Third Reich - Final

Weimar Republic

This was the democratic state formed in Germany after World War I in 1918, which lasted until Adolf Hitler's rise in 1933.

Karl Liebknecht

A leader of the radical Spartacists who was murdered in January 1919 during the suppression of an attempted Bolshevik-style revolution in Berlin.

DAP

The German Workers' Party, a völkisch group formed by Anton Drexler in January 1919, which Adolf Hitler joined and later transformed into the Nazi Party.

Gustav Stresemann

A prominent 20th-century statesman who served as Chancellor in 1923 and Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929, overseeing Germany's recovery and the Locarno Pact.

Bürgerbräu Keller

The Munich beer hall where Adolf Hitler launched his failed Munich Putsch in November 1923 in an attempt to overthrow the government.

November Criminals

A pejorative term used by Adolf Hitler to label the Weimar politicians who signed the 1918 Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles.

Reichstag

The German parliament building in Berlin and its legislative body, which was stripped of its authority by the Enabling Act in March 1933.

Center Party (Z)

A major Catholic political party that supported the Weimar Republic before voting for the Enabling Act and dissolving itself in 1933.

Ernst Röhm

The leader of the SA who advocated for a 'second revolution' until he was executed by the SS during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

SS

The Schutzstaffeln, initially an elite guard led by Heinrich Himmler from 1929, which became a massive security organization responsible for the Holocaust.

Reich Church

A centralized Protestant church established by the Nazis in July 1933 to bring religious life under the control of the state.

Volksgemeinschaft

The Nazi concept of a racially pure 'People's Community' intended to unite Aryans while excluding those deemed genetically or socially 'unfit' during the 1930s.

Col. Stauffenberg

Claus von Stauffenberg was the leader of the military resistance who planted a bomb in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944.

Blitzkrieg

A 'lightning war' strategy involving rapid mechanized attacks that allowed Germany to conquer much of Europe between 1939 and 1941.

Wannsee Conference

A meeting held on 20 January 1942, organized by Adolf Eichmann, to coordinate the 'Final Solution' for the systematic extermination of European Jews.

Munich Agreement

A September 1938 accord in which Britain and France allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland to avoid a general war.

phoney war

The period of military inactivity on the Western Front between September 1939 and the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940.

Operation Sealion

The codename for the planned German invasion of the United Kingdom in 1940, which was abandoned after the Luftwaffe lost the Battle of Britain.

Kharkov, Lidice, and Oradour-sur-Glane

Sites of infamous Nazi atrocities during World War II where civilian populations were massacred as a deterrent to resistance.

Stalingrad

A decisive turning point of World War II in early 1943 where the Soviet Union defeated the German Sixth Army, ending Hitler's eastern advance.

Madagascar

An island proposed by Nazi officials in late 1938 as a site for the mass deportation and resettlement of Jews before the adoption of genocide.

Judenräte

Jewish councils established by the Nazis in Eastern European ghettos between 1939 and 1945 to coordinate labor and deportations.

Swastika

An ancient symbol redesigned as a black geometric block by Adolf Hitler to serve as the emblem for National Socialism and racial purity.

Ludendorff

Erich Ludendorff was a World War I general who led the military establishment before participating in the failed Munich Putsch in 1923.

Rosa Luxemburg

A leader of the Spartacists who was killed by right-wing forces in January 1919 for her role in the German Revolution.

NSDAP

The National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler from 1921, which utilized propaganda and terror to establish the Third Reich.

Dawes Plan

A 1924 agreement that provided American loans to Germany to help resolve the reparations crisis and stabilize the economy.

Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto, written in 1924, which outlined his racial theories and plans for German expansion.

Papen

Franz von Papen was a conservative Chancellor in 1932 who helped Adolf Hitler become Chancellor in January 1933, believing he could control him.

Enabling Act

A March 1933 law that granted Adolf Hitler the power to bypass the Reichstag, marking the effective end of Weimar democracy.

SA

The Sturmabteilung, or 'Brownshirts,' was the Nazi paramilitary wing formed in 1921 to provide security and engage in political violence.

Gestapo

The Geheime Staatspolizei was the secret state police established in 1933 to eliminate opposition through surveillance and terror.

Confessional Church

A religious group led by Pastor Niemöller that opposed the Nazification of German churches starting in 1933.

Anschluss

The forced unification of Austria and Germany in March 1938, violating the Treaty of Versailles.

autarky

An economic policy of national self-sufficiency pursued by the Nazis during the 1930s to prepare Germany for the demands of war.

Rearmament

The secret and later public expansion of Germany's military capabilities starting in 1933, which reached parity with other powers by 1935.

Stresa Front

A short-lived 1935 diplomatic agreement between Britain, France, and Italy to resist German violations of the Treaty of Versailles.

Pact of Steel

A May 1939 military alliance between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini committing Germany and Italy to mutual wartime support.

Sichelschnitt

The 'sickle cut' was a 1940 military strategy involving a thrust through the Ardennes that led to the rapid fall of France.

Luftwaffe

The German air force, officially announced in 1935, which was instrumental in Blitzkrieg operations and the Spanish Civil War.

Battle of the Bulge

The last major German counter-offensive on the Western Front in December 1944, which failed to halt the Allied advance.

eliminationist

A form of virulent anti-Semitism in Germany that Goldhagen argues sought the total destruction of Jews as a perceived racial threat.

Hannah Arendt

A 20th-century political theorist who wrote extensively on the origins of totalitarianism and the character of Nazi evil.

Storm of Steel

This work by Ernst Jünger reflected the nationalistic and militaristic cultural currents that existed during the Weimar Republic era.

Hindenburg

Paul von Hindenburg was a World War I general who served as President of Germany from 1925 to 1934 and appointed Hitler as Chancellor.

Prince Max of Baden

The last Chancellor of the Second Reich who handed over power to the Social Democrats in November 1918.

SPD

The Social Democratic Party, which was the primary architect of the Weimar Republic and was banned by the Nazis in June 1933.

Treaty of Locarno

A 1925 agreement that normalized Germany's relations with its western neighbors and facilitated its entry into the League of Nations.

Landsberg Castle

The fortress where Adolf Hitler was imprisoned in 1924 and where he dictated his ideological work, Mein Kampf.

Josef Goebbels

The Nazi Minister of Propaganda who utilized radio and cinema to foster the Führer cult from 1933 until 1945.

Brüning

Heinrich Brüning was the Center Party Chancellor from 1930 to 1932 who governed through presidential emergency decrees.

Against the Establishment of Parties

A July 1933 law that made the NSDAP the only legal political party in Germany.

Internationalists v. Functionalists

A historical debate regarding whether Nazi policy was driven primarily by Hitler's long-term 'intentions' or by the 'functions' of a chaotic state structure.

Himmler

Heinrich Himmler was the leader of the SS from 1929 who oversaw the police state and the Holocaust.

German Faith Movement

A paganistic sect in the 1930s that rejected Christianity in favor of Nazi racial mysticism and the 'eternal laws of nature'.

Four Year Plan

An economic initiative launched in 1936 under Hermann Goering to make Germany ready for war through autarky and synthetic production.

lebensraum

The Nazi goal of acquiring 'living space' in Eastern Europe, primarily by conquering Russia and its border states.

Volkswagen

The 'People's Car,' a consumer project of the 1930s intended to provide affordable transport, though production shifted entirely to war matériel.

Anglo-German Naval Pact

A 1935 agreement where Britain allowed Germany a navy 35 percent the size of its own, effectively discarding the Versailles naval restrictions.

Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact

An August 1939 treaty between Hitler and Stalin that divided Eastern Europe and paved the way for the invasion of Poland.

RAF

The British Royal Air Force, which successfully defended the United Kingdom from German invasion during the 1940 Battle of Britain.

Generals Manstein, Jodl, & Halder

Senior Wehrmacht generals who were often critical of Adolf Hitler's military strategies and command during World War II.

Arnhem

The site of a major Allied airborne defeat in September 1944 during an attempt to seize bridgeheads on the lower Rhine.

willing executioners

Goldhagen's thesis that ordinary Germans shared Hitler's eliminationist goals and participated voluntarily in the Holocaust.

Sonderweg

The 'special path' theory suggesting that German history from the 19th century followed a unique course that led inevitably to Adolf Hitler.

Ernst Jünger

A 20th-century writer whose work glorified the martial spirit and contributed to the anti-liberal cultural environment of the Weimar era.

Spartacists

A radical left-wing group that attempted to establish a Soviet-style republic in Germany in January 1919.

KDP (KPD)

The German Communist Party, a rival to the SPD that was heavily purged and driven underground by the Nazis from 1933.

Article 48

The 'Emergency Clause' of the Weimar Constitution which granted the President sweeping powers to rule by decree, often used after 1930.

Volkisch

A nationalist and anti-Semitic movement in 19th-century Germany and Austria that emphasized the ethnic superiority of the Germanic people.

stab in the back

The Dolchstoßlegende, a myth used to blame Jews and Socialists for Germany's defeat in World War I.

Gregor Strasser

A Nazi official who represented the 'socialist' wing of the party until he was purged and eventually killed in 1934.

Schleicher

Kurt von Schleicher was a general and the last Chancellor of the Weimar Republic before Hitler took power in January 1933.

Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich was a leading SS figure and the 'architect of the Holocaust' who was assassinated in Prague in 1942.

Edelweiss Pirates

Spontaneous working-class youth gangs during the 1930s and 1940s who resisted the Hitler Youth and engaged in anti-regime activities.

Hössbach Memo

A November 1937 document recording a secret meeting where Adolf Hitler detailed his plans for military conquest in Europe.

Der Stürmer

A virulently anti-Semitic tabloid edited by Julius Streicher that used crude propaganda to dehumanize Jews during the Third Reich.

Sudetenland

A Czechoslovak region with a large German minority that Adolf Hitler annexed in 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement.

continental sword

A concept used by Hitler to describe France's role as Britain's primary military ally on the European mainland.

Operation Barbarossa

The massive June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, aimed at achieving Lebensraum and destroying Bolshevism.

Wehrmacht

The regular German armed forces during the Third Reich which participated in both military campaigns and Nazi atrocities.

Kristallnacht

The 'Night of Broken Glass' in November 1938, a state-orchestrated pogrom against Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.

Night of the Long Knives

A 1934 purge in which Adolf Hitler used the SS to execute the SA leadership and other political rivals to secure his power.