Germany facts history

how was germany governed pre war

Kaiser Wilhelm + autocracy

germany struggle in war

British blockade of German ports-> food shortage

Entry of USA in 1917 -> face defeat in Aug 1918

how was germany seeming to imitate the USSR

Strikes broke out in Stuttgart and Hanover- Oct-Nov 1918

Kaiser abdicates

9 Nov

He also fled to Holland

Germany becomes a republic

9 nov moderate SPD declares creation + Ebert becomes chancellor

Armistice signed

11 nov 1918

Eberts rep Erzberger signs it

Respect wilsons 14 points

Spartacist uprising

jan 6 1919

Led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

100,000 on streets

100 comms killed and leaders on 16 jan

Freikorps crush Spartacists

jan 13th

Far right paramilitary 250,000 members

Ebert undermined- far right to crush his supporters

Treaty of Versailles

28 june 1919

Article 231- war blame

Lost 13% of land + 6m people

Army limited to 100,000 + £6.6 billion

Constitution created

31 july 1919

Kapp Putsch

March 1920

Freikorps + right wing politician Kapp

Collapsed after 4 days due to strikes

Hyperinflation

Jan-Nov 1923

Price of bread: 1 mark 1919 - 200 billion 1923

Everybody blamed Weimar gov not Kaiser

stresemann currency

First Rentenmark in 1923 then Reichsmark in 1924

no risk of return to hyperinflation

Dawes plan

Aug 1924

Reparations to german ability to pay

Young plan

Aug 1929

Overall figure down

Reduced reparations from £6.6 billion to £1.85 billion

Locarno Pact

1925

collaborated w/ France, UK, Belgium to confirm border

Kellogg-Briand pact

1928 showed germany was non aggressive and collaborative

Hitler joins DAP

Sept 1919

Tiny extremist party set up by Drexler

Hitler becomes head of party propaganda

Jan 1920

He's an excellent public speaker

Befriended General Ludendorff

New party manifesto

Feb 1920

With Drexler

Had range of ideas

Added Nationalist Socialist to DAP to reflect this

Hitler replaces Drexler

July 1921

55,000 members by Nov 1923

Munich putsch

Nov 1923

Military Coup

20 died

Nazi Party banned

11 nov 1923

Hitler sentenced

1st April 1924

Nazis won 32 seats in Reichstag due to month long trial

Hitler creates SS

Nov 1925

Rohm was dismissed

Wall Street crash

sept- oct 1929

Poverty after wall street crash

crime rose 25% in Berlin

Bruning

the hunger chancellor 1930-32

Deflation

Scared of hyperinflation

Unemployment benefits cut 60%- worsens everything

Article 48 usage

Used 66 times in 1932 as Bruning couldn't get reforms through

Rise of extremism after wall street crash

KPD get 100 seats in 1932

Nazis get 196

how/why do Nazis do well post wall street crash

Make Germany Great Again

SA could deal with communist threat

Nazi propaganda post wall street

Run by Goebbels+ used new tech

Appealed to wide range of groups

Scapegoated Jews and Weimar Republic

hindenburg wins reelection

April 1932

Hitler comes second

Bruning resigns

May 1932

Von Papen in

Von Papen dismissed

Dec 1932

Had tried to control Nazis- biggest party w/ 230 seats

Replaced w/ von Schleicher

Von Schleicher as chancellor

tried to form broad coalition

Hitler becomes chancellor

30 Jan 1933

Von Papen advises this

But only 2/12 cabinet member are Nazis

Reichstag fire

27 Feb 1933

Used as evidence of Communist plot

25,000 communists arrested over next months

Emergency decree

28 Feb

Suspended basic rights

legal basis for Nazi terror over next 12 years

enabling act

23 March 1933

Needed 2/3 of Reichstag- gotten by intimidation

And the deals w/ Catholics

Allowed chancellor to create laws on own

Impact of enabling act

Trade unions banned in May

July all other parties banned

night of the long knives

June 1934

Hitler felt threatened by Rohm- SA

Over 4 days 150 leading SA members killed

Allowed to Consolidate power completely

Hitler becomes Fuhrer

aug 1934

Hindenburg dies

Police state

from 1933

SS led by Himmler grew rapidly

By 1936 oversaw legal system + all security

All concentration camps- set up in 1933

SD

Security Service

Intelligence on political enemies

Gestapo

Secret police who spy on those criticising Nazi regime

Used informers

Peoples court

1934

Set up to deal with treason

In 1935 law was defined as what Nazis felt it should be

Propaganda when in power

Ministry of Propaganda- March 1933

Led by Goebbels

Radio- by 1939 70% of households owned one

Berlin Olympics 1936 - 33 golds

Censorship

Reich Chamber of Culture- Sep 1933

2,500 writers banned

May 1933 in Berlin Goebbels encouraged mass book burning

unemployment

hitler promised to reduce in elections of 1932

Through rearmament - 100,000 in 1933 to 1.4m in 1939

Invisible employment- mid 1930s

500,000 counted as part of labour service who did nothing

building projects to reduce unemployment

Reich Chancellery, autobahns, bridges

Through Reich Labour Service

37.1 billion marks spent in 1938 + 3000 km built of Autobahns

Labour front

1933

Sets wages and working conditions

Compulsory- opposers sent to camps

Strength through Joy

1933

By 1936 had 35m members

Organised sport, films, holidays

Beauty of Labour

Department of KdF, improve working conditions

By 1938- Nazis claim 34,000 companies improved facilities

Resentment as workers had to do after work with no pay

concordat

With Pope Pius XI

1/3 of country

Nazis wont interfere with catholic schools

If Catholics don't interfere with politics

Protestants

2/3 of country

Tried to get to join Reich church- sep 1933

Protestant opposition

Confessing church- 1934

Niemoller

800 pastors arreste

catholic opposition

With burning anxiety- 1937- pope

400 priests in priest block at Dachau

1941 Cardinal Galen led anti-euthanasia campaign

Goebbels realised needed to stop campaign

women in 1920

women over 20 have vote

births

Under 1m in 1933-> 1.4m in 1939

Gold medals given to women with over 8 children

Lebensborn- Himmler, 1935, breed with racially pure SS men

women in work

1933 women removed as teachers, doctors, civil servants

1937- Nazi rearmament meant women needed in workforce

nazis take control of schools

1934

Textbooks had to be approved by Ministry of Education

Napolas for future soldiers and politicians

Teachers forced to join Nazi teachers league

all other youth groups banned

1933

Hitler youth has 7m members- 82% of 10-18 yo

girl Hitler Youth

10-14- Young Girls League

Importance of "racial hygiene"

boy Hitler youth

6-10 Little Fellows

By 1938 1.2m boys trained in small arms shooting

Laws against Jews 1933-39

1933 attempted boycott of Jewish shops

1935 Jews are banned from the military

+ Nuremburg Laws remove rights as citizens

anti-semitic laws applied to austria

1938

Due to union with Germany

Kristallnacht

Nov 1938

Herzyl Greenspan shoots german embassy official

9-10 nov 100 Jews are killed 20,000 arrested

consequences of kristallnacht

More worse laws

Dec 1938 surviving Jewish businesses confiscated

Nov 1938 Jewish children banned from state schools

250,000/500,000 German Jews emigrate

Antisemitism during the War

After invasion of Poland in Sep 1939 Jews are forced into ghettos

After invasion of Russia June 1941 SS squads (Einsatzgruppen) murder entire communities of Jews

Ghettos

Set up in major cities of Warsaw, Krakow, Lublin

500,000 die in ghettos between 1941-2

The Final Solution

Conference at Wannsee Jan 1942

Killing centres at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Treblinka

Gassed using Zyklon-B

Over 6 million Jews died during World War 2

Other victims

Disabled people, homosexuals, the Romani, Slavs and Jehovah's witnesses

Euthanasia campaign from 1939

Successes in War

39-41 was good

41 invasion of ussr started good

tide turns in war

Battle of Stalingrad- Jan 1943

allies do suff to win war military

D-Day- 6 june 1944- retook france

Hitler commits suicide

30 april 1945

reasons for Total War

By 1939 only prepared for short stint

Production poorly managed

total war

Overseen by Speers the Goebbels

7m foreign workers shipped in may 1944

Comp labour age limit 45-> 50

Total arms production up 59%

women in total war

3m called up to work in 1943

Only 1m took up job as propaganda told them to be mothers

rationing

Sep 1939 food rationing introduced

Was 10% above minimum calorific standard until early 1944

Daily calorie intake fell 2000 to 1000

Led to spread of Typhus

allied bombing

Overall 1.1 million civilian casualties + 50% of housing destroyed/damaged

SD reports say more open complaining after 1942

Had to divert resources

working class opposition to nazis

Elster alone assassinate Hitler in munich 1939

Edelweiss pirates

Gangs of 14-17 year olds in mid 30s

By 1939 2000 in such groups

Nazis publicly hung 12 teenagers after they aided deserters 1944

white rose group

Medical students

Distributed Galens sermons in 1941

Wrote pamphlets due to being on frontlines 1942

Called for Hitler to be overthrown 1943

Kreisau circle

Planned for a new germany

Von Moltke

Stauffenburg plot

June 1944

Von Stauffenburg an officer

Failed

Proportional Representation

29 parties in Reichstag

9 different coalition government 19-23