Download Germany Revision - Fullhurst History

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
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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!
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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
Fullhurst History Department
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!
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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
Fullhurst History Department
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
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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)
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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
Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
handy table below, will demonstrate!
Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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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Fullhurst History Department
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.
GCSE Germany 1919-47
Fullhurst History Department
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:
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Declaring war on the US in support of Japan, making the US decision to slap
Germany about 1st much easier.
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Refusing to allow the German Army to retreat from Stalingrad, losing around ¼
million of Germany’s best soldiers.
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Refusing to support the German defence of the attack on France the allies
launched in 1944, thinking it was a fake.
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Insisting that he had control of all decisions made by the German Generals.
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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

Germany and Berlin would be split into 4 zones: US, British, French and Soviet

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

The Nazi Party was to be banned and Germany was to be de-nazified

Poland’s borders were moved to the west

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.

October 1945 – The Nazi Party was banned and never allowed to be reformed.

December 1945 – German military was abolished

January 1946 – Public officials who had been Nazi party members before 1937
were fired from their jobs

May 1946 – Making and giving out Nazi books or music was banned.

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!
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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
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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