HCHS Germany: A LEVEL UNIT 3 - West Germany

Question 1

In which year was the West German constitution created?

Answer 1

1948

Question 2

In which year was the Federal Republic of Germany officially created?

Answer 2

1949

Question 3

Who was the first chancellor of the FRG and in which year did he win the election?

Answer 3

Konrad Adenauer and August 1949

Question 4

When were Germans in the US zone of West Germany first allowed to vote?

Answer 4

1946

Question 5

When did Länder elections first take place in the British and French zones?

Answer 5

May-47

Question 6

Which parties made up the new CDU (Christian Democratic Union)?

Answer 6

Centre (Z) Party, German Nationalists and the Populists

Question 7

How did the CDU differ from the old Z party?

Answer 7

United Protestants, Catholics, north and south Germany

Question 8

How many members of the Länder parliaments met to create the new West German constitution and at which meeting?

Answer 8

65 at the Parliamentary Council (in Bonn)

Question 9

Who was nominated as Presdient of the Parliamentary Council?

Answer 9

Konrad Adenauer

Question 10

What name was given to the new German constitution?

Answer 10

Fundamental or Basic Law

Question 11

In West German elections, why did Germans vote twice?

Answer 11

One for a local representative and one for a party (for the Bundestag)

Question 12

How did the new constitution ensure there was never a power vacuum?

Answer 12

A chancellor could only be removed if another had been elected by the Bundestag (constructive vote of no confidence)

Question 13

How did the FRG avoid too many small and extremist parties

Answer 13

Parties had to gain 5% of the vote to gain seats in the Bundestag

Question 14

How was the Bundesrat formed?

Answer 14

Not directly elected but formed of deputies from each state proportional to their population

Question 15

How did the new constitution try to unite the states?

Answer 15

Revenue from taxes was split equally between the federal government and the Länder

Question 16

How was Berlin represented in the Bundestag?

Answer 16

22 members of the Berlin assembly could sit in the Bundestag but not vote

Question 17

How were Berliners looked after (given it was split and occupied?)

Answer 17

They had a mayor who became increasingly powerful over time

Question 18

When was the Fundamental Law passed?

Answer 18

8th May, 1949

Question 19

When was Bonn made capital of the FRG?

Answer 19

23rd may, 1949

Question 20

Which problems faced the FRG in the 1940s (similar to Weimar)?

Answer 20

military occupation, economic difficulties and social upheaval following war

Question 21

How long did the FRG’s constitution last?

Answer 21

Until reunification in 1990

Question 22

What role had Adenauer had before becoming chancellor of Germany?

Answer 22

Mayor of Cologne from 1918 and involved in the 1944 bomb plot against Hitler

Question 23

How did Adenauer become politically important in the FRG?

Answer 23

He was sacked as mayor of Cologne in 1945 by the British and so he focused on national politics

Question 24

Who was Adenauer’s economic advisor?

Answer 24

Ludwig Erhard

Question 25

What % of the FRG was Catholic?

Answer 25

45%

Question 26

What was the election result for the CDU and the SPD in August 1949?

Answer 26

CDU: 31%, SPD: 29.2%

Question 27

What was the main reason for the CDU's election victory in 1949?

Answer 27

Social market economy (as opposed to the SPD's centrally controlled economy)

Question 28

What did the CDU do in the Reichstag following the 1949 election?

Answer 28

Formed a coalition with the Free Democratic Party and the German Party to take 208 of the 402 seats in the Bundestag

Question 29

How did Adenauer forge closer ties with European countries?

Answer 29

Joined the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 and the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957

Question 30

Why was Adenauer allowed and army in 1950 and how big was it?

Answer 30

Korean War and 150,000

Question 31

What percentage of the vote did the CDU win in the 1953 election?

Answer 31

45.20%

Question 32

What was significant about the General Treaty in 1955?

Answer 32

It gave the FRG control of its foreign policy and they joined NATO

Question 33

What was the Hallstein Doctrine of 1955?

Answer 33

Diplomatic recognition of the GDR by any nation other than the USSR was an attack on the FRG

Question 34

What percentage of the vote did the CDU win in the 1957 election?

Answer 34

50.20%

Question 35

When did Adenauer retire from politics?

Answer 35

1963

Question 36

Why did Schumacher think he was the right leader for post-war Germany?

Answer 36

Only politician to stay in Germany under the Nazis and not collaborate

Question 37

Give two reasons why Schumacher failed in the 1949 election?

Answer 37

Economic policies too similar to East Germany and fear of communism

Question 38

When did Schmacher die and who replaced him as leader of the SPD?

Answer 38

1952 and Erich Ollenhauer

Question 39

Who replaced Ollenhauer as leader of the SPD and in which year?

Answer 39

Willy Brandt and 1953

Question 40

What was the Bad Godesberg Programme of 1959?

Answer 40

The SPD's move away from Marxism and towards capitalism. It made the SPD 'the party of the whole people'

Question 41

Which US president backed Willy Brandt and the SPD?

Answer 41

President Kennedy

Question 42

When did the SPD gain power in the FRG for the first time?

Answer 42

Formed a coalition with the CDU in 1966 and in 1969, Willy Brandt became chancellor

Question 43

What had been decided about the Nazis at the Potsdam Conference in 1945?

Answer 43

Nazi party banned, Nuremberg trials, important Nazis removed from positions of power in Germany

Question 44

How did the USA decide whether people were Nazi sympathisers?

Answer 44

They used the Gragebogen (questionnaire) which had 133 questions

Question 45

Why was the USA's Fregabogen so divisive?

Answer 45

Every German in the US zone had to answer it, even if they had been persecuted by the Nazis

Question 46

Why did the Fragebogen cause problems for Germans in the US zone?

Answer 46

Germans had to pass the Fragebogen to gain employment, rations and state relief

Question 47

Why would many Germans fail the Fragebogen?

Answer 47

Because organisations like the DAF and Hitler Youth had been compulsory

Question 48

Why was the admin behind the Fragebogen such a problem?

Answer 48

In one Länder, 2.5 million Germans were investigated

Question 49

How was denazification improved from 1946?

Answer 49

5 categories were created with 'lesser' Nazis being put on probation for 2-3 years

Question 50

How many Nazis were still in prison camps by 1947?

Answer 50

90,000

Question 51

How was thedenazification process subject to coruption?

Answer 51

Certificates of denazification were available on the black market

Question 52

When did denazification officially end in the US zone?

Answer 52

1951

Question 53

How did Adenauer move on from denazification in 1951?

Answer 53

The 'politics for the past' annulled many of the Allied punishments against Germans

Question 54

How many Germans were affected by the 'politics for the past'?

Answer 54

800,000 Germans (who had been classed as Nazi war criminals)

Question 55

What was the First Amnesty Law and when was this?

Answer 55

This allowed 150,000 Germans previously removed from jobs to return in May 1951

Question 56

What was the Second Amnesty Law and when was this?

Answer 56

This annulled 400,000 Germans in the British zone in 1954

Question 57

Name a former Nazi Party member in Adenauer's government

Answer 57

Hans Globke (involved in Enabling Act and Nuremburg Laws)

Question 58

How did Adenauer deal with neo-Nazis?

Answer 58

In August 1952, the Socialist Reich Party was banned

Question 59

How did Adenauer appease Israel?

Answer 59

On 10th September, 1952, Germany paid DM3 billion to Israel due to the Holocaust

Question 60

Why did Adenauer allow former Nazis in his government?

Answer 60

They wanted to make up for their past and they were anti-Communist!

Question 61

What percentage of foreign office diplomats were former-Nazis?

Answer 61

66%

Question 62

What protest was there against Adenauer's denazification process?

Answer 62

Leonard Schulter was barred from becoming Minister for Education because he was a Nazi

Question 63

What did the SPD think about Adenauer's denazification process?

Answer 63

Walter Manzel spoke out against the amnesties for so many former-Nazis

Question 64

Why did Adenuaer get away with such a lenient denazification process

Answer 64

Economic growth in the 1950s and a desire for Germans to move on from the past