key terms Flashcards
Wall Street Crash
The sudden collapse of the stock market in New York in October 1929 after a long period of rising prosperity and overconfidence by investors
Shanty Town
Rough shelters built without official permission in areas with no access to running water or gas and electricity supplies; they were inhabited by the poor, especially those who no longer qualified for benefits
Red-Front Fighters’ League
The paramilitary arm of the KPD Party; it had been established in 1924, under the leadership of Ernst Thalmann, and engaged in street battles with the SA, the police and other right-wing paramilitary groups
Mittelstand
The middle class
Aryan Race
The term used by racial theorists to describe the white European race; the Nazis used this term to distinguish themselves from Jews and other ‘inferior’ racial groups
Lebensraum
‘Living space’, a concept by which Hitler justified his plans to take over territory to the east of Germany
Propaganda
The systematic spreading of ideas and information in order to influence the thinking and actions of the people at whom it is targeted, often through the use of media such as posters, film, radio and the press
Trade Union
Associations of workers which use their combined strength to negotiate with employers on wages and other work conditions
Social-Fascists
A theory supported by the Comintern during the early 1930s, which held that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism
Stahlhelm (Steel Helmets)
A paramilitary organisation of ex-servicemen dedicated to the restoration of the monarchy and the revival of Germany as a military power, which took its name from the steel helmets issued to German soldiers in the First World War; founded in 1918 by Franz Seldte, it grew rapidly and had 500,000 members by 1930, making it the largest paramilitary organisation in Weimar Germany.
