Key Terms in Weimar Germany and Nazi Rise (1919-1939)

Diktat

A forced peace treaty that Germans saw as humiliating after World War I

Spartacists

A communist group that tried to spark a revolution in 1919

Kapp Putsch

A failed right wing coup against the Weimar government in 1920

White Terror

Right wing violence used to crush leftist uprisings in early Weimar Germany

Beerhall Putsch

Hitler's failed attempt to seize power in Munich in 1923

Proportional representation

A voting system that created unstable coalition governments

Article 48

A rule allowing the president to govern by decree during emergencies

Hyper inflation crisis

A 1923 collapse that made German currency almost worthless

Dawes Plan

A US backed plan to stabilize Germany by adjusting reparations

Gustav Stresemann

A German leader who stabilized currency and improved foreign policy

National Socialist German Workers Party

Hitler's party that became the Nazi Party

Hindenburg

The president who appointed Hitler as chancellor

Reichstag Fire

A 1933 fire used by Nazis to justify emergency repression

Enabling Act

A law giving Hitler full dictatorial power

Night of Long Knives

A 1934 purge of SA leaders and political enemies

Hermann Goering

A top Nazi who led the Luftwaffe and helped secure Nazi rule

Führer Cult

Propaganda portraying Hitler as a heroic and infallible leader

SA

Hitler's early paramilitary force used to intimidate opponents

Nuremberg Laws

Racial laws that stripped Jews of rights and citizenship

Twenty Five Points

The early Nazi Party platform outlining its goals

Mein Kampf

Hitler's book explaining his ideology and expansion plans

Kinder Kirche und Küche

A slogan defining the Nazi view of women's roles

Gestapo

The secret police that hunted opponents of the Nazi regime

SS

The elite force that enforced racial policies and ran camps

Himmler

Leader of the SS who directed the Holocaust

Nazi Youth

Organizations created to indoctrinate German children

Four Year Plan

A program to prepare Germany for war through rapid buildup

White Rose

A student resistance group that spread anti Nazi leaflets

Kreisau Circle

An intellectual resistance group planning for Germany post Hitler

Lebensraum

Hitler's idea that Germany needed more land for its people

Grosswirtschaftsraum

A plan for a German dominated economic zone in Europe

Dollfuss Putsch

A failed Nazi attempt to take over Austria in 1934

Reunion with the Saar

The 1935 vote returning the Saar region to Germany

Stresa Front

A coalition opposing German rearmament

Hossbach Memorandum

A 1937 document showing Hitler's intentions for expansion

Anschluss

Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938

Sudetenland Crisis

Hitler's push to take Czech territory with German speakers

Rhineland

A region Germany remilitarized in 1936 against treaty rules

Appeasement

The policy of giving in to Hitler to avoid war

Polish Crisis

Rising tensions in 1939 that led to Germany invading Poland

Nazi Soviet Pact

A 1939 agreement where Germany and the USSR promised neutrality