Topic 4 Germany Flashcards
(37 cards)
1
Q
Reichstag Fire
A
- 27th Feb 1933
- Marianus van der Lubbe charged
- 4k communists leaders arrested
- Undermined Communist election campaign (lost 19 seats)
- “Decree for the Protection of People of State” passed
2
Q
‘Decree for Protection of People and State’
A
- Police could ban meetings, search houses and, imprison people without trial
- Death penalty for certain crimes
- Concentration camps like Dachau set up.
- Meant to be temporary but lasted until 1945
3
Q
March 1933 Election
A
- Nazis exploit ‘Decree for Protection of People and State’
- 50k SA become police auxilaries
- Violence led to 70 deaths
- Threats at polling stations to encourage ‘correct voting’
- Nazis polled 288 seats but only 44% - not a clear majority or two-thrids needed to change constitution
4
Q
Enabling Act
A
- Passed 444 votes to 94
- Applied for 4 years but renewed in 1937
- H could pass laws without the Reichstag
- Reichstag only met 12 more times till 1945
- Kroll Opera House
5
Q
‘Nazi Revolution’
Enabling Act
A
- Removed all opposition
- State parliaments abolished
- Trade Unions replaced with German Worker’s Front
- All political parties except for Nazis banned
6
Q
Threat of Röhm
A
- SA had >3m members by 1934
- Röhm had more socialist views
- SA wanted to replace regular army
7
Q
Night of the Long Knives
A
- 29th Jun 1934 SS killed SA leaders
- 90 SA leaders killed
- SS became elite organisation
- SA less powerful (reduced in size by 40% to around 1.8m)
8
Q
Hitler becomes Führer
A
- Hindenburg died, H combined offices of Chancellor and President
- 2nd Aug 1934 Army swore oath specifically to H
- Named himself Führer, supreme leader
9
Q
Nazi Leadership Schools
A
- NAPOLAs - Boys aged 10-18 educated in leaderhsip, 39 schools in 1939
- 11 Adolf Hitler Schools created - Elite schools for 12-18 year olds for military leadership
10
Q
Nazi Youth Movements
A
- 1933 all youth groups apart from HY banned
- 1936 HY Law, all young people must be a member of a Nazi youth org.
- Boys - Cubs at 6; Young German Boys at 10; HY at 14
- Girls - Young Maidens at 10; League of German Girls at 14
- 1939, 8m joined HY
11
Q
Nazi Policies on Women
A
- Kinder, Kirche, Kuche
- 1933 loans available to married couples
- Large focus on women being homemakers and mothers
- Contraception and abortion banned
- Medals for women with more children
12
Q
Nazis & Catholic Church
A
- Concordat - 1933, church wouldn’t interfere with politics, Nazis wouldn’t interfere with religion
- Breaks Concordat - H removed catholic newspapers and images, prompting a rebuke by the pope ‘With Burning Concern’ in 1937
- Nazis responded with a huge crackdown on the church
13
Q
Nazis and Protestant Church
A
- Nazis created Reich Church in 1933
- Confessional church made in 1934 to rival Nazi churches but quickly shut down
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer hung 1945
- By 1939 only 5% of Germans believed in God
14
Q
Economic Plans
A
- New Plan, introduced by Schacht in 1934; reduce imports and increase exports; Keynesian economics of deficit financing; 1b marks on public schemes
- Four Year Plan - 1936, autarky/self-sufficiency in raw resources, by 1939 Germany still imported a third of raw materials
15
Q
Invisible Unemployment
A
- Nazis manipulated figures to make unemployment appear to be reduced
- Women, jews and national minorities not included in unemployment figures
- Men in the National Labour Service no longer counted as unemployed
- By 1939 unemployment down to 500k
16
Q
4 Key Messages of Propaganda
A
- The supremacy of the Aryan race and the inferiority of the Jews and other races
- The tremendous work being done by the Nazis to deal with the evils of Communism
- The different roles of men and women in society and the importance of family
- The fact that all citizens had a duty to suffer for the good of the nations
17
Q
Radio
Propaganda
A
- Goebbels “spiritual weapon of the totalitarian state”
- 1939, 70% of Germans had a radio
- Programmes would include H’s speeches, Nazi history and traditional German music
18
Q
Public Spaces
Propaganda
A
- Owners of factories, bars and restaurants ordered to install loudspeakers to broadcasts H’s speeches
- 6k loudspeakers erected in public spaces
- Huge rallies like at Nuremberg emphasised power and glory of Germany under Nazis
19
Q
Eternal Jew
A
a film that demonised minority groups
20
Q
1936 Olympics
Propaganda
A
- Germany won the most medals
- Huge stadium to hold 100,000
- Showed Germany and Aryans as a superior race
- Star athlete was Jesse Owens, a black American who won 4 gold medals
21
Q
Kristallnacht
Persecution of Jews
A
- 9th-10th Nov 1938
- 800 Jewish shops destroyed
- 191 synagogues vandalised or set on fire
- 91 jews killed and 30k arrested
- Many Jewish homes and property attacked / damaged
22
Q
Trigger for Kristallnacht
A
Nov 1938, German official in the Paris Embassy murdered by a Jewish man
23
Q
Persecution of Jews
A
- 1st Apr 1933 boycott of jewish shops and businesses
- 1935 bannes from public spaces and the army
- Sept 1935 Nuremberg Laws
- Nov 1938 Kristallnacht
- Jan 1939 Reich Office for Jewish Emigration to speed up the emigration of Jews
24
Q
Nuremberg Laws
Persecution of Jews
A
- ‘Reich Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour’
- Jews and Aryans could not marry or else Aryans would be considered Jews by law
- ‘Reich Law on Citizenship’
- Jews can no longer vote or hold a German passport
25
Gestapo
- Secret Police
- 1933 Göring set up
- Huge network of spies amongst ordinary citizens
- Over 50% of charges came from private informants
- Could search houses and arrest people on the spot
- 30k officers by 1942
26
SS under Himmler
- Himmler appointed leader 1929
- 400k members in 1934
- 200k members in 1935, due to discharges on moral, physical or racial grounds; Himmler introduced rigorous 5 year enrollment procedure
- Members personally vetted by Himmler as “Aryan”
- Most ruthless and loyal Nazis
- Smart disciplined paramilitary force
- Main role to enforce Nazis' racial policies and run concentration camps
27
Concentration Camps
| Instrument of Terror
- run by SS
- first camp was in Dachau
- 200k Germans imprisoned
- tough conditions; harsh labour, beatings and random executions
28
Education
- Geography taught Lebensraum (living room)
- Eugenics
- RS omitted
- at least 2 hours a day spent on PE
- 1933 textbooks rewritten to enforce Nazi beliefs
- 50% decrease in higher education students
29
Arts
| Censorship
- all writers, actors and musicians forced to join Reich Chamber of Commerce
- Jazz banned for being “black”
- Art had to feature Aryans
30
Information
| Censorship
- Newspaper editors and journalists forced to join Reich Press Chamber and forbidden from writing critical articles
- 1934 all radio stations controlled by Reich Radio Company
- Radios made in Germany couldn't detect foreign broadcasts
- Ministry of Propaganda made a list of banned books
- Gestapo could search for and burn any non-Nazi literature
- Millions of books by Jewish or Communist authors burned
31
When was the Night of the Long Knives?
29th June 1934
32
When did Hindenburg die?
2nd August 1934
33
Who became head of the unified police system and when?
Himmler, 1936
34
'Der Stürmer'
Weekly newspaper that printed antisemitic caricatures depicting Jews in cartoon form.
35
Policies on Homosexuals
- 1936 Reich Office for the Combating of Homosexulaity and Abortion created
- Himmler created a register of homosexuals
- 10 cases per year in SS
- 1937 homosexual SS officers sent to camps - forced to wear pink triangles and subject to castration and/or medical experiments
- No persecution of lesbians
36
Policies on Gypsies
- only 30k in Germany
- 1938 Himmler issued 'Decree for the Struggle Against the Gypsy Plague’
- 1939 sent to camps then expelled to Poland
- 1942 Himmler ordered them be transferred to Auschwitz
37
Nazi Crackdown on the Catholic Church
| Pope's message 'With Burning Concern' in 1937
- Membership of the Catholic League made illegal
- State funding for the Church cut and property of some monasteries seized
- Gestapo and SS agents began to spy on Church organisations
- Catholic Church schools closed and turned into community schools
- Catholic priests who spoke out against the Nazis were arrested; some priests held in concentration camps.
- 1941 the Catholic press was closed down.
