter
  • Stalingrad destroyed the german army - over 1 million casualties