Potsdam and establishment of the Soviet zone

Question 1

What was agreed at Yalta?

Answer 1

‘Spheres of influence’
- Germany to be split into 4 zones

Question 2

What were the 2 spheres?

Answer 2

Western Europe and US in one and East Europe in the other

Question 3

When was Potsdam?

Answer 3

July 1945

Question 4

What was agreed at Potsdam?

Answer 4

• Germany to be demilitarised, denazified and democratised
• Germans in Poland, Hungary etc sent back to Germany
• Loss of land to Poland - Oder-Neisse line

Question 5

What was Churchill’s western view?

Answer 5

‘Iron curtain’ - a physical division within Europe

Question 6

What did Stalin respond with to Churchill?

Answer 6

Germans able to move freely, blamed it on East; he wants a buffer to protect country

Question 7

What was the Domino theory?

Answer 7

Greece, Turkey then the rest of the world to fall to communism - resulted in Truman Doctrine

Question 8

What was the modern revisionist viewpoint?

Answer 8

That the US stirred up the Cold War

Question 9

How was the West democratized?

Answer 9

• NSDAP disbanded
• Parties encouraged to form at a more local level
• Socialist party banned
• Basic Law banned KPD
• Military licence needed in each zone

Question 10

Who led German communists?

Answer 10

Walter Ulbricht

Question 11

When did communists arrive?

Answer 11

April 1945

Question 12

What parties merged to form the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)?

Answer 12

Zentrum and Protestant

Question 13

When were the Nuremberg War Trials?

Answer 13

November 1945-October 1946

Question 14

What leading Nazi officials committed suicide?

Answer 14

Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels

Question 15

What were the 4 crimes committed by the officials?

Answer 15

1. Conspiracy to commit crimes alleged in other 3 counts - helping others to do so below:
2. Crimes against peace
3. War crimes
4. Crimes against humanity

Question 16

What was a ‘Fragebogen’ and why was it bad?

Answer 16

Questionnaire based on your participation with the Nazi party; open to lies and interpretation

Question 17

What were former Nazis banned from?

Answer 17

Public office

Question 18

What were ‘Persil certificates’ and why were they bad?

Answer 18

Certificate of a clean political past; again open to lies and interpretation as given by friends

Question 19

How many were sentenced and executed?

Answer 19

4700 and 660

Question 20

What did the US do to save some Nazis from sentencing + example?

Answer 20

Used those who could help in Cold war e.g. Werner Von Braun created Saturn 5 - rocket to the moon

Question 21

What was operation ‘Odessa’?

Answer 21

Operation ran by SS and Roman Catholic church - smuggled Nazis into South America under new portfolio

Question 22

Where were Nazis in the East put?

Answer 22

Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen - terrible conditions

Question 23

What happened after 1947 in terms of denazification?

Answer 23

Nazi legacy downplayed, hidden behind ‘anti-facist- regime

Question 24

Why were Nazis downplayed?

Answer 24

To reduce risk of economic collapse, which led to the rise in the Nazi party in the first place

Question 25

What is monopoly capitalism?

Answer 25

When the state intervenes with large monopolies to protect them

Question 26

What was confiscated from former Nazis in Sep 1945 and what happened to it?

Answer 26

Land and property; redistributed to landless or taken into state ownership

Question 27

What happened to banks in 1945-46?

Answer 27

Nationalised by state or SAG (Soviet group of companies then handed to GDR

Question 28

What did the Soviets seize?

Answer 28

Equipment, machinery, engineers, scientists etc

Question 29

What was the first reason as to why allies fell out?

Answer 29

US order halt of deliveries of industrial goods to Soviets because food wasn't being returned

Question 30

When and why did UK reintroduce rationing?

Answer 30

1946-47; in order to supply Germany with food

Question 31

What caused large scale famine in Germany?

Answer 31

1946-47 Winter

Question 32

What became a serious issue?

Answer 32

Hoarding of food and fuel

Question 33

What did the black market do?

Answer 33

Caused bartering of goods for other goods and services, money now worthless

Question 34

What class were better off?

Answer 34

Rural workers > industrial workers

Question 35

What was created in Jan 1947?

Answer 35

Bizonia

Question 36

What was Bizonia?

Answer 36

Merging of US and UK zones, France resisted

Question 37

When was Trizonia formed?

Answer 37

1949

Question 38

What currency introduced and what was it backed by?

Answer 38

Deutschmark and $

Question 39

What happened to the economy in the west?

Answer 39

Became unified (was unchanged)

Question 40

What did Soviets introduce in retaliation to new currency?

Answer 40

Ostmark

Question 41

What was the Marshall plan and when was it introduced?

Answer 41

A plan which meant the US provided economic assistance to reinstate Europe's economic infrastructure and 1947