1) How effectively did opposition express itself in the years 1918-89?

Question 1

What did the Treaty of Versailles influence in Germany, and what was it for politicians? And also what was it a cause for?

Answer 1

-the treaty influenced the political agenda in Germany and it was used as a campaigning point for politicians.
-it was also a cause of political discontent and a spur to opposition.

Question 2

How did many Germans feel about the Weimar government?

Answer 2

many felt that the Weimar government were traitors to the country for arranging the armistice and signing the shameful Treaty of Versailles.
-Opponents of the government regularly used this to criticise it. But it is important not to forget that there was very real anger and resentment throughout Germany about the treaty.

Question 3

What did the German people have no idea about?

Answer 3

they had no idea of how badly the war was going for Germany.
-They believed the ideas put forward by many newspapers that Germany could have won the war if the Weimar government had not signed the treaty.

Question 4

What was one of the significant effects of imposing the high reparations?

Answer 4

the significant effect of high reparation was that it enabled resentment against the Versailles Treaty to continue.
-it did not matter that Germany did not pay back a significant amount, or that loans from the USA to help rebuild the German economy far outweighed any reparations payments that Germany made.

Question 5

What were the two agreements that the USA brokered in the 1920s? and what were their effects? and did this have much effect on resentment?

Answer 5

-they were: the Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929
- they greatly reduced reparations and extended the time for repayment
-this did not have much effect on resentment, people still resented the treaty. The fact that the reparations existed at all was enough

Question 6

Up to what year did the Weimar republic last?

Answer 6

1933

Question 7

What was Germany full of after the war? and what did some of them form? and what did add to?

Answer 7

• it was full of men of all ages trained in war, many of them unemployed.
  -some of them formed private armies for political groups. This added to the violence that surrounded the new government, which was forced to leave Berlin in both 1919 (Spartacist rebellion) and in 1920 (the Kapp Putsch) when threatened with violent overthrow.

Question 8

what were the reasons why the Weimar government was opposed by extremist groups from the left and right?

Answer 8

the government was opposed by extremist groups on the left and the right for its:
-involvement in the Treaty of Versailles
-liberalism and democratic principles
-failure to produce a strong, decisive government and a strong leader
-failure to unite Germany

Question 9

Which groups did the most significant left-wing opposition come from? and what years were they especially active?

Answer 9

from communist groups.
-these were especially active in the years immediately after the war

Question 10

Who did the Weimar government dismiss on 4th January 1919 and what was the consequence of this? and then what happened on the 6th January?

Answer 10

on the 4 January 1919, the gov dismissed the popular police chief in Berlin, Emil Eichorn, a radical USPD member.
-this brought the government into open conflict with the workers’ councils.
-as a result, the Spartacists, members of the USPD and local union officials united to overthrow the government.
-on the 6 January 1919, thousands of armed workers took over key buildings, such as the newspaper offices.
-this was how the Russian revolution had started just a year before, and was the reason why Chancellor Ebert moved the government to the small town of Weimar for safety.

Question 11

Who did the Weimar government turn to for help to crush the Spartacist rebellion?

Answer 11

turned to the Freikorps.
-they crushed the rebellion and executed its leaders

Question 12

What did left-wing opposition tactics also include? and give examples and whether they were successful or not

Answer 12

-they also included attempts to take over individual German states and establish communist governments.
-the most significant of these attempts were made in Bavaria in March 1919 and in Saxony and Thuringia in 1921.
-in all cases, the communist governments did not have enough popular support and were put down by the army

Question 13

What years did communists attempt to establish communist governments in Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia?

Answer 13

-Bavaria = March 1919
-Saxony and Thuringia = 1921

Question 14

Did the Weimar gov find it easy to get the army to put down left-wing opposition? and who was the army far less willing to suppress?

Answer 14

-yes the government found it easy to get the army to put down left-wing opposition.
-however, the army was far less willing to suppress right-wing rebellion.

Question 15

What was the DNVP’s feelings towards the Weimar government?

Answer 15

-at first, the DNVP opposed the Weimar government and so did not want to be part of it, preferring to act as an opposition party in the Reichstag.
-later, it tried to work within the Reichstag, hoping to produce a more settled political environment.

Question 16

From who did more severe opposition come from?

Answer 16

more severe opposition came from various right-wing groups that aimed to restore the empire and overturn the treaty

Question 17

Who did right-wing opposition come from?

Answer 17

from:
-landowners, the army and industrialists as well as people in conservative groups, for example, those who worked in schools and universities

Question 18

What were the two most significant extremist right-wing actions?

Answer 18

• the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and the Munich putsch of 1923

Question 19

What was the Kapp Putsch? who did the Putsch have the support of? and how did it play out? How did the army respond to the Putsch?

Answer 19

-it was an attempt to overthrow the government by Wolfgang Kapp and Freikorps leaders Walther Luttwitz and Herman Erhardt.
-the Putsch had the support of Eric Ludendorff, who had been a general in WWI

Question 20

How did the Kapp Putsch play out? How did the army respond to the Putsch? With the gov gone, what did the leaders do? Who stopped the leaders and how?

Answer 20

-they (Wolfgang Kapp and Freikorps leaders with the support of Eric Ludendorff) took over Berlin on 12 March 1920 and the government fled to Weimar.
-most of the army did not join to Putsch, but would not fight the rebels as they were right-wing.
-with the government gone, Kapp looked to be in a good position. The leaders proclaimed themselves the new government, dissolved the National Assembly and said the Weimar constitution was no longer in force.
-for a few days it looked as if Germany had a new government. Then the trade unions called a general strike, demanding an end to the putsch and a new government with the SPD in control. The general strike was almost universal.
-4 days after the strike began, the Kapp government fell. The Weimar gov returned to Berlin thanks to the strike rather than anything it or the army had done.

Question 21

Where did Kapp die?

Answer 21

he died in prison, awaiting trial

Question 22

What was the Munich Putsch?

Answer 22

it was an attempt by Hitler to gain power over Germany just like Mussolini did in Italy with his ‘March on Rome’. He thought he could gain the support of local politicians and citizens

Question 23

Explain the events of the Munich Putsch (how it took place)

Answer 23

-on 8 November, the SA surrounded a large beer cellar in Munich, where Gustav von Kahr and other important officials were in a meeting.
-Hitler then crashed into the hall and announced that the government of Bavaria, and the National government, were deposed and that he and Ludendorff were to form a new government. He locked them in and he and Ludendorff spoke to the crowd.
-but one by one the prisoners escaped and organised resistance to the putsch.
-When the Nazis attempted to start their march on Berlin in the morning, they were taken prisoner after a short battle with the police

Question 24

Was the Munich Putsch a success or failure for Hitler?

Answer 24

-although it seemed to have been a failure, it was really a success for Hitler.
-the trial enabled him to give a speech about his beliefs that was widely reported and increased his fame.
-his sentence was only 5 years.
-he used his time in prison to think through his political ideas and to write his book.
- the putsch also made his understand that he needed to try for power by legal means by getting the Nazis into the Reichstag.

Question 25

By August 1933, what was it not possible to do? (hint: concerns the Nazis)

Answer 25

it was not possible to oppose the Nazis in the Reichstag - all opposition parties were illegal and many members of parties such as the KPD and SPD had either left the country or were in concentration camps built to hold political prisoners indefinitely without trial.

Question 26

What was the problem for opposition during the Nazi regime and why?

Answer 26

the problem was how to protest.
-public meetings were not possible.

Question 27

in the early 1930’s who worked against the Nazification of Germany? and what did they risk and have to overcome? and what did members of the army have to face?

Answer 27

in the early 1930s, various groups worked against the Nazification of Germany:
-political groups and trade unions; church groups; student and youth groups and members of the army.
-they risked discovery and punishment, and had to overcome the feeling that were being disloyal to Germany by secretly conspiring against the government.
-members of the army had to face the fact that they had sworn a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler and broke it by opposing him and the Nazis.
-What they were trying to do became increasingly impossible as the Nazi grip on the country tightened and people began to think that protest and dissent was not possible, that politics was not for ordinary people and that any form of protest or appeal was not just dangerous - it was useless.

Question 28

What were the five ways that people expressed opposition and dissent in Nazi Germany?

Answer 28

-anti-Nazi campaigns
-sabotage
-disobedience
-attempts to assassinate Hitler
-church opposition

Question 29

explain how anti-Nazi campaigns were a way for people to express opposition and dissent during Nazi Germany?

Answer 29

-in the early 1930s, the KPD, SPD and trade unions printed pamphlets and other anti-Nazi literature.
-for example, in 1933 the SPD group Red Shock Troop, working mainly in Berlin, published the newspaper Red Shock Troop about every 10 days and built up a membership of around 3,000. Then in December, the leaders were arrested and sent to concentration camps and the group folded.
-other SPD and KPD groups sprang up, but by 1938 it was clear that it became easy to trace groups by their publications that it was like sending the Gestapo a list of people to arrest.
-After this, the KPD and other groups did much of their work by word of mouth and tended not to form organised groups.
-the SPD outside the country (SOPADE) then turned to mostly gathering information about public opinion in Germany to pass on to the Allies.
-Once Germany invaded the USSR in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, communist groups revived.
-the Uhrig groups leafleted factories and put up posters urging workers to acts of sabotage,
-the Red Orchestra was a group of mainly government employees who, while not necessarily communist, passed information about the German war effort to the USSR.

Question 30

explain how sabotage was a way for people to express opposition and dissent during Nazi Germany?

Answer 30

-Workers sabotaged the Nazis in a variety of ways:
-they held lightening strikes that usually only lasted a few hours. In 1936, e.g. the workers who built the autobahns held a lightening strike.
-workers also sabotaged production by working slowly, damaging machinery or reporting sick in when they were not.
-all of these actions could lead to arrest if they were reported. However, workers were in great demand, especially once the war broke out, so actions likes these were often overlooked.
-if groups became too organised, or too successful, then the Gestapo stopped turning a blind eye and arrested its members.
-for example, members of the Anti-Fascist Workers’ Group were arrested in 1944.
-once Germany was at war, various resistance groups, some with help from Britain and other Allies, worked against the Nazis in increasingly violent ways such as blowing up bridges or railways lines.

Question 31

Explain how disobedience was a way for people to express opposition and dissent during Nazi Germany?

Answer 31

-some young people, usually from the affluent middle class, deliberately did not join the Hitler Youth. Instead they went to clubs to listen to ‘cool’ music such as swing and jazz. They also dressed in clothes that were as similar to fashions in the West as possible; some even set up their own bands.
-after 1940, these clubs were declared illegal and went underground. The Nazis made occasional arrests, but mostly they left these groups alone.
-while they were not conforming to what the Nazis wanted, they did not express actively anti-Nazi sentiments.
-the same was not true of Edelweiss Pirates. The Pirates, a largely working-class movement, were actively anti-Nazi, although to varying degrees. Many Pirates wore their own uniform, a deliberate statement that they were not members of the Hitler Youth. Their activities varied from area to area. Some simply ran their own activities, such as hiking and camping. Others painted anti-Nazi slogans on walls or collected anti-Nazi leaflets dropped by Allied planes and posted them through letterboxes. Some went even further and worked with resistance groups.
-if caught they were executed.
-a different group, made up of students from the university of Munich, was the White Rose Group. This group operated in secret, distributing anti-Nazi material urging sabotage and exposing the Nazi murder of Jews, while urging non-violent resistance to the Nazis. They were caught and executed.
-one of the most widespread ways of opposing the Nazis was to help those the Nazis wanted to arrest. Some people who did this acted alone. Others were part of a more organised escape line (the protestant Church ran one)

Question 32

Was it only young people who practiced disobedience?

Answer 32

-no, it was not only young people.

Question 33

Give an example of an organised escape line within the Nazi organisation?

Answer 33

-Hans von Dohnanyi worked in the Nazi justice system, but he worked with his brother-in-law Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a protestant pastor, to help escapees.
-they were both arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Question 34

How many attempts were there to assassinate Hitler?

Answer 34

from July 1921 to July 1944, there were about 15 known attempts to assassinate Hitler.

Question 35

Of the 15 known attempted assassinations of Hitler, the seven made after 1939 were made by who?

Answer 35

were made by army members or groups led by army members.

Question 36

What did the army have to do when Hitler became Fuhrer in 1934? and despite this what did Hitler always have?

Answer 36

they had to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler, not to Germany.
-despite this, Hitler always had his own military groups such as the SS and many army members disapproved of the more extreme Nazi beliefs and actions, especially the murder of Jews and other ‘undesirables’

Question 37

What happened to all plotters caught trying to assassinate Hitler?

Answer 37

all plotters were who were caught were executed immediately.
-investigations then went on to find others involved in the plots, who if caught, were also executed or sent to concentration camps.

Question 38

What was the most serious assassination plot of Hitler?

Answer 38

-it was the July Plot of 1944.
-it was an attempt by the German army to take over the government and negotiate the end of the war with the Allies.
-on 20 July, Lieutenant Claus von Stauffenberg left a bomb in a briefcase in a conference room where Hitler was going to meet military aides. He made an excuse to leave the room and when the bomb went off he believed reports in the confusion that Hitler was dead.
-while four people were killed, Hitler survived with only minor injuries.
-as it became clear that Hitler was not dead, one of the plotters, Friedrich Fromme, arrested the chief plotters to prove his loyalty. They were either shot or committed suicide.
-investigation led to the arrest, trial and execution of about 200 other people who were said (rightly or wrongly) to have been involved in the plot. Fromme was one of these - he did not save himself by betraying the others.

Question 39

What was Hitler well aware of? (hint: god)

Answer 39

he was well aware of the power of religious beliefs. But he wanted the loyalty of the German people to be directed to him alone

Question 40

In regards to religion, what were Hitlers careful moves? And how did church members react?

Answer 40

firstly, he set up a Concordat with the pope in which he promised to leave the Catholic Church alone if it did not interfere in German politics.
-he then developed a Nazi-influenced ‘People’s Church’ with a Reichsbishop in control as a branch of the biggest Protestant church organisation, the German Evangelical Church
-many church members were soothed by Nazi nationalism, conservatism and anti-communist stance, as well as by point 24 in the Nazi 25-point programme of 1920
-However, by 1933 the ‘People’s Church’ had clearly become less Christian and more Nazi, even displaying Nazi banners in its churches and demanding the removal of the Old Testament from the bible as it was ‘Jewish’. This caused a reaction and the formation of the Pastors’ Emergency League (PEL) that developed into the Confessing Church in May 1934. It condemned the People’s Church for obeying the state, being antisemitic and even encouraging atheism. Many members of the Confessing Church were arrested and some were even executed

Question 41

Give an example of a spontaneous protest that led to the Nazis being careful?

Answer 41

-when the Nazis imprisoned two bishops for speaking out against the Nazis in October 1934, there was a public outcry and people took to the streets to protest.
-the Nazis, who were moving very cautiously against both Protestant and Catholic churches at this time, backed down and released the bishops.

Question 42

When was the FRG established? and what was it set up to be?

Answer 42

it was established in 1949 and it was set up to be a democracy

Question 43

What was the FRG’s constitution devised to try to avoid? and what was its constitution very clear about? and what did this mean?

Answer 43

it was devised to try to avoid some of the problems that the democratic Weimar government had in making coalitions and forming policy.
-the Basic Law that became its constitution was very clear about the fact that there should be free speech, freedom of the press and no censorship.
-this meant that opposition had a voice again in Germany, both within the political system and inside the country as a whole

Question 44

What was the constitution of the FRG called?

Answer 44

the Basic Law

Question 45

In the 1950s what was the FRG trying to do? and what were the issues of the time?

Answer 45

it was trying to establish itself. Political dissent and active challenge were less important than the bigger issues of the time:
-rebuilding the government, working together in useful coalitions to avoid the problems that the Weimar government had had.
-building a sense of identity while leaving room for reunification with East Germany.
-rebuilding the economy and physically rebuilding the country
-establishing the FRG as a viable, moderate member of Europe; even the newly re-established communist party stressed it wanted German Socialism, not a revolution.
– but all of this does not mean there was no political dissent.

Question 46

what was the coalition that emerged from the first elections in August 1949 (in the FRG)

Answer 46

the coalition that emerged had as its largest party the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
-the party with the most radical political agenda (the SPD) was not part of the government, because there was a feeling among voters that they wanted parties that trod on a moderate line.

Question 47

In the FRG, what did the SPD become? and what did it argue against?

Answer 47

it became the group that voiced what political opposition there was in the 1950s.
-it argued against several moves by Adenauer, the chancellor, such as his ‘year zero’ approach to past membership of the Nazi party and his desire to align the FRG with Europe, thereby making reunification with East Germany less likely.

Question 48

How did the FRG clamp down on certain political groups? and give an example

Answer 48

the gov clamped down on certain political groups, using a clause in the Basic Law that said political parties could exist as long as they did not threaten the constitution or the principles of democracy.
-this clause was used to ban the right-wing Socialist Reich Party in 1952 because it was expressing views that were too reminiscent of those of the Nazi regime and therefore were a threat to democracy.

Question 49

What did the KPD, having been unable to win enough seats in the Bundestag do? (in the FRG)

Answer 49

the KPD, having been unable to win enough seats in the Bundestag to feel represented there, began to organise communist demonstrations in the cities.
-in Munich in 1953, about 6,000 communists clashed with the police and the police used water cannon to disperse the marchers

Question 50

By the 1960s what happened to the FRG’s situation?

Answer 50

by the 1960s the FRG had found its political feet in Europe and by what was referred to as an ‘economic miracle’ had an astonishingly strong economy as well.
-people were more confident and a younger generation, growing in number due to the post-war baby boom, was getting caught up in the feeling of youth protest all through the West.

Question 51

What were the several ways in which the wave of youth protest showed itself in the FRG?

Answer 51

-young people who objected to the ‘year zero’ principle that had helped Adenauer rebuild the civil service and the army wanted to confront Germanys Nazi past. They especially objected to ex-Nazis in positions of political power. They adopted the slogan ‘What did you do in the war, Daddy?’ in a knowing reversal of the British recruitment poster for WWI. The slogan was used by many to taunt the older generation, but some young people genuinely felt dislocated by the widespread lack of family history that was the result of ‘year zero’ behaviour
-there were protests against the FRG’s military - its involvement with the West through NATO and the possibility that it might start to build and store atomic weapons, or allow other NATO countries to store nuclear weapons in the FRG.
-young people joined the rising discontent with the way the US was conducting the war in Vietnam. For many young people, the USA became the face of money-grabbing, repressive capitalism

Question 52

The APO came about partly because of what? (in the FRG)

Answer 52

-the APO came about partly because of the distrust of young intellectuals for the established, conservative government and partly because there were no left-wing parties to absorb them after the KPD was banned and the SPD revised its policies to be less radical in 1959

Question 53

What did the SPD do in 1959? and what was the consequence of this? (in FRG)

Answer 53

in 1959, the SPD revised its policies to be less radical.
-while this got the SPD more power in government, it left people on the left wing feeling unrepresented.

Question 54

what did the APO have a strong membership of? (in FRG)

Answer 54

had a strong university membership, many of whom supported radical theories about how to oppose government, theories that saw action as more important than argument, and saw student protest as a key method of protest

Question 55

What was the German Socialist Student Union (SDS)? (in FRG)

Answer 55

-it had been part of the SPD, but it broke away in 1961 because it felt the party was becoming less and less radical and no longer represented its feelings, over rearmament.

Question 56

Much radical protest in the 1960S and even the more violent terrorism of the 1970s was not always directed at what? give example (in FRG)

Answer 56

-it was not always directed at political issues in the FRG
-it was directed at various human rights and moral issues in the world as a whole.
-the SDS, for example, protested about the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. The SDS also protested about former Nazis holding office in the government and the FRG’s involvement in NATO.

Question 57

From 1965, who was the SDS leader? and what did some hold him responsible for? (in FRG)

Answer 57

-it was Rudi Dutschke
-some held him responsible for the escalating violence of student demonstrations.

Question 58

In 1967, during demonstrations against the human rights record of Iran, what happened? and what were the consequences? (in FRG)

Answer 58

the conflict with the police escalated and a student, Benno Ohnesorg, was shot.
-this led to an increase in the membership of the SDS but also to a split regarding how violent demonstrations should be.

Question 59

What happened in April 1968? (in FRG) and what followed?

Answer 59

Rudi Dutschke was shot by a right-wing fanatic who read criticisms of student protests in newspapers published by the conservative newspaper owner Alex Springer.
-the ‘Easter riots’, a series of attacks on offices of the Springer Press all over Germany followed.
-the riots died down and the SDS took part in the last major demonstration on 11 May 1968 in Bonn against the Emergency Law
-About 80,000 people from many different groups protested together against what they saw as a violation of the Basic Law’s human rights principles. The law was passed anyway. It allowed the government powers of arrest and surveillance that led to a change in student protest.

Question 60

How did the FRG government put pressure on protest and dissent during 1970s? and what effect did it have?

Answer 60

the gov put pressure via the emergency law. Police control also reduced the amount of protest by many groups.
-However, it had the effect of making some groups feel more marginalised and so increased the level of violence by resorting to terrorism.

Question 61

At first, what threw the police and gov off balance? (during FRG, hint: during 1970s) and later on what did they develop?

Answer 61

-at first, the police and the government were thrown off balance by the terrorists’ refusal to work through conventional protest.
-later, they developed hard-line policies to deal with them, including putting up posters of wanted terrorists , appealing to the public to turn them in.

Question 62

What were terrorist groups like in the FRG?

Answer 62

-terrorist groups were fluid; groups formed, joined each other, changed their names, split, then fell apart all the time. For example, in 1971, one of the leaders of the West Berlin Tupamaros was shot by the police. The other leader was in prison, and so its members disbanded and moved on to other groups.
-despite being constantly on the move, terrorists were in and out of prison -sometimes their arrests provoked terrorist attacks.
-there were regular gun battles with the police, sometimes several times a month, as terrorists tried to avoid arrest.

Question 63

What was terrorism in the FRG accompanied by?

Answer 63

by articles and pamphlets about what they wanted and why they were terrorists.

Question 64

What was the name of one of the most long-lived terrorist groups in the FRG? when was it set up and what was its first known action? what did it call itself and who gave it its name?

Answer 64

it was the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
-it was set up in early 1970, its first known action was the bombing in Dahlem in May 1970
-its name was given by the press; it called itself the Red Army Faction (RAF)

Question 65

Who was the influence for Baader-Meinhof Gang?

Answer 65

the group was influenced by Carlos Mirighella’s Minimanual for the urban guerrilla, published in June 1969.
-the book advised getting training, and the group went to Jordan to train with Palestinian terrorist group, the PLO

Question 66

By the end of 1070, what happened to most of the Baader-Meinhof Gang leaders? and what did they call for? and what were the results?

Answer 66

most of them were in prison and they called for hunger strike.
-in November, one of them died in prison as a result of the hunger strike. This resulted in bombings of the homes of several lawyers and judges involved in the trials that sent the gang members to prison.
-however, by 1975 all of the Baader-Meinhof Gang were arrested and some were placed in solitary confinement. There were bombings in Stockholm, Paris and other cities to show support for them, but then terrorist activity in the FRG slowed, partly due to government activity and partly to a feeling that this form of protest was not achieving anything.

Question 67

Were there still bombing during the 1980s?

Answer 67

yes but they were not a regular occurrence