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History A Level - Germany > Nazi Germany - Government, Opposition and Economics > Flashcards

Nazi Germany - Government, Opposition and Economics Flashcards

1
Q

What were the origins of the Nazi Party?

A

Anton Prexler formed the DAP (Germany Workers Party)

It later reformed as NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker’s Party)

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2
Q

Why did Hitler join the DAP?

A

He was sent as a spy by the German Army to report on their activities but became interested on their stance on Germany

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3
Q

What were the key ideas of the Nazi Party?

A
  • German nationalism - the nation should be strong and native German speaker united, TOV abolished, expansion into eastern Europe needed
  • Racial ideas - believed in pseudo science regarding social Darwinism and the superiority Aryan race
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4
Q

What were the immediate consequences of the Munich Putch for the Nazis?

A
  • Number of party imprisoned including Hitler
  • Party banned in Bravria
  • Lost support
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5
Q

What were the later on effects of the Munich Putsch on the Nazis?

A
  • Realised they had to gain power through votes
  • Set up Hitler Youth and the SS (personal army)
  • Membership grew from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928
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6
Q

Give the succession of events that lead to Hitler becoming Chancellor

A
  • 1930 - Nazis gained 18.3% of vote whilst centre only had 14.3%
  • 1932 April Presidential election - Hitler lost to Hindenburg 19.4 million votes to 13.9 million
  • Hindenburg appointed Von Papen chancellor but V.P was unable to gain Reichstag support
  • 1932 Reichstag election- Nazis got 37.4% of the vote and were now largest party in Reichstag. Hindenburg offered Hitler cabinet position but not chancellor. Hitler refused.
  • 1932 November election - 33% of vote goes to Nazis, Von Schleicher now chancellor. Von Papen schemed to make Hitler chancellor and him self vice chancellor and control Hitler
  • Hitler appointed chancellor 30 Jan 1933
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7
Q

What 7 events allowed Hitler to establish a dictatorship by August 1934?

A

1933 - The Reichstag fire, elections, The Enabling Act, Banning of political parties
1934- The Night of the Long Knives, Hindenburg’s death, Military oath to Hitler

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8
Q

Describe the events of the Reichstag fire and the consequence of the event

A
  • The Reichstag building was burnt down and Marius Vander Lubbe, a dutch communist was found at the scene
  • Hitler claimed fire was communist ploy to take over Germany 4000 communists were arrested
  • Emergency powers were given to the police, the could arrest people and hold them indefinitely without trial
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9
Q

What happened at the March 1933 elections?

A
  • Nazis used police and SA to threaten opponents
  • 50 people killed
  • Radio used to spread anti communist messages
  • Nazis got 44% of the vote
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10
Q

Why was the passing of the enabling act on March 24 1933 significant?

A

The act, approved by the Reichstag 444 votes to 94 (more than the 2/3 majority Hitler needed) gave Hitler the authority to pass any law without the approval of the reichstag and reduced its power to nothing

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11
Q

What happened on the Night of the Long Knives?

A
  • Leading SA figures were dragged from their bed and shot in Nazi headquarters
  • Ernest Röhm, leader of the SA and friend of Hitler was told to commit suicide, refused and was then shot in prison
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12
Q

Why did the Night of the Long Knives happen?

A
  • The SA posed a threat to Hitler with 3 million members, it was the only organisation that could overthrow him
  • To reassure the army of their power - the army was smaller than the SA. The army was also supported by big business who wanted to make money manufacturing weapons for the army
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13
Q

When did Hindenburg die?

A

August 2, 1934

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14
Q

What happened after Hindenburg’s death?

A

Hitler made himself president and combined the role of chancellor and president in Fuhrer

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15
Q

When did the military swear an oath to Hitler?

A

August 1934

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16
Q

What two principals were key to the establishment of the Nazi government structure?

A
  • Fuhererprinzip - all powere and sovereignty is vested in the Fuhrer
  • Volkgemeinshaft - “the peoples community”, a united German nation who obey the government and are prepared to make sacrafices for the good of Germany
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17
Q

How was government structured under the Nazis?

A 
Fuhrer
Reich chancellery, Fuhrer chancellery, the Party
R.C - ministries then officals 
F.C - Ministries, offices then officials
T.P - policing and adminstartion
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18
Q

Give examples of ministries under the Reich Chancellery

A
  • Foreign office
  • Labour
  • Finance
  • Health
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19
Q

Give examples of ministries under the Fuhrer chancellery

A
  • Propaganda
  • Justice
  • Finance
  • Foreign affairs
  • Labour
  • War
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20
Q

Give examples of Offices under the Fuhrer chancellery

A
  • Four Year Plan
  • Health
  • Race
  • Family
  • Highway
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21
Q

How did the administration of the Nazi party contribute to governing?

A

Acted on a more local level
Gouleiter (leaders of regional branch) oversaw the Hitler Youth and the blockwarts (lowever level official responsible of supervisions of neighbourhoods)

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22
Q

In what aspects did government under the Nazis stay the same as the Weimar government?

A
  • Still a heirachy with people reporting to people above them
  • Structure remained - Reichstag, cabinet minister (e.g. Konstantin von Neurath) and ministries
  • Administration still done mainly by the civil service
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23
Q

How did the leadership within government change under the Nazis?

A

Hitler had ultimate power and the state operated under the principal of fuhrerprinzip

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24
Q

How did decision making within government change under the Nazis?

A
  • People who demonstrated loyalty to Hitler were given more power
  • Reichstag had no power - only passed 7 laws in the Nazi period
  • Powers of former ministries restricted and forced to run alongside that of the fuhrer chancellery
  • Hitler prevented groups of people working together in fear of the ability to generate opposition groups
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25
Q

How did the administration of government change under the Nazis?

A

Civil service often ignored

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26
Q

How did the governance of regional areas change under the Nazis?

A
  • The Länder were were stripped of many powers, fully terminated under Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich in January 30th 1934
  • The government became completely centralised
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27
Q

How was order maintained in Nazi Germany?

A

Through the creation of a terror state

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28
Q

What economic policy did the Nazi’s promise in their election campaign?

A

Economic recovery as soon as possible, promising to provide “work and bread”

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29
Q

What were the principals used to decide how the Nazis rebuilt the economy?

A
  • Autarky - the Nazis wanted Germany to be completely self sufficient
  • To prepare for war
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30
Q

What did the Nazis implement to aid economic recovery?

A

The four year plan

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31
Q

What economic problem did the Nazi’s not have to deal with?

A

Paying reparations as Brüning had agreed with the allies at Lausanne in 1932 it was impossible to do during economic depression

32
Q

What was Hjalamar Schact’s role in the Nazi government?

A

Had to pay government debt on foreign borrowing but fell behind on it

33
Q

How did the Nazis deal with the mass long-term unemployment?

A
  • Set up Reich Labour Service (RAD) - helped unemployed people, putting them into manual work and provided basic food/accommodation
  • Autobahn building schemes - created work and improved communications, eployed 84,000 between 1933-35
34
Q

Did Nazi policy toward unemployment help?

A
  • Unemployment was at 8 million in 1933 (29% in 1932), by 1936 it was 7.4%
  • However figures were skewed as women and Jewish people were not counted in statistics
35
Q

How did the Nazis deal with the recession in agriculture?

A
  • Import tariffs to make German produce cheaper
  • Banks told not to reposes farms in debt
  • Margarine manufacturers made to put butter in product
  • Reich Food Estate regulated production, distribution and set prices/wages
36
Q

How did the Nazis help business?

A
  • Small business got a lot of aid due to owners supporting Nazis, 1933 Law for the Protection of Retail Trade stopped expansion of department stores
  • Trade unions banned and all workers had to join the German Labour Front (DAF) if they wanted representation
37
Q

What was Hjalmar Schact’s plan to deal with international trade?

A

Bartering with nations such as Yugoslavia and Hungary

38
Q

Give the aims of the Second Four-Year Plan (1936 - 1940)

A
  • Autarky - increase production of raw food, agriculture to reduce imports
  • To prepare for war with a command economy and expand army
39
Q

What is a command economy?

A

An economy where the state dictates what and how much is produced

40
Q

Who oversaw the second four year plan?

A

Herman Goering

41
Q

What were the results of the first four year plan?

A
  • Imports used to be 20% for agriculture but went to 17% by 1938
  • Re-education on consumption need to reduce import needs eg meat and jam on toast instead of sausages
  • Nazis feared introducing rationing as they thought it would decrease popularity
  • Industrial output for coal and explosives went up - coal went from 18,000 tonnes to 300 thousand tonnes from 1936-42
42
Q

What was the guns and butter debate?

A

The Nazis had to decide whether they bought guns in preparation for war of could continue to comfortably feed citizens. They chose guns

43
Q

What was a way the Nazis aimed to build autarky?

A

Through using ersatz products that were ‘Nazi versions’ of the products eg buna was ersatz rubber

44
Q

What evidence is there that the office of The Four Year Plan did no manage was production well?

A

It was reliant on several organisations that were competing against each other for funding

45
Q

What did Hitler memorandum in December 1941 outline

A
  • The need to simplify and improve armaments industry

* Rationing reeds, updating factories and equipment to create weapons efficiently as possible

46
Q

What did Albert Speer, the Armaments minister, convince Hitler to do?

A

That he needed to be in full charge of a centralised war economy

47
Q

What did the Central Planning Board control in the war economy?

A
  • Closed smaller factories, concentrated production in larger ones
  • Standardised machinery
  • Adapted mass production methods
  • Production became more mechanised
48
Q

Why was moral towards the war from 1939 to 1942 relatively high?

A
  • Rationing wasn’t too bad (e.g. meat was at 300g per week until April 1942)
  • Early victories in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and France
  • Propaganda
49
Q

Why did the moral decline in the later half of the war?

A
  • Difficult working conditions
  • Shortages - food and clothes
  • Bombing of German cities by allies
  • Soviet advance from 1943 created fear of Russian invasion
  • Failure of the V1 and V2 rocket scheme agains south east England
50
Q

How did Albert Speer improve Germany’s production?

A
  • Employed women in arms factories
  • Used concentration camps prisoners as workers
  • Prevents skulked workers from getting lost to military service
  • Created uniform machinery and introduced methods of mass production
51
Q

How did Albert Speer improve Germany’s production?

A
  • Employed women in arms factories
  • Used concentration camps prisoners as workers
  • Prevents skulked workers from getting lost to military service
  • Created uniform machinery and introduced methods of mass production
52
Q

Were the Nazis able to meet their aims for the second four year plan?

A

No
• Ersatz couldn’t replace all materials
• Armaments production remained low compared to other nations 8,290 weapons to 10,780 from 1939-42 whilst Britain’s had trebles to 21,000
• Bombing from other nations stopped production during the war

53
Q

What reasons meant the Germany war economy was overstretched?

A
  • Allied bombing wiped out factories, mines and towns out
  • Loss fo land for raw material
  • damage to electricity/gas and water supplies
  • sabotage by foreign workers
54
Q

Evidence the Nazi economy was effective

A

• By the second half of 1944 German production had increased by 300% since 1942
• Ammunition production increased by 97% and munitions productivity per worker went up to 60%
However this didn’t mean that the quality of good was good

55
Q

Evidence the Nazi economy was ineffective

A
  • Hitler had outlines war production before the war started (e.g. no of aircraft and submarines)
  • Women, PoW and concentration worker had to work to produce goods
  • Allied bombing reduced the capacity of the German economy as it destroyed industry and communications
56
Q

Name the 4 factors that allowed the Nazi regime survive between 1933 and 1945

A
  • Propaganda and censorship
  • Control of the opposition (Terror state)
  • Large bodies of support
  • Favourable social, economic and foreign policy
57
Q

How did propaganda and censorship help the Nazi regime survive?

A

All forms of communication and culture were subject to their control

58
Q

How did control of a terror state help the Nazi regime survive?

A

Created fear of rebellion against the Nazis, with Nazi ideas were upheld and implemented throughout judiciary and policing systems

59
Q

How did large bodies of support and favourable policy help the Nazi regime survive?

A

Meant that the people were not going to try to overthrow the Nazis as people were tolerant of the regime or even strongly supported it

60
Q

Evidence the Nazis controlled all forms of communication and culture is…

A
  • Reich association established to create list of accredited journalists
  • Nazi newspaper readers went from 750,000 to 3 million
  • Reich Radio established to control radio content, racial purged 13% of workers. By 1939, 70% of people own a radio
  • Nazi Publishing house Eher Verlog owned 2/3 of German press by 1939
61
Q

Evidence the Nazis created a terror state is…

A
  • 250,000 SS (Schutzstaffel) officers by 1939, had begun as Hitler’s bodyguards of 240 men
  • 1939: Judges had to study Nazi beliefs and these were what people were tried by
  • The establishment of the Gestapo (20-40,000) to find and arrest Nazi opponents
  • Concentration camps (run by SS) held prisoners who opposed the Nazis and gave the “reducation”. Around 20,000 camps with 714,211 political prisoners by 1945
62
Q

What popular economic, social and foreign policy did the Nazis introduce?

A
  • Reduced unemployment to 7.4% by 1936
  • Marriage loans (1000 marks, reduced by 250 for each child born) and Mother’s cross
  • Overturned ToV - Militarised with navy 35% size of UK’s
63
Q

Who were the 4 main large bodies of support that the Nazis had and why did they support them?

A
  • Wealthy industrialists - benefited from banning trade unions and war economy
  • The Mittelstand - lower-middle class who were threatened by mass industry, were helped economically by the money gained through the confiscation of Jewish business
  • Agricultural workers - the regime idealised the peasant lifestyle but they were heavily aided by the Nazis
  • Sympathisers - anti-semites, anti-communists, racists liked the Nazis policy
64
Q

Who were the main opposers of the Nazi regime?

A 
Acrive resisters 
• Communists
• White Rose
• Conservative Elites
Dissenters 
• Youth
• Christian Opposition
• Workers
65
Q

Communists
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • On principal due their ideologies being on the opposite end of the political spectrum
  • Distributed anti Nazi pamphlets and performed minor acts of sabotage
66
Q

How did the Nazis ensure the communists did not build a successful opposition against them?

A
  • Mass trials of communists

* Infiltration by the gestapo

67
Q

White Rose
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • Started by the Scholl siblings, the group formed of university students opposed on moral grounds
  • Printed pamphlets on Nazi crimes
68
Q

How did the Nazis ensure White Rose did not build a successful opposition against them?

A

The Gestapo found out and arrested, tortured and executed the 6 leaders of White Rose

69
Q

Conservative elites
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • Formed around the army but realised how right wing the Nazis were and began to oppose them out of necessity
  • The bomb plot - tried to assassinate Hitler, Himmler (head of the SS) and Goering (head of Gestapo). Colonel Von Shauffenburg planted a bomb in Hitler’s briefing room on 20th July 1944 but it was moved and only minority injured him
70
Q

How did the Nazis ensure the conservative elite did not build a successful opposition against them?

A

Shauffenburg was shot after the bomb plot and 5000 supporters were killed in aftermaths

71
Q

Youth
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • Disillusionment with the Hitler Youth and war training/restrictions that they underwent
  • Swing youth set up jazz clubs that accepted American/British customs, Edelweiss flower became a symbol of rebellion, Edelweiss Pirate helped to hide concentration camp escapees
73
Q

How did the Nazis ensure the youth did not build a successful opposition against them?

A
  • Clubs were raided in 1942 and participants taken to concentration camps for re-education, beatings and manual labour
  • 12 members of the Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hung
74
Q

Christians
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • Opposed to preserve the individual rights to freely express their belief
  • Martin Nielmoller (protestant priest - “they came for the..”) joined a church that opposed Nazification of German protestant churches and criticised the Nazis in sermons and in poetry
74
Q

How did the Nazis ensure that Christians did not build a successful opposition against them?

A

Placed Neilmoller into a concentration camp for 7 years and 50% of protestants/40% catholics were harassed by the Nazis

74
Q

Workers
• Why did they opposed the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition

A
  • Aligned more with the views of communists but did not take part in active resistance and also had economic discontent
  • Strikes from 1935-36 and last few months of the regime
76
Q

How did the Nazis ensure that workers did not build a successful opposition against them?

A

They didn’t, workers strike wasn’t a large enough force

History A Level - Germany (7 decks)

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