Hitler

President Hindenberg

The president of Germany before Hitler came into power

Kaiser Wilhelm II

The Kaiser before World War I ended

President Woodrow Wilson

Offered a 14 point peace plan to the Kaiser which was refused

Friedrich Ebert

Leader of the SPD (Social Democratic Party) who supported democracy and led the German provisional government when the war ended

Spartacists

A group of communists who wanted a revolution in Germany like the one in Russia. Later known as the KPD

Freikorps

Ebert’s unit of ex-soldiers who fought the Spartacists

Adolf Hitler

The leader of the Nazi Party

SA (sturmabteilung)

The ‘Brownshirts’, the Nazi paramilitary force

SS (schutzstaffel)

The ‘Black shirts’, led by Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s personal bodyguard who ended up becoming a paramilitary force

Gestapo

The Nazi secret police force

Charles Dawes

An American who created the ‘Dawes Plan’ to help Germany economically after World War I

Gustav Stresemann

Sorted out Germany’s economy after World War I by issuing the Rentenmark and improved Germany’s international image

Franz von Papen

Became chancellor of Germany for a short time and tried to use Hitler to his own political advantage

Alfred Hugenberg

Leader of the DNVP

Heinrich Bruning

Made chancellor in 1930 and mishandled economic problems in Germany

Bloody Week

The week in which the Spartacists were defeated

Weimar

Town where the German parliament was situated during the constitutional assembly.