Nazi Germany Vocab

Anschluss: This is the term used to refer to the joining together of Austria and Germany. Hitler carried this out in1938 to create the greater German Reich (state).

Beer Hall Putsch (1923): An attempted Nazi coup. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party led a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the German government. The plotters hoped to march on Berlin to launch a national revolution. The insurrection failed miserably. Units of the Munich police force clashed with Nazi stormtroopers, and the police killed more than a dozen of Hitler’s supporters.

Concentration Camp: Concentration camps (Konzentrationslager; abbreviated as KL or KZ) were an integral feature of the regime in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy. The first was established at Dachau in 1933 and was first used for political prisoners of the Nazis. Ultimately these facilities would contribute to the deaths of millions during the Holocaust.

Conservative Élite: This is the name given to traditionally right-wing aristocratic landowners, industrialists, senior army officers, Judges and civil servants.

Dawes Plan (1924): A plan to address hyperinflation and reduce Germany’s reparation payment until recovery and then increasing the payments over time as its economy improved. The full amount to be paid, however, was left undetermined. Foreign supervision would be used in Berlin to revise German economics financial decision-making. A new currency, the Reichsmark, was also adopted. France and Belgium evacuated the Ruhr and foreign banks loaned the German government $200 million to help encourage economic stabilization.

Enabling Act (1933): Gave Hitler power from the Chancellor and Article 48 to rule by decree and bypass an parliamentary restrictions or checks on his power, essentially allowing for a legal dictatorship and Nazi rule.

Freikorps: These were volunteer groups of demobilized soldiers who continued to fight for right-wing values.

Führerprinzip: Central to Nazism was the belief that the leader's will' was the source of all political authority. This Führerprinzip was cultivated even before Hitler became chancellor and could claim to be above the law. Hitler demanded unquestioning obedience. He was not prepared for others to challenge him—as the Strasser brothers tried to do in 1926—nor was he prepared to bow to the will of the SA who pressed for a revolution in 1932-33, while he sought power by legal means.

Gestapo: (Geheime Staatspolizei) was the German Secret State Police, which was under SS control. It was responsible for investigating political crimes and opposition activities. The groups targeted by the Gestapo shifted with the regime’s policies and priorities.

Gleichschaltung: This refers to a coordination process whereby all German institutions were to conform to Nazi ideals.

Golden Years: This refers to the period between 1925 and 1929 when the Weimar economy flourished with the help of US loans.

Holocaust (1939-1945): The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The Holocaust was an evolving process that took place throughout Europe between 1933 and 1945.

Hossbach Memorandum (1937): The Hossbach Memorandum was a note compiled by Colonel Count Friedrich Hossbach of a secret meeting between Hitler and his top military and political leadership on the 5 November 1937. At the meeting, Hitler discussed his plans for foreign policy in the years ahead.

Hyperinflation: This term is used to describe a very high rate of inflation, when money is so devalued that prices rise constantly and excessive amounts are needed to buy everyday items. Effectively, the currency becomes worthless.

Ideology: This refers to a set of beliefs and ideas that characterize a political movement and provide the principles from which its policies derive.

Kapp Putsch (1920): The attempt by Wolfgang Kapp (1858–1922), a right-wing Prussian landowner and politician, to overthrow the Weimar Republic and restore the German monarchy. Aided by elements in the army, including Ludendorff, and the unofficial “free corps” which the new government was trying to disband, Kapp's forces seized Berlin, planning to set up a rival government with himself as Chancellor. The putsch was defeated by a general strike of the Berlin workers and the refusal of civil servants to obey his orders.

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw war signed on August 27, 1928. Sometimes called the Pact of Paris for the city in which it was signed, the pact was one of many international efforts to prevent another World War, but it had little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II.

Locarno Pact (1925): series of agreements whereby Germany, France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe. In the treaty Germany recognized Franco-German borders and German losses from Versailles, however the treaty did not commit Germans to respect Polish & Czechoslovakian borders. Hitler and the NSDAP despised the treaty and reaffirmation of losing WWI.

“November Criminals”: A term used by Hitler and the Nazis to refer to those who had helped to form the Weimar government and brokered the peace which Germans had so desperately wanted but had ended so disastrously in the Versailles Treaty.

NSDAP: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. This is the full name of the Nazi Party. Members were called "Nazis' in the same way that the socialists were known as 'Sozis’. Nazi came from the NA of National and the ZI of sozialistische.

Passive Resistance: A non-violent refusal to work—in the Ruhr, for example, this meant a refusal to work for the occupying troops of France and Belgium.

Proportional Representation: Under this system of elections, electors vote for a party rather than a candidate. Parties can then choose deputies from a list, according to the number of votes cast for that party. The number of deputies in the Reichstag would therefore correspond proportionately to the number of votes that party received in the country as a whole.

Putsch: An attempt to overthrow the state.

Rassenschande: A term used by the Nazis known as “race defilement”

Reichskonkordat (1933): A treaty negotiated between the Vatican and the emergent Nazi Germany. Nazis guaranteed the Catholic Church religious freedom and full control over its own education and its property and legal rights, the papacy in return said that they would not interfere in politics and would give diplomatic recognition to the Nazi government.

Reichstag Fire (1933): An arson attack on the German parliamentary building. Hitler blamed communists but little evidence ever supported this accusation and evidence suggests Nazi involvement. The event pushed Hindenburg to invoke Article 48 “Decree for the protection of the Nation and the state” and rule by decree government that suspended civil liberties and allowed Nazis to persecute their political enemies.

Reparations: Compensation for war damage that was payable to Germany's former enemies.

SA (Sturmabteilung): Founded in the 1920s, under Ernst Rohm. Colloquially known as the ‘Brown Shirts’ it engaged in political violence and intimidation of opposing political parties, members, & Reichstag members.

Self-determination: This term refers to the right of racial groups to be settled in a country of their own race and ruled by their own people.

Spartacist Uprising (1919): A political challenge to the Weimar Republic in January 1919 by a group called the Spartacists. The Spartacists were communists led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. The uprising occurred when 100,000 people went on strike and demonstrated in Berlin. The uprising was poorly planned and was quickly crushed by the Freikorps. The Spartacists leaders were executed.

Spartacus League: Led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the Spartacus League was a radical socialist group. Its members were the founders of the KPD (German Communist Party), which was set up at a congress in Berlin held from 30 December 1918 to 1 January 1919. The group remained committed to violent revolution until about 1923, whereafter it contested Reichstag elections with some success. The KPD and SPD (Social Democratic Party) refused to work together, which was one factor that allowed the Nazis to come to power.

SPD (Social Democratic Party): A center-left part in Germany. The SPD played a leading role in the German revolution of 1918–1919 and in the foundation of the Weimar Republic. The SPD politician Friedrich Ebert served as the first president of Germany from 1919 to 1925. After the rise of the Nazi Party to power, the SPD was the only party in the Reichstag which voted against the Enabling Act of 1933; the SPD was subsequently banned, and operated in exile.

SS (Schutzstaffel): Founded in 1925, under Heinrich Himmler the SS pledged obedience directly to Hitler. In 1929 there were only 2,000 men, but by 1933 it had 200,000 men. The SS were the driving force behind Holocaust, but far from the only group responsible.

“Stab-in-the-back myth”: (Dolchstoßlegende) After the First World War leaders like Hindenburg and Ludendorff sought to deflect responsibility for Germany’s loss by promoting the “stab-in-the-back myth.” This narrative claimed that revolutionary uprisings, socialist agitation, and alleged Jewish influence had sabotaged the German war effort from within, despite the military being "unbeaten in the field." In reality, Germany's military situation was dire.

Swastika: This term refers to an ancient religious symbol in the form of a cross with the arms bent at right angles. It had been used by right-wing groups in Austria and was associated with Aryanism even before Hitler chose to adopt it. It became the best-known symbol of the Nazi Party and was used on flags, arm-bands and badges.

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor (1935): The second Nuremberg Laws, the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, banned marriage between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. It also criminalized sexual relations between them. These relationships were labeled as “race defilement” (Rassenschande).

The Reich Citizenship Law (1935): Colloquially part of the ‘Nuremburg Laws’ it was a law that redefined citizenship in Germany by Nazi racial constructs. The law defined that only people of “German or kindred blood” could be citizens of Germany. A supplementary decree defined who was and was not a Jew. The Nazis rejected the traditional view of Jews as members of a religious or cultural community. They claimed instead that Jews were a race defined by birth and by blood.

Treaty of Versailles: This was the peace treaty imposed on Germany after the First World War by the victorious Allies - Britain, France and the USA.

Volksgemeinschaft: (People’s or National Community) based on the foundations of race, ethnicity, and social behavior. "Volksgemeinschaft" can be translated literally as "folk community." The Nazis used this term to refer to Race-conscious “Aryan” Germans who accepted, obeyed, and conformed with Nazi ideology and social norms.

Wall Street Crash (1929): The events in October 1929, when shares on the New York Stock Exchange crashed and lost a lot of their value, causing a chain reaction of serious economic problems in the US and Europe and leading to the Depression and extensive economic recessions.

Young Plan (1929): A committee of experts was formed to devise a final settlement of the German reparations problem. In 1929 the proposed plan reduced the total amount of reparations demanded of Germany to 121 billion gold marks, almost $29 billion, payable over 58 years. Another loan was floated in foreign markets, this one totaling $300 million. Foreign supervision of German finances ceased and the last of the occupying troops left German soil. The Young Plan also established a Bank for International Settlements, designed to facilitate the payment of reparations.

Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler was the undisputed leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party—known as Nazis—since 1921. In 1923, he was arrested and imprisoned for trying to overthrow the German government. His trial brought him fame and followers. He used the subsequent jail time to dictate his political ideas in a book, Mein Kampf—My Struggle. Hitler’s ideological goals included territorial expansion, consolidation of a racially pure state, and elimination of the European Jews and other perceived enemies of Germany.

Ernst Röhm: A German army officer and chief organizer of Adolf Hitler’s Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung, or SA; Brownshirts). Feared as a rival by Hitler, he was murdered at Hitler’s order.

Franz von Papen: Franz von Papen (1879–1969) was former Chancellor of Germany (1932) and German statesman. He played a leading role in dissolving the Weimar Republic and in helping Adolf Hitler to become German chancellor in 1933. As Ambassador to Austria, von Papen paved the way for the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany).

Gustav Stressman: Appointed Chancellor of the Golden Era, initiated the Reichsmark change, agreed to the Dawes & Young plans and help Germany restructure its economy until his death and the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Heinrich Brüning: A conservative German statesman who was chancellor and foreign minister shortly before Adolf Hitler came to power (1930–32). Unable to solve his country’s economic problems, he hastened the drift toward rightist dictatorship by ignoring the Reichstag and governing by presidential decree.

Hermann Göring: Hermann Göring was the second most powerful official in Nazi Germany. For much of Hitler's dictatorship, only Hitler himself was more powerful. Göring played a leading role in Germany’s plan to conquer eastern Europe. He also helped develop Nazi policies to rob and murder Jews. After World War II, the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg sentenced Göring to death. Before his execution, Göring committed suicide.

Joseph Goebbels: A Nazi politician and propagandist. He held several roles in the Nazi Party. He served as Nazi Party chief for Greater Berlin from 1926 until 1945. From 1930 until 1945 he was head of propaganda (Reichspropagandaleiter) for the Nazi Party. In 1933, Adolf Hitler appointed Goebbels Reich Minister for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, a position he held until 1945. Goebbels was an unconditional follower of Hitler and a radical antisemite.

Kurt von Schleicher: A German army officer and the last chancellor of the Weimar Republic, an opponent of Adolf Hitler in 1932–33.

Paul von Hindenburg: Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was a German general who gained renown during World War I and later as President of the Weimar Republic. He is most relevant to Holocaust history through his dealings with Adolf Hitler. Although he did not approve of Hitler or his politics, Hindenburg became the man who made him Chancellor of Germany, enabling the Nazis’ takeover of power.