Entire Section 3: Collapse of the Weimar Republic

Question 1

What were the 7 key principles regarding the appeal of Nazism?

Answer 1

1) The power of the will
2) Struggle and war
3) A racial community
4) A national socialism
5) The Fuhrerprinzip
6) Aggressive nationalism
7) Anti-Semitism

Question 2

What were the ideas associated with The power of the will?

Answer 2

1) Hitler presented himself and the Nazi movement as being a force for change in Germany.
2) Nazi propaganda claimed that power, strength and determination to succeed were qualities personified by Hitler.
3) The Nazi movement, with its parades of the SA, presented an image of discipline and unity that would sweep all opponents aside.

Question 3

What were the ideas to do with struggle and war?

Answer 3

1) Struggle, violence and war were at the heart of Nazi thinking and actions.
2) Hitler defined his outlook in terms of struggle and claimed scientific justification for his view that struggle and conflict between races was part of the natural order of things.

Question 4

What did Hitler believe that war would do?

Answer 4

1) Hitler believed that war would reconstruct German society and create a new German Reich through conquest and the subjugation of other races.

Question 5

What did Nazi propaganda glorigy?

Answer 5

1) Nazi propaganda glorified the military virtues of courage, loyalty and self-sacrifice, and the SA was projected as an organisation that gave German males the chance to demonstrate their manliness.

Question 6

What were the Nazi ideas in relation to a Racial Community?

Answer 6

1) Key element. Only aryans could be citizens of the state; all others were to be denied the rights of citizenship and its benefits and would be treated as mere ‘subjects’ of the state.
2) Within the real community of the people, there would be no social classes and all Germans would have equal chances to find their own level in society.
3) All would work together for the good of the nation, thereby demonstrating their commitment to common ‘German values’ and in return would benefit from access to employment and welfare benefits.

Question 7

What did Nazism aim for, what was one of its objectives?

Answer 7

1) Nazism aimed for a cultural and social revolution in Germany. The objective was to create a ‘new man’ and a ‘new woman’.
2) These would be people who would have awareness of the importance of the their race, the strength of character to work unselfishly for the common good, and the willingness to follow the leadership in the pursuit of their aims.

Question 8

What did people describe the Nazi talk of a people’s community as, and why did they think this?

Answer 8

1) The revolutionary ideology was seen as backward thinking.
2) When the Nazi’s talked of a ‘people’s community’ they wanted to return to a romanticised, mythical German past before the race had become ‘polluted’ with alien blood and before industrialisation had divided society along class lines.

Question 9

What would the ‘Volksmeinschaft’ be based on?

Answer 9

1) Would be based on ‘blood and soil’- that is, on the German peasants who they believed had to retained their racial purity and their traditional values more than city dwellers.

Question 10

What was Nazi thinking about ‘national socialism’?

Answer 10

1) The Nazi’s adopted the title Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party in an attempt to gain working class support, but at the same time to differentiate themselves from the international socialism of the communist party.

Question 11

What points did the Nazi’s lay out in their twenty five point programme? What this similar to?

Answer 11

1) The points laid out were economically radical and were similar to many of the anti-capitalist policies of the communists and the socialists.
2) They called for the confiscation of war profits, the nationalisation of large monopoly companies and the confiscation of land from the large estates without compensation to the landowners.

Question 12

In what way did Hitler use the term ‘socialism’ in?

Answer 12

1) Hitler used the word ‘socialism’ loosely in a way that might appeal to working-class voters.
2) Hitler believed that a people’s community and socialism were the same thing.

Question 13

What were Nazi ideas about the Fuhrerprinzip?

Answer 13

1) Hitler set out to destroy the Weimar Republic because it was a parliamentary democracy, a system that he viewed as weak, ineffective and alien to Germany’s traditions of strong, authoritarian government.
3) Hitler also believed that parliamentary democracy encouraged the growth of communism, in his opinion an even greater evil.

Question 14

Provide a quote regarding what Hitler views democracy as in relation to Germany.

Answer 14

“Democracy is fundamentally not German; it is Jewish. This Jewish democracy, with its majority decisions has always been only a means towards the destruction of any existing Aryan leadership.”

Question 15

What was the Fuhrerprinzip?

Answer 15

1) The basis on which the Nazi party had been run since 1925. Within the party. Hitler had supreme control over policy and strategy, and party members became subordinated to Hitler’s will.

Question 16

What were Hitler’s 3 main aims as a German nationalist?

Answer 16

1) He wanted to reverse the humiliation of the TOV-which he described as an instrument of ‘unlimited blackmail and shameful humiliation’ and restore Germany those lands taken from it.
2) To establish a ‘Greater German Reich’ in which all Germans would live within the borders of the state.
3) To secure Germany its living space (Lebensraum) to settle its people and provide it with the food and raw materials needed to sustain it as a great power, since ‘only an adequately large space on earth assures a nation its freedom of existence’.

Question 17

What did Hitler want to do with the German military?

Answer 17

1) He wanted to expand the territory of the Reich. This would involve a war of conquest to secure Germany’s living space in the east, which was justified by Hitler’s racial theories and his belief in the necessity of struggle.

Question 18

What were Nazi views on Anti-Semitism?

Answer 18

1) Hitler saw the Jews as responsible for all of Germany’s ills.
2) They were held to be responsible for the end of capitalism and at the same time the growth of communism.
3) They were held responsible for the German defeat in the Great War, the TOV and Germany’s decline as a great power, together with the democratic weaknesses of the democratic system in the Weimar Republic.

Question 19

How did Nazi propaganda present the Jews?

Answer 19

1) They were represented as greedy, cunning and motivated only by selfish motives.
2) Described as ‘a parasite in the body of other nations’.

Question 20

What qualities did Hitler possess that made him vital to Nazi success? What made Albert Speer gravitate towards the Nazis’?

Answer 20

1) Albert Speer said that Hitler spoke urgently, with hypnotic persuasiveness. He was carried on through the wave of enthusiasm in the room.
2) Hitler knew how to play on people’s emotions and fears, and to convince them that he had the answers.
3) He was also an opportunist who could tailor his message to his audience.

Question 21

In what ways was anti semitism in Nazi electoral success?

Answer 21

1) During the Depression, many shoekeepers and small business owners were receptive to the idea that their problems were caused by ‘Jewish capitalism’. People who had kept their anti-semitic views quiet were not willing to express them.
2) Nazi propaganda was frequently adapted according to local circumstances.
3) The rapid expansion on the SA also led to encouragement of anti-semitism. ‘Juda verrecke’
4) However, a statistical analysis on Nazi propaganda shows an overwhelming concentration on economic issues with very little emphasis on anti-semitism.

Question 22

What role did propaganda play in the electoral success of the Nazi’s?

Answer 22

1) The Nazi’s were very skilled in propaganda techniques and played an important role in their success.
2) The propaganda of Joseph Goebbels was unmatched.
3) The Nazi’s had their own newspapers, and also published many posters and leaflets, put on film shows and staged rallies. Nazi marches and rallies with their banners, songs, bands and the sheer force of numbers made a powerful statement about Nazi strength.

Question 23

Who was Joseph Goebbels?

Answer 23

1) Hitler’s Reich Propaganda Chief from 1928 to 1945.

2) He played a key role in the propaganda success of the Nazis rise to power and became Minister of Propaganda in 1933.

Question 24

Who did Nazi propaganda target?

Answer 24

1) Targeted different groups in the population and adapted the Nazi message to particular target audiences.
2) For the most part, the Nazi’s concentrated on their simple message that Weimar democracy was responsible for economic depression, national humiliation and internal divisions

Question 25

What were the policies and ideologies of Communism?

Answer 25

1) The KPD advocated an end to cuts in unemployment benefits and wages and the legalisation of abortion.
2) The KPD also advocated close cooperation with the USSR, the end of military spending and the establishment of a workers state.
3) Its ultimate aim was the overthrow the Weimar Republic.

Question 26

What did the KPD view as the final nail in the coffin for Capitalism?

Answer 26

1) It viewed the Great Depression as the final nail in the coffin for capitalism, and that it would inevitably lead to a workers’ revolution.

Question 27

What was the priority of the KPD?

Answer 27

1) Its priority was to replace the SPD as the leading party on the left, since it accused the SPD of being as damaging to working class interests as the Nazi party.

Question 28

What were the strengths of the appeal of communism?

Answer 28

1) Communist propaganda helped attract membership, particularly through its posters but also in the speeches of Thalmann which emphasised class struggle and the smashing of the capitalist system.
2) There were explicit appeals to the unemployed and there were also posters which emphasised the KPD’s links with the USSR and its belief in internationalism.
3) With its growing membership, success in attracting votes and organisation at street and neighbourhood level, the KPD had considerable strength.

Question 29

What were the weaknesses to the appeal of Communism?

Answer 29

1) The reality was that the KPD never really came close to launching a successful revolution. Its membership turnover was very high.
2) Failed to attract support outside the main industrial areas and had very limited appeal amongst women.
3) Because a high proportion of its members were unemployed, the KPD was forever short of money.
4) Its concentration on fighting the ‘social facists’ in the SPD blinded the KPD to the serious threats that the Nazi’s posed.

Question 30

What was the economic impact of the Great Depression in 1929?

Answer 30

1) Germany suffered a greater fall in industrial production than other European countries.
2) Many companies had no alternative but to declare themselves bankrupt due to foreign trade collapsing and falling prices.
3) German banking system was plunged into crisis and in July 1931, the government closed banks and the stock exchange for 2 days to provide the financial system with some breathing space.

Question 31

What impact did the depression have on unemployment?

Answer 31

1) Unemployment increased and by 1932, about one third of all German workers was registered as unemployed.
2) In January 1933 the true number of unemployed was about 8 million.

Question 32

Who else did the depression affect economically?

Answer 32

1) The depression fell heavily on the main industrial areas, such as the Ruhr, Silesia and the main port cities such as Hamburg.
2) White collar workers were also badly hit.
3) In the Civil Service there were severe cuts in the workforce and reductions in the salaries of those who remained.
4) Farming was also very badly hit by the Depression. Prices collapsed, exports of agricultural produce declined and sales of food fell as Germans had less money to spend.

Question 33

What was effect of the Depression on poverty?

Answer 33

1) There were many indications that poverty was rising as a result of the Depression.
2) Diseases linked to poor nutrition and living conditions began to show an increase after a period of decline.
3) Doctors reported numerous cases of malnutrition among children.
4) Suicide rate increased as hope for the future disappeared.
5) Shanty towns began to appear on the edges of large cities such as Berlin.

Question 34

What impact did the Depression have on young people?

Answer 34

1) Led to a high rate of unemployment among young people.
2) With no jobs, and little prospect in the forseeable future, gangs of young men congregated in public spaces in German towns and cities, with their very presence causing alarm among older and middle class citizens.

Question 35

What affect did the Depression have on Juvenile crime?

Answer 35

1) The number of 14-25 year olds accused of crime did increase.
2) The number of young men charged with theft grew during the Depression years but there was also a significant increase in youths charged with offences against the state .

Question 36

What affect did the Depression have on Political extremism? Provide some examples.

Answer 36

1) Young men became more involved in extremist political parties during the Depression.
2) The KPD had some success in recruiting working-class youths from the ‘wild cliques’ to join political protests and involve themselves in street battles etc.
3) Organisations such as the Hitler youth and the SA offered unemployed men and boys food, uniform, shelter and the excitement of fighting street battles.

Question 37

What did the Depression do in order to help the young unemployed?

Answer 37

1) Day centres were created for young people where they could participate in work-related activities and socialise.
2) Emergency labour schemes set up where unemployed youths were required to do unskilled manual labour.
3) Voluntary labour schemes which involved young unemployed people being sent away from cities to residential work camps for 6 months

Question 38

How did schemes to help the unemployed go down with young people?

Answer 38

1) The schemes of relief were not very popular amongst young people.
2) Led to 2 hunger strikes for higher wages in October 1930 and June 1932.

Question 39

In what way did the Depression affect women?

Answer 39

1) In certain areas women workers were able to weather the storm of the Depression better than men.
2) There was a higher proportion of women working in the depression than men.
3) The question of whether married women should continue to be employed when males were out of work still remained. These women were known as ‘double earners’.

Question 40

What law was passed to do with so called ‘double earners’? When was this law passed? What did it do?

Answer 40

1) A law was passed allowing married civil servants to be dismissed from the service.
2) This happened in May 1932.
3) After the law was passed, the Reich Postal Service dismissed about 1000 married women from its employment.

Question 41

What was the political impact of the Depression?

Answer 41

1) It caused the collapse of the Grand Coalition, led by Muller, in March 1930.
2) Led to a rise in support for extreme parties on the left and right.
3) Led to more political violence.

Question 42

What was the Grand Coalition and how did the Depression lead to its collapose?

Answer 42

1) It was one of the most broadly based coalition governments in the Weimar period, which represented parties from the SPD on the left to the DVP on the right.
2) After the Wall Street Crash in October 1929, unemployment soared and state finances were heavily affected.
3) On the right, the DVP wanted to reduce unemployment benefits whilst on the left the SPD wanted to protect the level of benefits and raise taxes.
4) This ultimately led Muller to resign as a result of the tensions within the coalition.

Question 43

Who succeeded Muller in the Grand Coalition? Who influenced the appointment of this person? What did this lead to?

Answer 43

1) Hindenburg appointed Bruning, leader of the Centre Party.
2) General Groener and Schleicher influenced this decision. Led to an indication that the army had began to play a key role in politics.

Question 44

What did Bruning and Scheicher oppose and what did they want to take advantage of?

Answer 44

1) They both opposed parliamentary democracy and saw the political crisis of March 1930 as an opportunity to impose a more authoritarian style of government.

Question 45

In what ways was the Weimar Democracy dead in the water even before Hitler had become Chancellor in Jan 1933?

Answer 45

1) Bruning’s government excluded the SPD who were the largest party in the Reichstag, and this meant that the coalition did not have enough support in the Reichstag to pass laws.
2) After March 1930, governments had to rely on ruling by Presidential decree.

Question 46

What was Brunings response to the Depression? What did this lead to?

Answer 46

1) Bruning wanted to cut expenditure and raise taxes in order to balance the financial budget.
2) Since he did not have majority support , he persuaded Hindenburg to pass a Presidential Decree passing the budget into law.

Question 47

How did Bruning seal his fate as no longer Chancellor of Germany?

Answer 47

1) When Hindenburg, acting on Schleicher’s advice, refused to sign a presidential decree Bruning had submitted, he had no alternative but to resign.
2) Hindenburg replaced him with Franz von Papen with Schleicher as Defence Minister in the new cabinet.

Question 48

What was von Papen’s government like? How long did it last?

Answer 48

May-December 1932.
1) Nicknamed the ‘cabinet of barons’
2) He built his cabinet on a non party political basis. Only political party that supported his coalition was the DNVP.
3) Papen believed that the greatest threat to Germany was a communist revolution and that Weimar democracy had allowed this threat to grow
4) June 1932, he lifted the ban on the SA and imposed curbs on the left wing press.

Question 49

What was the result of the July 1932 election for the Nazis?

Answer 49

1) Nazis won 37.3% of the vote.
2) Nazis failed to take votes from the SPD and KPD.
3) Even after the election, Papen invited Hitler to join his cabinet but he refused. He would only participate in government if he was chancellor.

Question 50

What was the result of a vote in confidence of Papen’s government?

Answer 50

1) Even the Nazis participated. 512 votes to 42. Papen’s position had weakened and he was forced to ask Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call a new election in November.

Question 51

What was the result of the November 1932 election?

Answer 51

1) Nazis won 33.1% of the vote.
2) Loss of support for the Nazis. Lost 2 million votes and 34 seats in the Reichstag

Question 52

What was Hindenburg’s inner circle? What was Schleicher’s role? Other key members?

Answer 52

1) Small group of men who advised Hindenburg on the appointment of Chancellors and the signing of presidential decrees.
2) Chief among these was Kurt von Schleicher, who had been head of the army since 1926. He had been vital in persuading Hindenburg to withdraw support from Bruning in May 1932. Schleicher was also involved in the downfall of Papen.
3) Oskar von Hindenburg (Hindenburg’s son). He controlled the access to the President and his opinions were highly valued by his father.
4) Dr Otto Meisnner. Important in negotiations between Hitler and Hindenburg.

Question 53

What was Schleicher’s government like? How long did it last?

Answer 53

December 1932- Jan 1933.
1) Schleicher persuaded Hindenburg to appoint him as Chancellor.
2) He believed that his best chance of success lay in persuading the Nazis to join a coalition government led by him.
3) Did not seem to be impossible at first. Nazis had suffered a set back in the Nov 1932 election, and their support continued to fall.
4) Believing that he could put pressure on Hitler by playing on these divisions in the party opened negotiations with the party’s organisation leader, Gregor Strasser about joining his government.
5) Schleicher changed his tactics. He believed that a progressive social policy could win support from the trade unions and gain support in the Reichstag. This didn’t work.
6) Schleicher’s last shot was to ask Hindenburg to suspend the constitution, dissolve the Reichstag and give him dictatorial powers. Hindenburg resigned and Schleicher resigned.

Question 54

When has Hitler appointed Chancellor? What did he do later that day? What did he do on Feb 1st?

Answer 54

1) Appointed Jan 30th 1933.
2) Later that day, he held his first Reichstag meeting, for the sole purpose of getting enough support for the Enabling Act.
3) On Feb 1st 1933, he dissolved the Reichstag and called new elections.

Question 55

What was the role of the SA after Hitler attained power?

Answer 55

1) Played a key role. He used state resources to consolidate his position and rapidly expanded the SA, since their violence and terror were vital weapons in his struggle to eliminate opposition.
2) SA membership grew from 500k to 3mil.
3) Powers of the SA gained legal authority as well. SA and Stahlhelm merged and became recognised as the ‘auxiliary police’

Question 56

How many political prisoners had been arrested by the SA by July 1933?

Answer 56

1) Over 26,000 arrested by the SA.

Question 57

When was the Reichstag fire? What was the aftermath of it?

Answer 57

1) 27th Feb 1933, key moment in the Nazi campaign for the March 1933 election.
2) Young Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was arrested and causing causing the fire.
3) Nazis claimed it was part of a communist plot to start a revolution in Germany and the event was used to justify the immediate suspension of civil liberties.

Question 58

How did Hitler pass the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State? What was the point of the decree?

Answer 58

1) In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, Hitler was able to persuade Hindenburg to sign a decree giving him ‘emergency’ powers, which was the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State which suspended important civil and political rights that had been guaranteed under the Weimar Constitution.
2) The police was also given increased powers to enter and search private premises, while the gov had the power to censor publications.
3) The decree was designed to legalise a full-scale attack on the communists, backed by a propaganda campaign, which claimed Germany was on the brink of a ‘German Bolshevik Revolution’.

Question 59

How many communists were arrested by the SA over 2 weeks?

Answer 59

1) 10k.

Question 60

How was the March 1933 election conducted

Answer 60

1) Conducted against the backdrop of terror and intimidation. SA controlled the streets, many of the Nazis opponents were locked up, the offices of the SPD and KPD had been smashed up and their funds confiscated.
2) Anyone distributing leaflets for the SPD or the KPD was liable to be arrested.
3) Nazis propaganda machine flooded the country with posters, leaflets, radio broadcasts, election rallies and parades.

Question 61

What was the result of the March 1933 election?

Answer 61

1) Nazis won 43.9% of the vote.
2) Not as much as Hitler hoped and expected.
3) Despite SA violence and intimidation, SPD and communist support had held up remarkably well, as did support for the centre.

Question 62

When was the first Reichstag meeting held? What was the purpose of it?

Answer 62

1) Fist Reichstag meeting held on March 23rd 1933. Hitler’s objective at this meeting was to secure the necessary 2/3rds majority for his Enabling Act, that would allow him to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag and without the approval of the Reichstag and without reference to the President for 4 years.

Question 63

When was the Enabling Act passed? Who did Hitler have to gain support of to pass it? What was Hitler also given?

Answer 63

1) Enabling Act passed on March 24th 1933.
2) Hitler reassured the centre party that he wouldn’t use hid powers without consulting Hindenburg first.
3) Further to this, Hitler wad given the power to make treaties with foreign states without the approval of the Reichstag

Question 64

What was the impact of the Enabling Act?

Answer 64

1) Final piece in the legal framework that legitimised the Nazi dictatorship. Hitler was now able to issue decrees without needing Hindenburg’s approval.
2) Although the law was presented as a temporary measure for 4 years, in practice, it was a permanent fixture of the Nazis regime.
3) With the new law in force, Nazis could now begin to construct the one-party, terror state that Hitler wanted.