GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department 

 

Everything you wanted to know about Germany, but were too afraid to ask... This document is designed to give you an overview of the WJEC Germany topic. It will contain information which you need to know in your exam. It is NOT everything you should know! You will need to use this knowledge as a basic idea and expand from there. Use it, read it, learn it. The guide will be split into 3 main sections: one will be on the rise of the Nazi’s, the second section will be on life in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the final section will be on life in Germany during the Second World War. Each section will be linked up to a question in the exam. Question 1 will be sources based, whilst Questions 2 and 3 will be essay based. You should have been told which section will be the source questions for your exam – if not, come and ask.

When it comes to the exam, remember that

YOU MUST ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS ON THE PAPER!

Enjoy!

DC May 2013

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Germany 1929 - 47

Key Topic 1 1. Everyone loves Weimar! The Weimar Republic was created at the end of World War One in 1918 and suffered from a number of fundamental flaws that meant it was already in trouble before it started 

1. Fun in Weimar. True Story

It was Unpopular! The Germans had never had a democracy

before 1918 and like anything that was new and different - people didn’t like it or want to like it because it was new! On top of that,

the left wing (communists - you remember them, right?) didn’t like Weimar because they wanted a communist government and the right wing (nationalists BNP types) didn’t like Weimar because they thought that Weimar had betrayed the country by ending WW1 - hence the name November Criminals. 

Proportional Representation - The new Weimar government was based on the system of proportional representation (The % of votes = the % of seats in the Reichstag.) Whilst this system was nice and fair - it meant 2 things. 1) There was never 1 party that could get a majority (more than 50%) of the seats, meaning governments had to rely on coalitions - a number of parties working together. But on important issues, lots of parties working together..... never worked because they couldn’t agree! And 2) Small, fringe and extreme parties could get established and get a voice in government. You know. Like the Nazis!



Article 48 - Part of the Weimar constitution said that in an emergency the President of Germany could pass laws without going through the Reichstag. This would make Germany a dictatorship again... because guess who decided when it was an emergency... yup, the President!



Money - Weimar had none! For the years 1918 - 23 Weimar suffered horrifically with making money because of the impact of the Treaty of Versailles. Speaking of which...



The Treaty - Yup. This left them screwed as well. The Treaty was hated by the Germany people. They had to accept blame for the war, lose land, lose industry, suffer limitations to their army and pay £6.6 billion in reparations. And guess who got blamed for this? Weimar. Why? They signed the damn thing!

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2. Mr. Drexler’s Happy Fun Party. Name may have changed. What about the Nazi’s during this period I hear you ask? Well. Less ask, more I tell you to ask. Anyway. Prior to 1918 there was no Nazi Party and Hitler had a fairly interesting life. 

Hitler was born in Austria in 1888



Move to Vienna as a young man and wanted to become

an artist. He failed, mainly on the grounds of being crap. 2 The Guy who really started the Nazis.  Must be a tache thing. 



Had to live homeless and on the Streets



Blamed Jews for the lack of jobs (since they had

money and he didn’t) and for his lack of success as an artist (they owned galleries and wouldn’t take his paintings. Wasn’t at all that he sucked) 

Move to Munich in 1913



Joined the German Army at the start of WW1



Fought bravely on the Western Front - was wounded twice and awarded the Iron Cross for bravery



He was asked after the war to spy on a new political party - The German Workers Party (DAP) who would go on to become the Nazis.

The DAP was founded by a guy called Anton Drexler. After spying on them Hitler found he liked the party’s ideas so he joined them and soon became their main speaker and heavily involved in the party. Hitler was behind the change of name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and the writing of the 25 point plan - which outlined key Nazi ideas. Like Jews are bad, let’s destroy Versailles and Germany is for Germans. This was the start of the policy known as catch all opportunism where the Nazi’s tried to appeal as many people as possible by telling them what they wanted to hear. Another key part of this was the creation of the SA - sturmabeitlung (storm troopers), the Nazi’s very own private army. Which took advantage of the fact there were lots of exsoldiers knocking around as it gave them something to join (the SA) and uniform to wear (a brown one) and people to hit (communists). In 1921 Hitler took over the leadership of the Party and never looked back.

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

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3. The Munch Bunch! Or, the Munich Putsch for most normal people. This took place in November 1923 and you could need to know something about the causes, events or the consequences of the Putsch. So. Here’s a table which tells you all that.

3. The Munch Bunch. Apparently

Causes 1923 - Germany was suffering under hyperinflation. The Weimar government was massively unpopular and the Nazi’s had started to become a small force in Munich. There had been a similar rebellion in Italy in 1922 and Hitler thought they would gain a lot of support.

Events Hitler thought he had the support of a key man in Munich - Gustav von Kahr, He was wrong. On finding out that he did not have Kahr’s support Hitler took the Nazi’s to storm a meeting Kahr was having and held him at gunpoint until he agreed to help. This started the Munich Putsch. At some point in the evening Kahr was stupidly let go and he called out the army to stop Hitler. Although the Nazi’s did try to march against them it did not end well. 16 Nazi’s were killed and Hitler was wounded. The Putsch had failed.

Consequences Hitler was arrested and put on trial for treason. However his trial actually gave him a chance to gain national attention in the press and he used it to attack Weimar giving him lots of supporters. He was found guilty but only given a sentence of 5 years - of which he would serve 9 months. Whilst in Prison he wrote his book - Mein Kampf, where he outlined some of his main ideas about Germans needing living space (lebensraum) at the expense of Jews and Eastern Europeans.

After Hitler was released from prison in 1924 there were a couple of big changes for the Nazi Party. 1. They would gain power by legal methods only - so no more Putsches! 2. Their supported dropped rapidly. Weimar was doing well and their Putsch had failed. In 1928 the Nazi’s only had 12 seats!

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4. Vote Nazi or die! The Wall Street Crash in 1929 and the start of the Great Depression was the start of a great time for the Nazi’s as their level of support increased massively. This can be shown by their election results that followed

4. Goebbels. The Gerbil.

1930 - 107 seats July 1932 - 230 seats November 1932 - 196 seats Obviously, a major reason for this success was the Great Depression was that it made people angry with Weimar since they were blamed for causing the whole mess (not for the first time!) but why did they pick the Nazis? Goebbels - The head of Nazi

Communism - The other extreme party of

Propaganda came up with a number

the day, the communists had a lot of success

of excellent slogans and ideas

too. They thought everyone and everything

that appealed to people, like Work

should be equal. Including money. This went

and Bread. He knew how to get

down like a lead balloon with those that had

most people to believe in the

lots of money, so they wanted to support a

Nazis.

group that had a history of beating the crap of the communists. This had been a Nazi tradition since 1921!

The SA - By this point the SA had well over 400000 members who would roam the streets attacking communist and Nazi enemies. They intimidated and terrorised people into supporting the Nazis as well as showed that the Nazis would deal with communists - which also gained them votes, as above!

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Propaganda - Nazi propaganda was simple and effective. It showed people that the Nazis would fix the problems and it was also everywhere. The Nazi’s made good use of posters, rallies and Hitler himself - an excellent public speaker who could draw in many voters

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This massive increase in support would eventually lead to the Nazi’s gaining power with Hitler becoming Chancellor on January 30th 1933. Yet Hitler could never have gained power without the following 4 people.... Person Bruning

Role Chancellor 1930-32

Von Papen

Chancellor July 1932 November 1932

Schleicher

Chancellor November 1932 - January 1933

Hindenburg

President 1925 – 1934

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How it helped Hitler Failed to deal with unemployment and made Weimar look like idiots. Made Hitler popular since he was offering crazy ideas like work and bread. This went down well with most folk, who had no work. Nor bread. Also failed to deal with unemployment but also failed to control the Nazis. Got fired from his job and blamed Schleicher. To get back at Schleicher came up with the idea of making Hitler Chancellor. Not a great plan, to be fair. Failed to solve unemployment or control the Nazi’s. Pissed off Von Papen who plotted to get rid of him. Wanted anyone apart from Hitler to be Chancellor and so ignored him in July and November 1932. When these governments failed as well was willing to listen to Von Papen’s idea of Hitler as Chancellor with von Papen as vice-Chancellor to control him and appointed Hitler. It was not a good idea!

 

So.

January 30th 1933 - Hitler becomes Chancellor. If you remember one date,

please let it be this one!

5. Burn Baby Burn! 10 years after first trying the Nazi’s have taken power and are involved in running Germany - yet they still don’t as much power as they’d like. They want to destroy Weimar and democracy in Germany not work with it. So. Here’s how to completely destroy democracy and establish a Nazi dictatorship in 6 easy steps. 1. The Reichstag Fire (Feb 1933) - The Reichstag magically 5. The Reichstag. On fire. Van  der Lubbe everywhere.  Apparently

catches fire a week before new elections. A crazy half naked Dutchman, Marius van der Lubbe is arrested for the crime and he just so happens to be a communist. This gives the Nazi’s an excuse

to arrest, abuse and destroy the communist party. One of their biggest rivals just before the election. Funny, that, eh? 2. March Elections (Uhm... March 1933?) - Without the communists the Nazis achieved a bigger percentage of the vote (43) and a huge number of seats - 288. This was handy for the first new law they wanted to pass... 3. The Enabling Act (March 1933) - With the shiny number of Nazis in seats and with the SA directing everyone else to their seats (read vote yes or I smash your face in) the Nazi’s managed to pass the Enabling Act. This allowed them to pass laws without the Reichstag (Turkeys voting for Christmas, anyone?) which meant Hitler was moving onto creating a dictatorship. 4. Trade Unions and Political Parties (April & May 1933) - The first act done under the Enabling act? Hitler bans other political parties and trade unions. So, the main groups who might actually oppose him - the only things that can stop a Nazi dictatorship now? The Army and Hindenburg. 5. Night of the Long Knives (June 1934) - The Army did not like the SA. They thought they were glorified street thugs and were very worried that they wanted to take over the Army. Which, to be fair, they did. Hitler knew the SA couldn’t take the Army so decided to back the Army. He faked that Rohm and the SA were going to rebel and arranged for the SS to kill Rohm and the SA leaders - and anyone else who’d annoyed him for good measure. This got the army on board. Who didn’t notice the rest of the SA quietly joined the SS 6. Hindenburg dies (August 1934) - Hindenburg finally died of old age and without really bothering with a proper vote (they had a fake one where 90% approved)

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Hitler gave himself the job of President; started calling it fuehrer and Germany was officially a dictatorship. Job done.

Key Topic 2 1. How to screw over everyone you know! Having turned Germany into a Dictatorship the Nazi’s managed to control the population through the use of the Police State - this basically means they used a system of fear and terror to make sure that the German people behaved themselves and this system had 4 key aspects.

1. The Leaders of the Gestapo. And not the Nazi  version of the Chuckle Brothers.

The Gestapo - The Nazi’s secret police

The SS - Hitler’s private bodyguard, the SS became the public face of Nazi terror. They dressed in black and were the ones who came to arrest you, ran the concentration camps and

were really the ones that everyone feared. They encouraged people to report any anti-Nazi behaviour else they would face the same punishment as whoever committed the crime. Because no one knew who the Gestapo were everyone

generally inspired fear by just

lived in fear of being caught by one!

generally looking nasty.

Concentration Camp - Between

The Church - The church gave people a

1933 - 39 the point of a

complete opposite message to the Nazis,

concentration was not to make

so it needed controlling. They made a

people die. It was to give them a

deal with the Catholics (the concordat)

brutal and horrific experience for

that promised to leave them alone.... they

not behaving (if you died, bonus).

lied. With the Protestants they created

The idea was that you would carry

their own Reich Church and made

back a message of what happened

everyone go. If they didn’t? Arrested!

to those who did not behave.

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2. Don’t Believe everything you read! (Erm. Except in this, obviously. This is all true) The last method the Nazi used to control the German people was the various methods of propaganda that they used. They of course included:

2. Nazi Propaganda. Just in case you  weren't sure.



Newspapers



Censoring Newspapers



Cinema



Radio



Mass Rallies



Books



Art



Speeches



Sport (the 1936 Olympics showing off how good and

powerful the Nazis were) Since it was the Nazi’s.... it was bloody effective! Simple messages, repeated again and again so that it was all the people heard. This resulted in people buying into the Nazi ideals weather they actually believed it or not, especially since any opposition views were never actually allowed to get to the ordinary people.

3. Every woman wants to have kids, right? Nazi policies towards women were quite simple. Hitler’s view of the ideal woman was that they would enjoy a simple life at home, looking after her family, not worrying about the stresses and strains of work or making themselves look glamorous and generally be interested in producing lots more pure Aryan Germans for the Master Race. The policy is best summed up by using the 3Ks.

3. What you'd want if you were a Nazi.  Allegedly. 



Kinder (Children - you know, kids like Kinder Eggs)



Kirche (Church. Sounds pretty damn similar)



Kuche (Kitchen. Think of cook)

There were a number of incentives for women to do GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

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this. They were given loans to help them have kids that they would not have to pay back once they’d had 4 kids (Cash for kids, basically). They were also given rewards and prizes once they’d had 4, 6 and 8 children. They were also forced to give up work - and since there were no trade unions and propaganda rules, there was no on left to complain! This policy towards women was also modelled in how the youth were treated in Germany. I haven’t done a table in awhile so I’m going to do one again now. Just because I can. Gender Male

Female

Education Education for boys in Germany was changed a lot under the Nazi’s. Timetables in school added a lot of extra PE lessons in order to get the boys fit and ready for life in the army. Lesson in History, Geography, Maths etc were used to promote the Nazi view of History and to convince the boys of Nazi beliefs. Maths and Science lessons would also take on the added aspect of answering war based questions to again get them ready for their life as future cannon fodder! Education for girls was also changed a lot. They too also had a lot of Physical activity placed on their timetable, the idea being that this would make sure they were all fit and ready for mother hood. Lessons would also teach young girls key Nazi beliefs to make sure that they were indoctrinated into Nazi ideology (Beliefs). Girls would also take lessons in needlework, sewing, cooking and so on to get them ready to have families and make them want that!

Youth Activity Boys would join the Hitler Youth between the ages of 14 - 18. Here activities were again based around the idea of working together in groups to complete activities, camping, map reading, marching and drill activities. These were, also, funnily enough, aimed at getting boys fit and ready for command. Girls would join the League of German Maidens. They would also do outdoors activities and camping to get them healthy and fit and would focus on learning skills that they would need when they became mothers.

4. Unemployment? What Unemployment? When the Nazi’s took power one of the main problems that they faced was the old mass unemployment which stood at 6 million. By hook or by crook the Nazis were incredibly successful in reducing unemployment using the following methods 

(RAD) The National Labour Front. The Nazi’s

4. The RAD. Spade is optional.

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created a group that all man between 18 and 25 had to join. They were given a uniform and a low skilled manual job. It was crap work, but it gave them a job, a wage and reduced unemployment 

National Building Schemes - The Nazi’s borrowed heavily in order to fund national building projects like schools and hospitals, but in particular they built motorways (autobahns). These created jobs by requiring many to actual do the building work and once they were built people to work in these places, again reducing unemployment!



Rearmament. During the course of the 1930s the Nazis started to rebuild the German Army. The introduced conscription in 1935 which basically made any unemployed man of the right employed, because they got to join the army! But to go with people joining the Army you also had lots of people making the equipment that they would need along with providing the services the soldiers needed etc.



Invisible Unemployment - The Nazi’s also decided not to include Jews in the unemployment figures. Which obviously lowered them! They also forced women out of jobs and gave them to men, which also has a nifty impact on unemployment!

As well as reducing unemployment the Nazis also worked hard to give rewards and incentives to their workers through the KdF and Strength through Joy schemes. This rewarded those who worked hard under the Nazis with cheap affordable goods (like radios) and rewards (like holidays) and was designed to make up for the fact that the Nazis had abolished Trade Unions and had no protection or rights!

5. The Jews. Even I won’t try and be witty here. The last and defining part of the Germany topic is their racial policy. To the Nazis there were only 2 types of people in Germany 

The Master Race (Aryan). These were pure Germans and it

was their right/duty/whatever you want to call it to create a pure, strong race that would dominate others and show everyone how awesome they were.  5. Nazi views on Race. Oddly  enough.

Sub-Humans. These were the people who had corrupted

Germany and caused all the weakness and failure of the 1920s. To the Nazis these people were obviously a) Jews and b) Slavs - so

basically people from Eastern Europe.

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The Nazis set about establishing their racial policy throughout every part of Germany society, including it in all their propaganda, in schools and in everyday life. This allowed them to make a series of attacks on the Jews taking away their civil liberties and freedoms. Banning them from public places, from working in position of importance and generally taking away their Freedoms. The two worst aspects of this that you should probably know are below. The Nuremberg Laws - 1935 The Nuremberg Laws were a series of laws that attacked the Jews. The main 2 were the law on Reich Citizenship was stripped Jews of their German citizenship and meant they were no longer protected by German law. Their law for protection of German blood also banned marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans and made anyone who was related to a Jew officially sub-human

Kristalnacht (Night of Broken Glass 1938) Kristalnacht was the Nazi response to the murder of a German by a Polish Jew in Paris. They organised attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. There were a number of deaths and 20000 Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. When the German people were actually angry with what happened the Nazi’s blamed the whole thing on the Jews and used it as an excuse to punish them. They were fined over 1 billion marks and were banned from owning business. Coz apparently they organised the attacks themselves. After Kristalnacht the Nazis set up the Reich Office for Emigration and started to actively look at getting Jews out of Germany, rather than hope they would leave. This would of course all end up with the Final Solution.

Key Topic 3 1. War. What is it good for? Having imposed their beliefs across Germany, the next step for the Nazi’s was to try and do the same across Europe, starting World War 2 in September 1939. For the people of Germany it was very much a war of 2 halves, with things going fantastically well at the start and then fantastically badly towards the end. As this 1. The German Army. On a coffee break. 

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handy table below, will demonstrate!

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Policy

Food

Women

Initial Period of the War (1939-42) Autarky – Germany would be selfsufficient It would provide all its own resources and materials. This was very easy to do, since they were stomping over most of Europe and nicking everyone else’s! Rationing was introduced at the start of the war. This actually improved people’s diet because it made them eat healthier! There was also plenty of food to go around from conquered countries! Not much changed for women in the early years. They were still expected to follow the 3 Ks!

Propag anda

Nazi Propaganda at the start of the war showed crushing German victories to reinforce how great they were.

Civilian Life

Very little changed. People carried on their lives same as before and generally enjoyed the resources and luxuries that flowed in from the conquered lands.

Later Period of the War (1942-45) Total War – The entire German economy was set up to produce stuff for the war. Everything and everyone had to produce stuff for the war effort, which had not been happening!

Once Germany started to lose the war, there were massive food shortages. This created a huge black market, which, you know, was illegally buying and selling food! By the later part of the war the Nazi’s realised the slight problem of all the women staying at home and all the men going off to fight. There was no one to work in the factories! Women were therefore encouraged to sign up and work. This of course, did not go down well, since it was less than 10 years since they’d all been fired in the first place! After the defeat at Stalingrad (Feb 1943) most propaganda switched to going on about saving Germany from the evils of communism. The aim was to scare people into backing the war effort. Bombing raids from the Allies had a massive destructive effect on Germany. Most major towns and cities were ruined. Towards the end of the war, virtually all men were made to join the Home Guard the Volkssturm. They were promptly then marched off to the front as cannon fodder.

 

   

2. The Jewish Question. Part 2. The rapid expansion of Nazi Germany during the war created a problem for their approach to the Jews. Nazi policy before the war had largely been aimed at driving the Jews out of Germany, which had 2 small, but significant drawbacks after the start of the war. Firstly, they 2. The ghettos. Terrifyingly, these were  the best part of Nazi policy to Jews  during the war.

conquered so much land that there was nowhere to send the Jews and secondly, there were several million more

Jews in the land they had conquered. This lead to the horrifying chain of events that made up the Holocaust.

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Ghettos: The first solution was to create ghettos, huge walled

Einsatzgruppen: In the large countryside of Russia, there were no

off parts of cities that lacked

towns to wall up. The Nazis therefore

food, water and electricity.

created special death squads. They

Many Jews died in the squalid

would round up the Jews, march them

conditions of the ghettos, but

into the woods, make them dig their

this was not enough.

own graves and shoot them.

The Final Solution: Shooting

The Death Camps: Jews were

was messy, expensive and

transported from all over Europe to

wasted ammunition. The Nazis

the Death Camps. They were split

needed to ‘answer’ the Jewish

into 2 when they arrived, those who

question once and for all so sat

were fit to work and those who were

down for a meeting at Wannsee

to die straight away. By the time the

in January 1942. It was here

camps were liberated in 1945, over 6

they decided on using the

million Jews and other prisoners had

Death Camps.

been gassed, shot or worked to death.

3. So... Maybe a mass murdering lunatic isn’t a good choice for leader? The ever happy fun Police State (see earlier) in Nazi Germany meant that opposition to their rule was a dangerous game that usually resulted in an all expenses paid holiday to a concentration camp at best, or a mild case of death at worst. Yet as the war went on and as Germany started to lose, there emerged opposition to the Nazis amongst civilian groups, 3. Edelweiss Pirates. Shorts and guitars are the  new eye patch and parrot, it seems.



religious leaders and the military.

Civilian opposition took the form of small protest groups like the Edelweiss Pirates and the White Rose Group. These groups would carry out small acts of

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rebellion against the Nazi government to show their opposition, but would not actually be a serious threat. The Pirates would do things like beat up Hitler Youth and pass out Allied leaflets encouraging the Germans to surrender. The White Rose Group were made up of university students who wrote pamphlets making people aware of the horrific crimes committed by the Nazi’s. The Nazi’s response to these vicious activities of pamphlet writing and leaflet posting was to round up the leaders of both groups, torture them and promptly kill them. 

Religious opposition came mainly from influential leaders of the church who spoke out against the Nazis. Martin Niemoller (A Protestant), Dietrich Bonhoeffer (also a Protestant) and Bishop Clemens von Galen (a Catholic) all, at various points of the Nazi regime, spoke out against the actions of Hitler and the Nazi and Bonhoeffer even joined a group plotting to overthrow Hitler and help Jews escape to Switzerland. Unsurprisingly, all 3 men were eventually arrested and put into concentration camps. Von Galen and Niemoller survived, but Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945.



The opposition to Hitler within the military was first led by a group known as the Kreisau Circle who wanted to replace Hitler, but took very little action. This was because the army was, to start with, largely supporting the Nazi regime due to their early success in the war. However, once the army started to receive the blame for Hitler’s poor decisions (Hey! Let’s invade Russia. In the winter. With no coats. What could go wrong?) a stronger form of opposition rose up. A General Beck helped plan 2 assassination attempts in March and November 1943, which failed and led to the July Bomb Plot of 1944



The July Bomb Plot or Operation Valkyrie was the most serious form of opposition to Hitler during the war. It was led by a Colonel von Stauffenberg who would use his position in the German Army to plant a bomb, in a briefcase, next to Hitler at a meeting of senior Army commanders. Once Hitler had be killed a new military government would be set up to make peace with the Allies, Von Stauffenberg placed the bomb and then fled to Berlin, forgetting 2 very small, but very important points. 1) The bomb was in fact moved after he left. This meant Hitler was protected from the blast and suffered no worse than a nasty ear ache. And 2) Being the only person who had left the scene, it was quite easy to figure out who was to blame, make a quick phone call to Berlin and have von Stauffenberg arrested and shot. In total 5746 people were killed as a punishment for the plot and the war dragged on until May 1945 – with the SS in firm control of the Army.

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4. How to lose a war and destroy your country in 3 easy steps! Despite the early years of the war being a success for Germany, after 1942 things began to go horrifically wrong with defeats for the remaining years of the war and the complete destruction of many of Germany’s major cities before Hitler gave it up and killed himself in April 1945, paving the way to the German surrender of May 1945. This complete turnaround was caused by 3 4. Berlin after the Nazi's finished  redecorating.

main factors.

The USA: The entry of the US into the war in 1941 provided massive support to Britain, with extra money, solider and equipment available. This was to result in the invasion of France in 1944 and force the Germans to split their army into 2 to deal with the Russians & the Americans. The US Air force, along with the RAF was also able to bomb most of Germany’s major cities, causing massive disruption to their industrial capacity and cause a great number of deaths in the civilian population.

The Soviet Union (Russia): The German attack on Russia from 1941 was a complete disaster. Despite initially taking over huge chunks of Russian land, the Germany army found itself spread out over a huge area they couldn’t control. Especially since the brutal treatment of the local people meant the Germans had to fight them as well as the Army. Russia size also allowed them to produce weapons and soldiers at a size and scale the Germans simply couldn’t compete with. The Russians gave the German Army a number of terrible defeats, before the second front (see above) forced the Germans back. The Russians would eventually push into Germany itself and capture Berlin, the act that made Hitler kill himself in April 1945.

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Hitler: The complete control that Hitler had over Germany ended up being a massive problem once they started losing the war. He made a number of mind numbingly stupid decisions that were to prove disastrous to the German war effort, such as: -

Declaring war on the US in support of Japan, making the US decision to slap Germany about 1st much easier.

-

Refusing to allow the German Army to retreat from Stalingrad, losing around ¼ million of Germany’s best soldiers.

-

Refusing to support the German defence of the attack on France the allies launched in 1944, thinking it was a fake.

-

Insisting that he had control of all decisions made by the German Generals.

-

Ordering a massive attacked in December 1944 to break the Allies (the so called Battle of the Bulge) that did little more than waste fuel and kill some of his best remaining troops.

Finally, on May 7th 1945 Germany stopped fighting and formally surrendered on May 8th. The devastation had been total – 3.25 million German soldiers had been killed and another 3.6 million German civilians had suffered the same fate. 25% of homes in Germany had been destroyed and most major cities were reduced to rubble and there was no transport within the country. The question was now about what to do with Germany.

5. Everyone hates… Germany. The question now facing the Allies was what to do with Germany. The decision was to be made by the Big Three – Britain, America and Russia, since, well; they were the ones who won the war! The 3 powers all had different ideas about what exactly should happen to Germany, but they all agreed with one main idea – that Germany should not be allowed to grow again as a powerful and aggressive country – so it would 5. Sure, we may have blown up your house ‐ but at least  we fixed the street sign!

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

need to be demilitarised (no guns and no

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killing!), denazified (no goose stepping and wildly racist policies!) and democratised (people get to vote for who they want, without being beat up by the SS!). Yalta – February 1945 The big three met in February 1945 at Yalta to make some agreements about what would happen to Germany at the end of the war. They made the following agreements: 

A United Nations would be set up

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The USSR would take part of Poland whose border would be moved West

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Germany and Berlin would be split into 4 zones: US, British, French and Soviet

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Hunt down Nazi war criminals

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Free elections to be allowed in the countries liberated from the Nazis

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Eastern Europe would be a Soviet ‘sphere of influence’

Potsdam – July 1945 By Potsdam, everything had changed. The Russians had taken over most of Eastern Europe and were setting up Communist governments. The Americans had the atom bomb and wanted to show it off and there was growing tension between the two sides. The following agreements were made at Potsdam: 

The division of Germany into 4 zones and its demilitarisation

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The Nazi Party was to be banned and Germany was to be de-nazified

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Poland’s borders were moved to the west

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UN to be set up

However one key issue that could not be agreed on was free elections, the Russians had promised to allow free elections in their zone of Germany, but were setting up their own government that was not going to be elected. The Nuremberg Trials (November 1945 – October 1946) In order to carry out the policy of denazification that was agreed at Yalta and Potsdam, the first step was to put the leading Nazis who were left alive on trial for their crimes. 22 Senior Nazi’s – including Goering were put on trial and found guilty of war crimes, with most of them being executed. There were also another 200 Nazis who were tried at Nuremberg, of whom 142 were found guilty and of those, 24 were to be executed, with most of the rest given prison sentences and only 35 were found not guilty. Denazification

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department 

 

As well as punishing the leading Nazi’s for the crimes they committed, the Allies had to make sure that they removed all trace of the Nazi way of life from ordinary German’s lives. This was done through a group known as the Allied Control Council which made the following decisions. 

August 1945 – Wearing the German Army uniform was banned.

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October 1945 – The Nazi Party was banned and never allowed to be reformed.

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December 1945 – German military was abolished

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January 1946 – Public officials who had been Nazi party members before 1937 were fired from their jobs

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May 1946 – Making and giving out Nazi books or music was banned.

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July 1946 – The Allies were in control of most forms of media in Germany – radio, newspapers, theatre and book publishers – all of who spread an anti-Nazi message.

The Russian plan to denazify its areas of Germany? Lock them all up and hope they die. Which 40000 did! Germany 1947 By 1947 Germany was starting to split into 2 separate countries. The West, controlled by France, the US and Britain was starting to recover, started to have money and was a free democracy. The East, controlled by Russia, was starting to struggle, was poor and was run under communism. This divide was to have a huge role in the Cold War which was to follow (and joyfully, you need to know nothing about!) and it wasn’t until 1990 that Germany became one country again!

And that’s it! This is the overview of what you need to know for Germany. It may not be everything you need but as we said – it is something that should give you a good understanding of anything you might be asked questions on!

When it comes to the exam, don’t forget that we’re here to help you as much as possible and anything you’re stuck on... ask for help!

If not, good luck and hope this helps!

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department 

 

Bonus Section – Exam Advice! I’m going to finish the guide with some quick advice on the questions in the paper. This was the advice given to me by people who run the course. So I’m hoping it’s good! First of all.... Answer

ALL the questions on the paper!

For Question 1 – all questions will be based on the sources given to you on the paper. a) You need to give 2 points about the question that come from each source. This can be 1 from the source and 1 from the caption, it doesn’t matter. But make sure it is relevant! YOU MUST TALK ABOUT BOTH SOURCES! (E.g. No they wear hats! :D) b) The question tells you to use the source and your own knowledge so DO BOTH! You need to pick one or two things that you can learn from the source and say how that explains the answer to the question. You should then bring in your own knowledge of the topic and explain another idea that answers the question that is not from the source! In total you must give 3 P.E.E. points! c) This question is all about usefulness – this means they want to know can you use the sources to learn about the topic. For full marks on this question you MUST talk about the usefulness of 3 separate things in the sources – The Content, the Origin and the Purpose of the source. The content refers to the actual information in the source; you need to explain what you can learn from it and why that makes it useful to us. The Origin refers to who wrote it and when they wrote it. You need to explain why that helps us learn things (like a historian will have researched it, etc.) and so why that makes it useful. The purpose relates to why the source has been made (So History books are to educate, speeches are to convince people of things etc.) and again you need what we learn from it and why that it useful to us. Question 2 has a mixture of source based and knowledge based questions. a) The describe question needs 3 developed statements – this means you tell me 3 things about the topic supported by some evidence/detail/information. You do not need to explain WHY on this question at all! b) The purpose questions needs you to use the source and own knowledge in the answer. You will explain what message that the source is trying to get across by talking about what it shows/says. You will explain who the audience of the source is supposed to be and why they are supposed to see the source. You finish by explaining the result of the source. Once the target group have seen it, what are they supposed to do/think and why do the Nazis want them doing this? This needs own knowledge to put it in context.

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department 

 

c) This question is all about interpretation. You are given 3 sources and need to explain the 2 different views about a topic that they create. For both views you need to be able to do the following. Firstly – explain the point of view that is created in the source about the topic (usually it was a good thing or a bad thing). This view needs to be supported by some evidence from the source. You also need to explain why the author of the source has created the view given – this will be based on WHO they are (biased/not biased etc.) and WHEN they are writing (at the time/after the time & how this affects what they know). You also need to explain the level of support that the source you are discussing gives a certain point of view and what own knowledge you have to back this up. Once you have done this for 1 point of view, you should do the same with the second source.. You should then finish with a judgement about which interpretation seems more valid and why. Question 3 is the extended essay and will carry an extra 3 marks for Spelling, punctuation and grammar. You will need to make sure you set out your answer using paragraphs, full stops & capital letters and try and make sure you spell key words correctly if you want to pick up all 3 of those marks. For the question itself try and follow this rough guide to answering. 

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   

You will be told in the question that a certain event/topic/person was the most important/significant one in something happening. Your answer will need to talk about why the event/topic/person in the question was important, but also why at least 2 other points were important as well! YOU MUST TALK ABOUT MORE THAN 2 THINGS! I know I’ve already said it, but I just want to emphasise how important it is. Although the question says give a 2 sided answer, for top level marks you must talk about more than 2 factors! Start your answer with a short line about the different factors you are going to talk about and which you think is most important. Talk about the factor mentioned in the question first. Explain why it is important in relation to the question, using evidence and making sure you explain why the evidence supports the point. Talk about the other 2 factors in the same way. For one of the three factors you talk about – you must explain why you think it was the most important – for top marks there needs to be this judgement. You should aim to write about the same for all 3 factors; with perhaps slightly more on whatever one you think is more important. You want a short conclusion that sums up the main reason why you think 1 was more important than the others, but showing you do know the reasons why the other ideas are important as well.

And that’s it! Hopefully this guide and these notes will help you prepare for the exam. As I’ve mentioned, it is not everything you need to know, but it should cover the most

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department 

 

important bits. If there is anything you are stuck on or are unsure about then make sure you come and ask for help, that’s what we’re here for. Beyond that, Good Luck!

GCSE Germany 1919‐47 

Fullhurst History Department