Germany Definitions

Frage	Antworten
Anti-Semitism	Hatred of the Jews.
Article 48	Part of the Weimar Constitution, giving the President special powers to rule in a crisis. Used by Chancellors to rule when they had no majority in the Reichstag - and therefore an undemocratic precedent for Hitler.
Aryan	The Master race - they looked for the ideal characteristics of fair hair, blue eyes...
Autobahn	Motorway – part of the Nazi job creation schemes
Bavaria	Large state in the South of Germany. Hitler & Nazis’ original base. Capital - Munich
Beerhall Putsch	Failed attempt to seize power by Hitler in November 1923. Hitler jailed for five years - in fact released Dec 1924
Brown Shirts	The name given to the S.A.
Chancellor	Like the Prime Minister - the man who is the chief figure in the government.
Coalition	A government made up of a number of parties working together, Because of the election system under Weimar, all its governments were coalitions. They are widely seen as weak governments.
DAF	“Deutsche Arbeitsfront’. German labour Front. Organisation set up by Nazis in May 1933 to replace Trade Unions - to ensure control of workers. Run by Robert Ley.
Dawes Plan	1924. Named after Charles Dawes, an American, who organised loans to help Weimar Germany deal with its reparations crisis.
Demilitarised	No troops allowed to be stationed. Applied to the Rhineland for German troops under the Versailles Treaty - overthrown by Hitler in March 1936 when he ordered his troops in.
Enabling Law	March 1933. Gives Hitler power to rule without the Reichstag for four years.
Freikorps	Organisation of ex-soldiers. Helped to brutally crush Spartacist uprising in Jan 1919. Exerted extreme right-wing pressure - involved in failed Kapp putsch, March 1920
Führer	'Leader’. Title taken by Hitler
Gestapo	‘Geheime Staatspolizei’ = secret police. Came under the control of Himmler. An important part of maintaining absolute obedience to Nazi rule.
Hitler Youth	Hitler Jugend (HJ). Organisation under Baldur von Schirach. A very important part of Nazi control: by indoctrinating the country’s youth they could ensure that Nazi ideas would come to be held by all.
Kapp Putsch	March 1920. Failed attempt by Freikorps and other extreme right-wingers to seize power from Weimar government. Led by Dr Kapp. Defeated by a general strike.
KDF	“Kraft Durch Freude’ (= ‘Strength through Joy’). Part of the German Labour Front. Organised cheap recreation & holidays.
Kristallnacht	9-10 November 1938. In revenge for the shooting of a German diplomat in Paris Jewish shops were looted and synagogues burnt. So-called after all the broken glass.
Lebensraum	'Living Space’. Land to the East which Hitler in Mein Kampf declared the German population needed
Left-wing	Those who believe in radical change in society, usually to improve the lot of the working classes. e.g. Socialists
Master Race	Hitler promoted the idea that there was competition between different races and that the ‘fittest would survive’. The master race was to be the Aryans - Slavs would become their slaves, and Jews must be eliminated.
Mein Kampf	Part autobiography, part ideas: written by Hitler when in jail following the Munich putsch of 1923. Became the (unread) bible of Nazi Germany
Middle Class	Saw themselves as being above the working class - often professional people, small businessmen, small farmers. Many of these who suffered in the crises of the ‘20s & 30s turned to the Nazis.
Night of the Long Knives	30 June 1934: Hitler’s destruction of rivals, esp. S.A. under Röhm.
November Criminals	Those who signed the armistice by which Germany gave up fighting WW1 and who were thus accused of ’stabbing the German army in the back’. Used to attack Weimar & esp Socialist politicians.
NSDAP	National Socialist German Workers’ Party, founded by Hitler from the German Workers’ Party in 1920.
Nuremberg Laws	1935: laws depriving Jews of many rights
Propaganda	Spreading ideas or telling news in a way that is designed to gain support for one’s own ideas. The Nazis were expert at using propaganda.
Putsch	An attempt to seize power - usually by force (Kapp (1920) and Hitler (1923) attempted putsches.
Reichstag	The German Parliament.
Reichstag Fire	27 February 1933. Used by the Nazis to crush the Communists and force through the ‘Enabling Law’.
Reparations	Amount Germany was made to pay to repair the damage caused during the First World War. Fixed at £6 600 000. Worsened the economic crisis in the 1920s and a source of great ill-feeling.
Rhineland	The part of Germany to the west of the River Rhine and 50 km to the East. ‘De-militarised’ under the Versailles Treaty to protect France but remilitarised by Hitler in March 1936.
Right-wing	Those who stand for order and authority and who are usually resisting change. e.g. Nationalists & Conservatives.
S.A.	Sturmabteilung’ (= Storm troops). The Nazis’ army of thugs used to intimidate rivals. Merged into the police in 1933. Called ‘Brownshirts’. Leaders purged in ‘Night of the Long Knives’.
S.S.	‘Schutzstaffel’ (= protection squad). Began as Hitler’s bodyguard. Developed into one of the main Nazi weapons of control. Led by Heinrich Himmler. Wore black.
Spartacists	Communist organisation. Attempted revolution in Jan-Feb 1919 crushed.
Stab in the Back	Nationalists who could not accept Germany’s sudden collapse in late 1918 accused the politicians who signed the armistice as betraying the German soldiers.
Versailles Treaty	Signed 28 June 1919. Hated by most Germans, for the ‘War Guilt Clause’, for being one-sided, for taking land from Germany, for destroying its military power, for the crushing reparations...
Wall Street Crash	Oct 1929. When the Stock Market in the USA collapsed many Americans needed the money they had invested abroad. This helped spread Depression round the world.
War Guilt	One of the clauses of the Versailles Treaty - which Germany was forced to sign - declared that Germany was responsible for the First World War (and therefore had to pay reparations

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