German terms

Question 1

Kaiser

Answer 1

German Emperor

Question 2

Reichstag

Answer 2

German Parliament

Question 3

Bundesrat

Answer 3

Representatives from German states (58)

Question 4

Dolchstoss

Answer 4

‘Stab in the back’ myth
A theory that the brave German army had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by the politicians.

Question 5

Diktat

Answer 5

Forced legislation

Question 6

Putsch

Answer 6

A violent attempt to overthrow the government, usually by right wing groups
(e.g. Kapp/Munich)

Question 7

Mein Kampf

Answer 7

‘My Struggle’ -Hitler’s autobiography and manifesto written in jail, 1924

Question 8

Volksgemeinschaft

Answer 8

‘People’s Community’
The idea that the Nazis would create one German community that would make religion or social class less relevant to people.

Question 9

Kinder, Küche, Kirche

Answer 9

Children, Kitchen, Church

Question 10

Autarky

Answer 10

Closed economy; self sufficiency

Question 11

Lebensborn

Answer 11

‘Fountain of Life’
Nazi policy which aimed to create a strong Aryan ‘master race’. It encouraged women to birth children with SS members

Question 12

Untermensch

Answer 12

Sub-human (often referring to Jews or Gypsies)

Question 13

Lebensraum

Answer 13

Living space
One of Hitler’s foreign policy aims (early 1920s)

Question 14

Gestapo

Answer 14

Secret police that monitored resistance to Nazi rule (1933-45)

Question 15

SS (Schutzstaffel)

Answer 15

Force led by Heinrich Himmler which could imprison and send people to concentration camps

Question 16

Kristallnacht

Answer 16

Night of the Broken Glass
When Jewish businesses were attacked, Nov 1938

Question 17

Einsatzgruppen

Answer 17

‘Mobile death squads’ that murdered Jews, founded 1939