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History- Germany > The Nazi experiment 1929-1949: Political > Flashcards

The Nazi experiment 1929-1949: Political Flashcards

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1
Q

What impact did the 1929 Wall Street crash have?

A
  1. American loans dried up
  2. Export market collapse
  3. Banks closed
  4. Businesses went bankrupt
  5. Industrial production fell
  6. Unemployment rose from 2m in 1929 to 4.5m in 1931 and 6m in 1933
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2
Q

What was the response of the grand coalition government to the impact of the Wall Street crash?

A
  • Failed to agree on a solution
  • Huge disparity between SPD and DVP members
  • Welfare state couldn’t meet the financial needs of 6 million unemployed people
  • Entire cabinet resigned in 1930
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3
Q

Who did Hindenburg select as the new chancellor?

A

Henrich Bruning (Zentrum leader)

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4
Q

Why was Bruning controversial as chancellor?

A
  • Used article 48 to pass a financial bill that cut public expenditure and raised taxes which the Reichstag would’ve rejected
  • Led to 1930 elections which saw major gains in extremist parties
  • After this he constantly used article 48 (109 times vs 29 bills passed by the Reichstag)
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5
Q

What was the outcome of the 1930 election?

A
  • Extremist parties saw a major gain in their votes
  • Nazis: 18.7% of vote
  • Communists: 13.1% of vote
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6
Q

What was the outcome of the 1932 election?

A
  • Hindenburg won with a large majority
  • Hitler got 13 million votes
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7
Q

Who was 1st appointed as chancellor in 1932?

A

Frans Von Papen

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8
Q

Why did Von Papen call for an election in 1932 and what was the outcome?

A
  • To increase his power in the Reichstag, but it backfired
  • Nazi vote increased to 37.3% of the vote
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9
Q

What was the outcome of the 2nd election in 1932 for the Nazis and why may this outcome have happened?

A
  • Nazi vote declined to 33.1%
  • Hitler turned down Von Papen’s offer of vice chancellor
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10
Q

Who was 2nd appointed as chancellor in 1932?

A

Kurt Von Schleicher (army man who sought to use Nazi popularity to secure his position in government)

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11
Q

How did Von Papen react to Hindenburg replacing him as chancellor?

A
  • Arranged for Hitler to be made chancellor with himself as vice chancellor
  • Hindenburg agreed to this in 1933
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12
Q

When did Hindenburg die?

A

1934

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13
Q

What did Hitler do after Hindenburg’s death?

A

Combined the offices of chancellor and president to become the Fuhrer

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14
Q

What was Bruner successful in doing?

A
  • Persuading the allies to end reparation payments in 1932
  • Introduced a ban on the Nazi SA to curb street violence (didn’t actually happen due to Hitler’s large majority in the 1932 election)
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15
Q

Which of Bruner’s policies was very unpopular with the public?

A
  • His austerity programme (involved higher taxes and decrease in public spending)
  • Drove voters to extremist parties
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16
Q

How did Hitler aim to portray that the NSDAP was a proper political party with a positive programme to offer?

A
  • Had talks with Bruning in 1930
  • Had talks with Hindenburg in 1931
  • Tried to win support of DNVP in 1931
  • Met with Ruhr industrialists in 1932
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17
Q

How many members did the SA have by 1931?

A

Over 100,000 men

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18
Q

How did Hitler manage to remove his opponents from the 1933 election?

A
  • Reichstag building was burnt down (allegedly by a communist arsonist, but there was speculation that Hitler and the SA were involved)
  • Gave Hitler an excuse to request that Hindenburg issue an emergency decree ‘For the protection of people and state’, to prevent further communist action
  • Now had the power to search, arrest and censor until ‘further notice’
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19
Q

What was the outcome of the 1933 election and what did it lead to?

A
  • Nazis won 43.9% of the vote
  • Meant Hitler was still reliant on other parties to obtain the 2/3rds majority he needed
  • DNVP offered support but needed to make a deal with the Zentrum
  • Made Hitler protect the interests of the catholic church
  • KPD was banned and communists were expelled from the Reichstag under the terms of the emergency decree
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20
Q

What was Gleichschaltung?

A

The process Hitler used whereby he used both legal powers and the threat of force to remove or Nazify any groups/institutions he feared may limit his power

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21
Q

What were Hitler’s laws and policies in 1933?

A
  1. Enabling Act- Gave Hitler dictatorial power for 4 years
  2. ‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’- Allowed Nazis to remove opponents and Jewish people
  3. Workers forced to join DAF
  4. SPD banned
  5. Law against the formation of new parties
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22
Q

What happened to the Lander governments in 1933/1934?

A
  • Nazis infiltrated Lander governments in 1933 and used SA violence to force these ‘opponents’ out of office
  • A 1934 law abolished the representative assemblies of the Lander and new Nazi governors took control
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23
Q

How had Germany become a 1 party state by 1933?

A
  1. KPD and SPD had been banned
  2. DNVP disbanded itself
  3. Zentrum disbanded itself due to a concordat with the pope which stated the Catholic church was banned from any political activity in return for the promise that its religious freedom would be upheld
  4. 1933 ‘Law Against the Establishment of Parties’ made it a criminal offence to organise a non Nazi party
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24
Q

What did the 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service do?

A
  • Forced non Aryans to retire
  • Jewish people and other opponents who were described as ‘alien elements’ were purged from places in the administration, courts, schools, universities
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25
Q

What was set up in 1933 to replace trade unions?

A
  • German Labour Front (DAF)
  • Membership was compulsory
  • Employees could no longer negotiate over wages and conditions with employers
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26
Q

When did membership of the Nazi party become compulsory?

A

1939

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27
Q

How did Nazis control education professions?

A
  • Teachers were required to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League
  • In 1933 university lecturers were required to sign a declaration in support of Hitler and join the Nazi Lecturers’ Association
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28
Q

When was the Night of the Long Knives?

A

1934

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29
Q

What was the Night of the Long Knives?

A
  • Removed many potential political enemies and the SA for Hitler
  • Himmler and Goering spread rumours of a planned coup by the SA, giving Hitler and the SS a reason to take action
  • 86 plotters were killed (including leader of the SA- Rohm)
  • Strasser and Schleicher were murdered
  • Papen was put under house arrest
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30
Q

What was the cause of the Night of the Long Knives?

A
  • Hitler wanted to use the SA to destroy the communist movement
  • However, he was concerned about the SA’s violent and uncontrollable behaviour, as well as the demands of the leader Rohm (wanted to put himself as the head of a merged SA and army)
  • Due to the army being hostile to the SA, Hitler believed he could destroy the power of the SA and ensure the loyalty of the army (the only institution with the power to unseat him)
  • Himmler and Goering spread rumours of a planned coup by the SA, providing Hitler and the SS with a reason to take action
31
Q

What was the response after the Night of the Long Knives?

A
  • Hitler justified his actions to the Reichstag by claiming to have acted on behalf of the German people at a time of emergency
  • Reichstag confirmed that Hitler acted for his people and shouldn’t be challenged
  • Allowed Himmler’s SS to assume dominance in Germany and helped Hitler gain support of the army
32
Q

Who was the minister of propaganda?

A

Goebbels

33
Q

What did Hitler’s ideology consist of?

A
  1. Supremacy of the state
  2. Superiority of the Aryan race
34
Q

What is volksgemeinschaft?

A

The idea that racially superior Aryans should form a tight-knit community

35
Q

Who was in charge of the SS?

A

Himmler

36
Q

Who became head of the Gestapo in 1934?

A

Himmler

37
Q

What did the Civil Service Law do and when was it created?

A
  • 1933
  • Judges whose political beliefs contradicted with Nazism lost their positions
  • Lawyers had to be members of the Nazi Lawyers Association
  • The law was interpreted according to the ‘will of the Fuhrer’
38
Q

What could happen to someone if they refused to conform to Nazism?

A
  1. Lose their job
  2. Imprisonment
  3. In 1933 any critical comment or unauthorised action could lead to arrest
  4. Confinement in a concentration camp
  5. Execution
39
Q

What was some of the ‘low level’ opposition to Nazism?

A
  1. Reading banned literature
  2. Listening to banned music
  3. Listening to foreign broadcasts
  4. Refusing to join Nazi organisations or contribute to campaigns
  5. Supporting non Nazi churches and organisations
40
Q

What are some examples of the public opposition to Nazism?

A
  1. Distribution of anti Nazi leaflets
  2. Working with underground SPD movements (e.g. Berlin Red Patrol)
  3. Joining underground KPD groups
  4. Some communists being involved in attempted assassination plots against Hitler
  5. Refusing to carry out orders
41
Q

How many Germans were sent to concentration camps due to Nazi opposition?

A

1.3 million

42
Q

How many Germans left Germany between 1933-1939 due to Nazi opposition?

A

300,000

43
Q

What are the examples of opposition within the church to Nazism?

A
  1. Both Catholic and Protestant Churches offered an alternate source of authority and opportunity for group opposition
  2. Reich Church and Confessional Church were set up
  3. 1941- A Catholic bishop condemned the Nazi policy of euthanasia and managed to put considerable pressure on the Nazi regime
  4. Priests and churchmen helped rescue Jewish people and joined resistance groups such as the Kreisau Circle
44
Q

Did churches manage to success in mounting any resistance to Nazism?

A
  • No, they failed
  • Creator of the confessional church was held in a concentration camp between 1937-1945
  • 800 pastors were incarcerated in 1937
  • Nazis closed down Catholic schools, youth groups, newspapers (popes response to this led to a vicious press campaign against priests, monks, nuns, and hundreds of Catholic clerics were sent to concentration camps)
  • However individual clergymen spoke out against Nazi policies (e.g. Bonhoeffer campaigned against the Nuremberg Laws and joined the underground resistance to gather evidence of Nazi crimes)
  • Churches did manage to stand in the way of a fully totalitarian state
45
Q

What are the examples of opposition within the army to Nazism?

A
  1. Army disapproved of the pace of rearmament, growth of the SS and Hitler’s plans for rapid expansion in the east
  2. Army commander (Von Fritsch) and war minister (Blomberg) were critical of the war plan that Hitler outlined in 1937- Hitler responded in 1938 by dismissing them both and creating a rumour of 1 marrying a prostitute and the other being a homosexual
  3. 16 generals resigned
  4. Many army officers were involved in the Kreisau Circle- it maintained contact with other resistance groups and planned for a post Nazi Germany, but was broken up by the Gestapo in 1944)
  5. The Nazis own military intelligence agency had many resistance workers
  6. General Beck plotted with other army officers to organise several attempts on Hitler’s life from 1940-1944 (1944 July Bomb Plot nearly succeeded, but brought about the execution of 5000 army officers)
46
Q

What did Hitler do in 1938 about the army?

A
  • Combined his position as supreme commander with the political role of war minister
  • Changed the name of the War Ministry into the High Command of the Armed Forces
47
Q

What did Hitler’s 1938 foreign policy success win him?

A
  • The support of a new generation of army commanders
  • Ended up leading the Nazi armies in a war
48
Q

What are some examples of youth opposition to Nazism?

A
  1. Swing clubs were established where young people could reject Nazi values, dress in British/American clothes and listen to jazz (1942- a 17 year old boy was placed in a concentration camp for his Americanised lifestyle)
  2. Edelweiss Pirates were youths who would hike and attack Hitler youth controls
  3. The Navajos sheltered army deserters and prisoners who had escaped from concentration camps
  4. 1 group killed the head of the Cologne Gestapo (they were caught and executed in 1944)
  5. Opposition within universities increased: White Rose Movement formed in 1941 by Hans Scholl (members distributed pamphlets and attacked Nazi policy towards Jewish and Polish people. In 1943 they painted anti Nazi slogans on buildings, but were caught and executed)
49
Q

Who was Bonhoeffer and what did he do?

A
  • A pastor who became involved with the German army counter intelligence service in 1939 which had a secret group within it which planned to overthrow Hitler
  • He helped devise a successful plan, ‘Operation 7’, to allow a small number of Jewish people to escape from Germany and made contact with the British government to ask for peace if Hitler could be overthrown
  • Led to his imprisonment and death at a concentration camp
50
Q

What did Nazis do to priests from 1940?

A
  • Place them in special barracks
  • 95% of the 2720 inmates were Catholic
  • 1034 died there
51
Q

What are the 4 D’s?

A
  1. Demilitarisation
  2. Decentralisation
  3. Denazification
  4. Democratisation
52
Q

When was the Nazi regime finally destroyed?

A

1945

53
Q

How many Germans had been killed in war?

A

6.5 million

54
Q

How did the establishment of the 4 occupation zones begin?

A
  • Britain, USA and USSR agreed there needed to be a temporary military occupation of Germany following Hitler’s defeat
  • They planned to create occupation zones with a joint control council and to divide Berlin between themselves
  • These proposals were confirmed at the 1945 Yalta Conference
  • Agreements were made on the 4 D’s
  • Allied Control Council was formed
  • German army was disbanded and National Socialism was outlawed
55
Q

How was the 1945-46 Soviet Zone of Germany led?

A
  • A group of communists led by Walter Ulbricht were given the task of establishing 5 Lander governments under the supervision of the Soviet Military Authority
  • Soviet authorities wanted to embed communism quickly and firmly within their sector in hopes this would become the dominant government when Germany re emerged as a single united country
  • By the time the UK, US and French arrived they couldn’t do much other than approve the Soviet arrangements
56
Q

How were the 1945-46 Western Zones of Germany led?

A
  • Western powers favoured a democratic government, but were anxious to prevent any resurgence of Nazism or the spread of Communism, so prohibited all German political activity in their zones
  • Suppressed the anti fascist groups created in the final months of war to defeat Nazism
  • Believed in re educating Germans
  • In 1954 they licensed some political parties to contest local and Lander elections
57
Q

When and what was the Potsdam Conference?

A
  • 1945
  • Attended by USA, USSR, UK
  • Agreed that each occupying power would take reparations from their own zones
  • Largest issue was concerned with Germany’s eastern border and Poland- Stalin had pushed Poland’s western boundary into former German land, expelling the Germans living there in order to compensate Poland for the loss of land in the east to the USSR itself
  • Meant 1/4 of Germany’s territory was lost and 6.75 million Germans were brutally deported
58
Q

What were the reparations of 1945-47 occupied Germany?

A
  • USSR took extensive reparations and seized entire German factories
  • Western allies wanted to see a revival of the German economy
  • From 1946 the west refused to allow the Soviets to claim further reparations from their zones
59
Q

What happened with denazification in occupied Germany in 1945-47?

A

All cooperated in the 1945-1946 Nuremberg trials (3/22 Nazis accused of war crimes were convicted and 12 were sentenced to death)

60
Q

What was the democratisation and political development in the Soviet Zone in 1945-47?

A
  • SPD and KPS were merged to form a new Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1946
  • Left wing parties were forced into a permanent coalition under SED leadership
  • SED dominated political development and in 1946 it drew up plans for a German Democratic Republic as an independent East German State
61
Q

What was the creation of Bizonia?

A
  • USA believed that any weakening of the the German economy would leave it open to a Communist takeover
  • In 1946 USA invited other occupying powers to join in an economic union (Soviets and French rejected the offer)
  • In 1947 the UK and USA merged their zones to form Bizonia
62
Q

What did Bizonia do and how was it ran?

A
  • Allowed for the efficient use of American Marshall Aid (money to help European recovery)
  • Staffed by Germans and operated in a federal way
  • Had a central council and representatives from the Lander
63
Q

What was the issue and division of Berlin in 1947-48?

A
  1. French agree to join US and UK in discussions about future political reorganisation in the west in return for a French protectorate over the industrially rich Saarland
  2. Western developments were repeatedly attacked by German Communist press in the Soviet zone
  3. Ulbricht called a people’s congress to win over public opinion against moves towards German division
  4. Called another one in 1948 and elected a German People’s Council of 400 delegates to draw up a new constitution and prepare for a referendum on German unity
  5. In 1948 there were many incidents centred on Berlin and the access routes through the Soviet zone that permitted Western powers to transport supplies to Berlin zones
64
Q

What were some of the incidents in 1948 within Berlin?

A
  1. Soviet guards stopped a British military train and detached 2 cars carrying German passengers travelling under British permission
  2. Western powers denied access to a political meeting in the Soviet sector of Berlin
  3. Sokolovsky demands details of all agreements on Western Germany reached by UK, USA and France in conferences
  4. 2 US and 2 UK military trains were refused entry into Soviet zone
  5. Soviet fighter plane collided with a British transport plane (killed Soviet pilot, 14 passengers and crew)
65
Q

When was trizonia formed and why?

A
  • 1948
  • USA put pressure on France by refusing to offer any Marshall Plan funds for a separate French zone if they did not agree to the new German currency
  • French merge their zone with bizonia to create trizonia
66
Q

What was the Berlin blockade?

A
  • Happened in 1948
  • Currency reform provoked Soviet authorities further and relations completely broke down
  • e.g. 1: road and railway traffic to and from Berlin was halted and freight traffic was reduced to protect Soviet zone from the old devalued currency
  • e.g. 2: SMAD issue an order for a new currency (Ostmark) in the Soviet zone
  • Meant that the only way the Western powers could maintain their half of the city was through using the air
  • In June an airlift begun in hopes that a display of resilience would force Soviets to back down- continued for 11 months
  • By 1949 sufficient supplies were arriving to Berlin to begin stockpiling
  • In 1949 an agreement was reached by both sides to end their blockades
67
Q

What led to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)?

A
  • Germany couldn’t have a separate constitution due to it being under an occupation statute
  • Solution was found by creating a ‘basic law’
  • Approved by Western military governors and came into effect in 1949
68
Q

What happened in the 1st national election for the FRG?

A
  • Held in 1949
  • 78.5% turnout (highest majority)
  • 1st West German parliament was created
69
Q

When did Adenauer become federal chancellor?

A

1949

70
Q

Why was the long term future of Germany controversial between the 4 occupying powers?

A
  • USSR favoured neutral and disarmed united Germany
  • US wanted a democratic state with an economy that would allow it to develop as a trading partner
  • French wanted the break up of Germany
71
Q

How did the Soviet Zone deal with denazification in 1945-1947?

A
  • It was about restructuring society
  • Initially Nazis were put into prison camps, but in 1947 an amnesty was offered to those prepared to help further socialist society
  • In 1948-1949 restrictions on former Nazis were removed, accompanied by an intense re education campaign to promote socialism
72
Q

How did the Western Zones deal with denazification in 1945-1947?

A
  • Imprisonment without trial was abandoned as denazification was regarded as more of an individual and psychological problem
  • Arbitration tribunals were used to consider individual cases but most were cleared and regained positions due to there being no alternative elite to replace them
73
Q

What was the democratisation and political development in the Western Zone in 1945-47?

A
  • USA heavily promoted democracy
  • UK tried to impose their own democratic processes
  • The replacement of the traditional German proportional representation system with their own 1st past the post electoral system was criticised as undemocratic
  • Democratically elected local governments were established in all Western Allied zones
  • German politicians were elected by the German people rather than appointed by the occupying powers

History- Germany (13 decks)

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