The Weimar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Party (1918–1933)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards defining key historical terms, political concepts, treaties, economic events, and organisations related to Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazi Party.

Abdicate

When a monarch formally renounces or gives up the throne, as Kaiser Wilhelm II did on 9 November 1918.

Armistice

An agreement that officially halts the fighting in a war, signed on 11 November 1918 between Germany and the Allies.

Republic

A system of government without a monarch, established in Germany following the end of the First World War.

Parliamentary democracy

A system of government in which citizens elect representatives to a parliament (the Reichstag) to pass laws and govern the nation.

Proportional representation

An electoral system in which seats in the Reichstag are allocated according to the percentage of total votes each political party receives.

Coalition

A government composed of multiple political parties partnering together when no single party secures an absolute majority.

Article 48

A provision in the Weimar Constitution granting the president emergency powers to decree laws without the approval of the Reichstag.

Demobilised

Troops and military personnel who were stood down from the armed forces and sent back home from the battlefield after the war.

Freikorps

Volunteer units consisting of an estimated 250,000 ex-soldiers who kept their weapons and used violence in German streets to oppose communists and advance right-wing aims.

Nationalist

A person who advocates for a strong nation and prioritises its national interests ahead of all others.

Putsch

An armed revolt or violent uprising against an established government.

Spartacus League

The German communist party led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht that launched an armed revolt in Berlin in January 1919.

War Guilt Clause (Article 231)

The clause in the Treaty of Versailles forcing Germany to accept sole blame and responsibility for starting the First World War.

Reparations

Compulsory financial payments amounting to $136,000\text{ million marks}$ (£6,600 million) owed by Germany to the Allies to pay for war damage.

November Criminals

A derogatory label applied by German nationalists to the politicians who signed the armistice of November 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles.

Diktat

A dictated peace imposed by force without consultation or negotiation, which was how Germans regarded the Treaty of Versailles.

Passive resistance

The practice of using peaceful, non-violent methods to resist authority, such as Ruhr workers striking and refusing to produce goods for occupying French troops in 1923.

Hyperinflation

An extreme, rapid, and uncontrolled spiral of price increases resulting from the excessive printing of banknotes, which destroyed the purchasing power of the German mark in 1923.

Rentenmark

A temporary currency introduced in late 1923, backed by Germany's agricultural and industrial worth, to stabilise the financial system after hyperinflation.

Reichsbank

The new independent German national central bank established in 1924 to manage the currency and restore international confidence in the economy.

Reichsmark

The permanent new national currency issued in 1924 to replace the temporary Rentenmark.

Dawes Plan (1924)

An international agreement providing an 800 million gold mark loan from the USA, restructuring reparations payments to 1,000 million marks annually for five years, and ending the French occupation of the Ruhr.

Young Plan (1929)

An agreement that scaled down Germany's total reparations bill to approximately $8 billion payable over 59 years and secured the early withdrawal of French forces from the Rhineland.

Diplomacy

The practice of conducting negotiations and making international pacts to resolve conflicts and achieve agreements peacefully between countries.

Locarno Pact (1925)

A collection of seven treaties signed in London whereby Germany accepted its western borders with France and Belgium and agreed to settle border disputes peacefully.

League of Nations

An international peacekeeping organisation formed after WWI to resolve disputes without armed conflict, which admitted Germany to its Council in September 1926.

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

An international agreement signed by 62 nations, including Germany, the USA, and France, in which signatories renounced the use of military force to settle disputes.

Propaganda

Information, frequently biased or misleading, created and distributed systematically to influence public opinion and persuade people to adopt specific political views.

Sturmabteilung (SA)

The Nazi Party's paramilitary force, known as stormtroopers or Brownshirts, established in 1921 under Ernst Röhm to disrupt opposing parties and maintain order at Nazi rallies.

Schutzstaffel (SS)

An elite private bodyguard unit formed by Adolf Hitler during the post-1924 reorganisation of the Nazi Party.

Munich Putsch

The failed armed rebellion launched by Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP in a Munich beer hall on 8–9 November 1923 in an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Mein Kampf

The autobiographical book and ideological manifesto written by Adolf Hitler (dictated to Rudolf Hess) while serving a light prison sentence in Landsberg Castle.

Lebensraum

'Living room'; the Nazi concept that Germany needed to acquire additional foreign territory in Eastern Europe to accommodate its expanding Aryan population.