The establishment of the Weimar Republic and its early problems

• The Abdication of the Kaiser and the German Revolution of 1918–19;

• The strengths and weaknesses of the new Republic and its Constitution;

• Reactions to the Treaty of Versailles;

• Challenges from Right and Left, including the Kapp Putsch and the Spartacist uprising;

• French occupation of the Ruhr;

• Causes and effects of hyperinflation

The recovery of Germany, 1924–29

• The work of Stresemann;

• Rentenmark, Dawes and Young Plans;

• US loans and the recovery of the German economy;

• Successes abroad – League of Nations, Locarno Treaties and Kellogg-Briand Pact

The rise of Hitler and the Nazis to January 1933

• Hitler and the German Workers’ Party. Changes to the party (1920–22);

• Causes, events and results of Munich Putsch, (1923);

• Reorganisation of the Party (1924–28);

• Impact of the Great Depression. Nazi methods to win support;

• The role of the SA. Events of 1932 to January 1933, including the role of von Papen, von Schleicher and von Hindenburg

Nazi Germany, 1933–39

• Setting up the Nazi dictatorship through the Reichstag Fire, Enabling Act, Night of the Long Knives and Hitler as Führer;

• The methods of Nazi control and the extent to which they were successful, including the police state, censorship and propaganda;

• Nazi policies towards education, women, the young, the Churches and their impact;

• Nazi racial policies and increasing persecution of Jews;

• Policies to reduce unemployment and their impact;

• The Labour Service, the Labour Front and Strength Through Joy.

Germany and the occupied territories during the Second World War

• Nazi policies towards the Jews, including ghettos, death squads and the Final Solution;

• The Home Front, including changing role of women, ‘total war’, rationing and the effects of allied bombing;

• The growth of opposition to Hitler, including the Edelweiss Pirates, the White Rose Group and the July Bomb Plot (1944);

• Hitler’s death and the end of the Third Reich.