Exam Skills And Knowledge Flashcards
1
Q
Question 1 Structure
A
Three Sources ~
* Introduce
* Strengths and Limitations
* Context in each paragraph throughout
* Mini judgement
* compare to other sources
Overall Judgement ~
* treat sources as a collection
* why are they valuable
* what do they miss
* your opinion
2
Q
Question 2 Structure
A
- Intro
Interpretation 1 & 2 ~ - what is it
- does it support view in question
- validity?
- why author does author hold this interpretation?
- overall judgment
OPI ~ - what other interpretations exist? Are they more valid or not?
Judgment ~ - what’s more valid?
3
Q
Key Question 2 Intro to use
A
Historians have interpreted….differently. Some Historian regard….. However, other historians have interpreted…..
4
Q
Historiography: 1933-1945 Third Reich
A
- Weimar was mainly ignored by historians due to propaganda
- stab in the back myth was popular
- academics start to focus on Weimar
5
Q
Historiography: After 1945 End of the Third Reich
A
- popular to study
- archives reopened as more evidence from 1919-1933 was discovered
- focusing on research and how Hitler gained power so quickly
- research was conducted during the Nuremberg Trials (Nazi Traits) hey burnt official documents, Russia
~ liberated the city but it was destroyed
~ revealing scale of the holocaust
~ hitler as a successful dictator - deterministic effects
~ ripe for manipulation
6
Q
Historiography: 1950s Start of Cold War
A
- new evidence became available as allies returned documentation
~ archives were open to Historians - focused on final years
- politics on Cold War affected interpretations
- capitalism helping hitler rise to power
- politics published there memory
7
Q
Historiography: 1960s
A
- turned to early years of Weimar
~ west Germany started first - main focus was stresemann and his contribution
- focused on social history during Weimar
8
Q
Historiography: 1970s-Now Including the fall of the Berlin Wall
A
- publications of memories and new interpretations were formed
- Bruning argued that he tried to save the monarchy providing a sharp response from other historians
~ Bracher in 1980 claimed Bruning was not the last chancellor - started process of democracy - new interpretations emerged of key role in formation of Nazis
- published book on Weimar
- 9 November 1989 - Berlin Wall fell
~ archives opened and historians could access eastern and western blocked documents
9
Q
Booklet 1 Interpretations: The Problems of Weimar were mainly due to the harshness of Versailles
A
- reparations fine was a huge burden on economy, Germany lost most of its wealthy industry land (Saar, Coalfields)
- Diktat was hated from Article 231
- Germans felt disappointed when ToV was signed
- economist J. Keynes agreed the reparations was unrealistic and would cause problems for everyone
- stab in the back myth - politicians were seen as traitors
- right wing support increased
- lost 13% of territory
10
Q
Booklet 1 Interpretations: The Political changes caused the most problems for Weimar
A
- system of voting proportional representation made it difficult for one political party to form a majority government
- article 48 where the president could form a dictatorship and rule as a Kaiser
- article 48 could also suspend civil liberties and the president could use emergency powers to threaten the nature of democracy
- six different governments tried to lead the Weimar republic the longest lasting 18 months
- republic was constantly undermined by threats of revolution
- Republic lacked political leadership
11
Q
Booklet 1 Interpretations: greater problems for the Weimar Republic at the time of course by economic issues
A
- between 1914 and 1918 Germon continually borrowed money to sustain the war effort without ever thinking how the debt would be repaid
- Germany expected to win the war and when they could raise money by fining their enemies
- during the war, the economy only produced wars rather than consumer goods and economy shrink
~ they also taxed highly during the war which meant people spent less - between 1913 and 1918 Mark lost 75% of its value
- only 16% of cost of war was met by taxation and earnings fell to 30% during the war
12
Q
Booklet 2 Interpretations: republic from 1924 to 1929 was largely successful in dealing with problems
A
- strong position by 1929 and would’ve survived if the stock market had not collapsed
- survive for 15 years while the third reich only survived 12
- by 1928 production level reached those of 1913
- 1925 to 1929 export rose by 40%
- hourly wage rose as much as 10% in 1927
- pensions and sickness benefits were introduced
13
Q
Booklet 2 Interpretations: government was largely ineffective in dealing with Germon’s problems
A
- Peukert believe this period was called deceptive stability
- Strathman faced a lot of opposition and was criticised for foreign controls over economy in plans and everyone saw this is an enslavement
- agriculture prices fell in 1920s farmers income fell to 44%
- unemployment was higher in 1920s trade unions increased prices and employees reacted by cutting labour costs
- growth was uneven industrial production declined value of imports always exceeded that of exports
- unemployment never fell below 1.3 million
- Borchart argue Germany was living beyond it means and spending was out of control
- Parliament and political system failed to make any real progress. It just cope the best it could
14
Q
Booklet 2 Interpretations: achievements of Fire where largely due to favourable international situation
A
- allies realised that reparation issue would become a problem so the more affordable annual payment should be set the leading to the doors plan
- prosperity was heavily dependent on foreign investment much of which took the form of loans
- under the doors plan the rentenmark had become more successful currency
- 1929 Strasma agreed to the young plan. Germany’s total reparation liability was reduced from 132,000,000 to 37,000,000
- 25.5 billion marks from foreign investment has been invested in the country between 1924 and 1929
15
Q
Booklet 3 Interpretations: main impact of the depression was the economic devastation in early 1930s
A
- US loans and investment ceased and demand quickly followed for repayment
- crisis caused further decline in the price of food and raw materials as imports reduce reduced
- demand for exports collapse with trade slumped in Germany’s industry could no longer pay way
~ overseas loans and exports trade falling price in wages fell - demand for German exports for rapidly falling by 55%
- my unemployment in 1932 was 5.6 million
- many farmers went bankrupt
- 1931 50,000 bankrupt businesses
- although there were already many underlying issues
16
Q
Booklet 3 Interpretations: main consequences of the depression of Germany was the general rise of political extremism
A
- people lost faith which seem to offer no end of misery and began to seek solutions offered by political extremists like Hitler
- in its infancy and it had become associated with the economic failure
- Hermann Muller grand coalition was attacked regarding the issue of reparations
~ national opposition drafted a law which denounced any payment of reparations demand the punishment of leaders who agreed = did not gain enough votes - 1930 Bruning decisions to cut government spending balance budget means the extreme parties gained votes
17
Q
Booklet 3 Interpretations: coming to power of the Nazis was the most important consequence of the depression
A
- party membership grew to 130,000 by 1929
- involvement in national opposition gave Nazis in the national standing
- 1930 Bruning decision to cut Gov spending balance budget meant Nazis became second largest party with increased votes of 6,409,600
- 1929 the Nazi leaders had deliberately directed their propaganda at rural and middle lower class audiences. Nazis gains were at the expense of the DNVP, DVP, DDP
18
Q
Booklet 4 Interpretations: left-wing Marxists Nazis roast power due to a crisis in capitalism
A
- 1930s many left-wing marks is believed that there was a close connection between the rise of Nazis in the quest capitalism faced in 1929-1933
- believed big businesses lost faith in Weimar and supported the Nazis who could satisfy their needs for profit
19
Q
Booklet 4 Interpretations: anti-German determinist and Hitler rise of Nazis with the inevitable result of German history
A
- auntie Germon feelings can be out down to the requirements of wartime propaganda in Britain some academic historians after the war portrayed Nazis in this the natural product of German history
- A.J.P Taylor wrote in the cause of German history in 1945 “it was no more mistake for the German people to end up with Hitler than it is an accident when a river flows into the sea”
- Aunty Germany determinist view was probably reached with the publication in 1959 of William Shirer rise and fall of the third Reich - he had worked as a correspondent in Germany people’s national character or contributed to the inevitability of Hitler rising power
20
Q
Booklet 4 Interpretations: Gerhard Ritter Nazism and the results in Germany of the moral crisis
A
- anti German sentiments we’re not kindly received in Germany, especially among those intellectuals who opposed Hitler
- post war decade in West Germany a school of thought that put the emergency of Nazis down tomorrow crisis of Europe Society
- it was epitomised above all by the writings of Ritter who focused on the European circumstances in which Nazism had emerged
~ hard to believe that Germany is great tradition such as the power of the depression Prussian state all the history that allowed Hitler to rise - blamed the shock given to the traditional European order by the first world war that created the appropriate environment for the emergence of Nazism decline and religion and standards of morality showed corrupt materialism and emergence of master democracy which Hitler exploited
21
Q
Booklet 4 Interpretations: structuralists Nazism was a response to Germon social and economic structures
A
- 1960s witnessed to growth and research and the third Reich due to the practical reason that the Germon archives in the hand of the Western allies have been made available
- 1970s historian such as Martin Broszat and Hans Mommsen had started to influence our views on the rise of Nazis and called structuralists
- Germon hydro remained dominated by authoritarian forces from the 1850s to 1945 such as armed forces
- power influence of such conservative vested interests/elites continue to dominate Germany even after the creation of the republic and it was them who sympathised with the Nazi movement which provided them means to uphold the right wing authoritarian regime
22
Q
Interpretation 5: internationalists Nazism was a result of Hitler’s clear ideology and evil genius known as the traditional view
A
- historian of continue to argue that there is no escape from the central importance of Hitler and as an individual in allowing the Nazis to secure power
- they say that the reason Nazis roast power was simply down to Hitler alone
- Klaus Hildebrand and Eberhard Jackel believe that the personal and ideology of Hitler was essential to Nazism and this role was central known as Hitlerism
- internationalists except the special circumstances created by Germon’s history they emphasise the in dispensable role of the individual
23
Q
Interpretation 6: revisionists such as Kershaw say that Hitler is coming to power was a result of miscalculation
A
- keen to stress that his book tries to balance the role of structuralist and internationalist interpretations
- appointment of Hitler was not inevitable until the very last moment 11 o’clock on the 30th of January 1933. Hitler’s appointment is Chancellor was the result of a series of miscalculations and if Bruning, Papen, Schleicher oh Hindenburg had made just one different crucial decision in the 1930-33
- Kershaw saw that Hitler’s path ought to have been blocked long before the final drama happened in 1933
