Nazi Germany

“Long live the new! Long live the German Republic!”

Philipp Scheidemann (9 Nov, 1918)

“It was doubtful whether such a democratic constitution could work in the hands of a people that was neither psychologically or historically prepared for self-government”

Fisher (1995)

“The constitution drafted at Weimar began and would end as a document in search of a people” 

Friedrich (1972)

“The industrial heart of Germany practically stopped beating” 

Fergusson (2010)

“The central objective of Stresemann’s foreign policy was the restoration of Germany as a sovereign great power with equal rights”

Kolb (1966)

“The working class must stand united against the Spartacists if democracy and socialism are not to be lost.”

Gustav Noske (1919)

“The Weimar Government, flawed and weak, had survived since 1919, but the impact of the Great Depression after 1929 was the final blow”

Mason (2014)

“Only a member of the race can be a citizen…No Jew can be a member of the nation.”

25 Points (1920)

“He was like a conductor with an orchestra”

Walters (2025)

“The Nazi propaganda machine was very busy putting out antisemitic propaganda”

Pine (2025)

“The Nazi movement was accepted by many because it seemed to provide the answer to personal and national frustration”

Greenwood (1964)

“There was nothing conservative about Adolf Hitler. Hitler was an artist and a revolutionary at heart. He wanted to completely upend and remake German society.”

Samaan (2013)

“Anti-Semitism was, of course, the Nazis' cleverest, because most effective, psychological stroke. Moreover, the leaders and forerunners of Nazism really believed in it.”

Zuckmayer (1966)

"It was political love at first sight".

Hermann Goring

“Hitler promised to make Germany great again, by eliminating all the people who allegedly made Germany not great.”

Malloy (2019)

“The woman has her own battlefield…with every child she brings into the world she fights a battle for the nation”

Adolf Hitler

“The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world”

Joseph Goebbels

“The social death…saw Jewish subjection, their excommunication from the community and their relegation to a perpetual state of dishonour”

Kaplan (2017)

“According to Nazi ideology, Jewishness was a racial trait, but in fact there was no way to measure distinctions of blood, because they did not actually exist”

Bergen (2002)

“I suffered immense pain and cruelty from the experiments. They were inhuman...”

Ms. M (1945)

“The Holocaust happened because of the constructed belief in one untrue conspiracy theory, and the denial of its genocide afterward came from the creation and propagation of another.”

Stafford (2017)

"The road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved with indifference"

Kershaw (1998)

Enabling Act

23 March 1933

Reichstag Fire

27 February 1933

Night of the Long Knives

30 June - 2 July 1934

Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)

9-10 November 1938

Establishment of the Schutzstaffel (SS)

4 April 1925

Opening of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau

20 May 1940; October 1941

Kiel Mutiny

29 October 1918

Establishment of Nuremburg Laws

15 September 1935

Ruhr Crisis Dates

11 January 1923 - August 25 1925

Beer Hall Putsch

8-9 November 1923

Appointment of Gustav Stresemann as Chancellor

13 August 1923

Article 231 of ToV

War Guilt Clause

Articles 232-234 of ToV

Reparations (132B gold marks set in 1921)

Articles 42-44 of ToV

Rhineland Demilitarisation - forbidden to fortify or station troops

Articles 159-213 of ToV

Military Restrictions

• Army limited to 100K men

• No tanks, aircraft, or heavy artilery

• Navy limited to 6 battleships and no submarines

Articles 51-79 of ToV

Territorial Losses

• Alsace-Lorraine returned to France

• Saar under LoN for 15 years

• West Prussia to Poland

• All colonies removed

May 1924 Election Result (NSDAP)

32 seats (Beer Hall Putsch)

December 1924 Election Result (NSDAP)

14 seats (Stresemann stabilisation)

1928 Election Result (NSDAP)

12 seats

1930 Election Result (NSDAP)

107 seats

July 1932 Election Result (NSDAP)

230 seats (largest party)

November 1932 Election Result (NSDAP)

196 seats

March 1933 Election Result (NSDAP)

288 seats (Reichstag Fire and repression of KPD)

Volksgemeinschaft

“People’s Community”

Dolchstosslegende

“Stab in the back myth”

Mother’s Cross

Bronze: 4-5 children

Silver: 6-7 children

Gold: 8+ children

4.7M women received a medal

Gleichschaltung

Nazi coordination

Lebensraum

“Living space”

Endlosung

“Final Solution”

Wannsee Conference Date

20 January 1942

Untermensch

“Subhuman”

Mischlinge

“Mixed-blood”

Establishment of Hitler Youth

3 January 1926

“Nazi policy treated women as breeders and homemakers, then workers and warriors, but never equals”

Koonz (1987)

“The goal was to reproduce genetically sound Aryan children to strengthen the stock of Germany”

Crelling (2018)

“The ideal Aryan woman is German in appearance, behaviour, and mannerisms”

Garvey (2020)

“All classes have the same ultimate purpose - to create National Socialists

Ziemer (educator during Nazi Regime)

“He alone who owns the youth, gains the future”

Hitler (1935)

“We were Hitler’s children. We believed everything”

Alfons Heck (1985)

“Youth must learn to obey, not to think”

von Schirach (1938) - leader of Hitlerjugend

“The Nazis succeeded in hijacking the minds of the young”

Kershaw (1998)

4 Phases of the Holocaust

1. Vilification

2. Discrimination

3. Separation

4. Extermination

Proposed by Richard Overy

Nationalist Socialist Teachers Lounge (NSLB) Membership

82%

Hitlerjugend Membership

8M by 1939