5183644
| Question | Answer |
| --Political extremism and crises, 1918-33-- | --Political extremism and crises, 1918-33-- |
| Why was the government opposed by extremist groups on the left and the right? | For its: -Involvement in the Treaty of Versailles -Liberalism and democratic principles. -Failure to produce a strong, decisive government and a strong leader. -Failure to unite Germany. |
| What was the effect of the Treaty of Versailles on the German public (UGARGLE)? | Unfairly treated – no part in Conference talks/ forced to sign/ few of 14 Points in the Treaty. Guilt – ‘Such a confession in my mouth would be a lie’, said Count Brockdorff-Rantzau. Armed forces – meant Germany could not defend itself against even small countries (the Dungervolker - Dung people). Reparations – starved German children. Germany lost territory – a humiliation/ contrary to self-determination/ made Germany poorer - took farm land (W Prussia) and industrial land (Saar). League of Nations – an insult/ meant Germany couldn’t defend itself in the League of Nations. Extra – forbidding Anschluss was against the principle of self-determination. Results – riots in Berlin/the Deutsche Zeitung attacked ‘the disgraceful treaty’/ Kapp Putsch (1920) to try to overturn the Treaty. |
| --Left wing-- | --Left wing-- |
| Which left-wing group caused the most disruption to the new republic? | The Spartacists and other communist groups. |
| What was the trigger of the Spartacist Uprising and why? | -4th January 1919: Emil Eichorn (popular police chief) dismissed by government. -He was a radical USPD member. -This brought the government into open conflict with the workers' councils. |
| When did the Spartacist Uprising start and what happened, who were its leaders and what happened to them? | -6th January 1919. -Leaders: Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht. -Thousands of armed workers took over key buildings, such as the newspaper offices. -The Freikorps crushed the rebellion and executed its leaders. |
| What other tactics did left-wing groups use to defy the new republic? | Tried to take over individual German states and establish communist governments. |
| What was the most significant of these attempts, and how were they stopped and why? | -Bavaria in March 1919 and in Saxony and Thuringia in 1921. -They didn't have a lot of popular support and were suppressed by the army. |
| --Right wing-- | --Right wing-- |
| What was the DNVP role in the new Weimar government? | -They were opposed to the government at first and did not want to be part of it. -Later, they tried to work within the Reichstag in order to produce a more settled political environment. |
| What was the main ideology behind the right-wing opposition? | -Aimed to restore the empire. -Overturn the Treaty of Versailles. |
| Which groups made up the right-wing opposition? | -Wealthy landowners. -The army. -Industrialists. -People in conservative groups (those who worked in schools and universities). |
| --Kapp Putsch-- | --Kapp Putsch-- |
| Who were the leaders of this Putsch? | -Wolfgang Kapp. -Freikorps leaders: --Walther Lüttwitz. --Herman Ehrhardt. Had popular support from General Ludendorff. |
| When did the Kapp Putsch take place, and what role did the army play? | -12th March 1920. -Army did not join the putsch, but would not fight the rebels. |
| How did the Putsch come to an end? | -Trade unions called a general strike, demanding an end to the putsch and a new government with the SDP in control. -General strike universal and lasted for four days. -This brought the city to a halt and the Kapp government collapsed. |
| --Munich Putsch-- | --Munich Putsch-- |
| When did the Munich Putsch take place, and how did it start? | -8th November 1923. -SA surrounded a large beer hall in Munich, where Gustav von Kahr and other important officials were holding a meeting. |
| What happened next in the Munich Putsch? | -Declared that he and Ludendorff were to form a new government. -Word of this Putsch got around and resistance was organised. -When the Nazis attempted to start their march on Berlin in the morning, they were taken prisoner after a short battle with the police. |
| How was the Putsch a success for Hitler, even though on the surface it was a failure? | -Trial enabled him to give a speech about his beliefs that was widely reported and increased his fame. -He rethought his political ideas. -He wrote Mein Kampf to express his views. -The Nazis should try to seize power through legal means. |
| --Timeline-- Crises for the government, 1919-33 | --Timeline-- Crises for the government, 1919-33 |
| January 1919 | Spartacist (left-wing) Revolt in Berlin. Put down by the Freikorps, leaders are murdered on the way to prison. |
| February 1919 | Communist takeover in Bavaria. Put down by the army and Freikorps, May 1919 |
| March 1920 | Kapp Putsch An attempt to overthrow the government by Freikorps and army groups led by Wolfgang Kapp and Eric Ludendorff. |
| February 1921 | Communist risings in Saxony and Thuringia Put down by the army in March 1921. |
| 1922 | Communist governments set up in Saxony and Thuringia Put down by the army in March 1922. |
| November 1923 | Munich Putsch Hitler and the Nazi Party try to seize power, starting with a takeover in Munich. |
| July 1929 | National opposition to the Young Plan. An attempt led by Alfred Hugenberg to pass a 'freedom bill' in the Reichstag in favour of reversing Versailles, dropping the Young Plan and US aid and against involvement with Europe and the USA. |
| July onwards | The right-wing members of the government and Hindenburg increasingly rely on rule by Article 48. While they blame it on the inability of parties in the Reichstag to work together, others suspect that this is just an excuse for a more authoritarian rule. |
| --Opposition and dissent in Nazi Germany 1933-45-- | --Opposition and dissent in Nazi Germany 1933-45-- |
| What happened to political opposition after August 1933? | Not possible to oppose the Nazis in the Reichstag, since all opposition parties were illegal and many members of the SPD and KDP were put into exile or into concentration camps. |
| Name some of the groups that worked to oppose the Nazis. | -Political groups and trade unions. -Church groups. -Student and youth groups. -Members of the army. |
| Why was it hard for members of the army to oppose Hitler? | They had sworn a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. |
| --How did people express opposition and dissent?-- | --How did people express opposition and dissent?-- |
| Name 5 ways in which people moved to oppose Hitler and the Nazi Party. | -Anti-Nazi campaigns. -Sabotage. -Disobedience. -Attempts to assassinate Hitler. -Church opposition. |
| --Anti-Nazi campaigns-- | --Anti-Nazi campaigns-- |
| What did the KPD, SPD and trade unions do in the early 1930s to oppose the Nazis? | They printed pamphlets and other anti-Nazi literature. |
| What happened to this sort of opposition (political based) after 1938? | They did much of their work by word of mouth and tended not to form organised groups (for fear that the Gestapo would arrest them and detain them indefinitely). |
| What was the SOPADE and what did they do? | -They were the SPD in exile that worked outside of Germany. -They gathered information about public opinion in Germany and passed it on to the Allies. |
| What happened to major left-wing opposition after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941? | -It was revived. -The Uhrig groups leafleted factories and put up posters urging workers to acts of sabotage. |
| What was the Red Orchestra? | A group of mainly government employees who, while not necessarily communist, passed information about the German war effort to the USSR. |
| --Sabotage-- | --Sabotage-- |
| Give two ways in which workers sabotaged the Nazis. | -They held lightning strikes that lasted only a few hours. -Sabotaged production by working slowly, damaging machinery or reporting in sick when they were not. |
| What happened to workers who performed these actions? | They were given a blind eye by the regime unless they formed groups in which case the Gestapo shut them down and arrested the members. |
| When the war began, how did these resistance groups progress? | With the help from the Allies, the workers used more and more violent tactics such as: blowing up bridges or railway lines. |
| --Disobedience-- | --Disobedience-- |
| How did the youth rebel against the Nazi regime? | -The middle class youth generation didn't join the Hitler Youth. -Some youths went to swing groups, where they didn't conform to Nazi cultural rules (listening to foreign radio etc.). |
| What happened to these swing groups? | The Nazis made occasional arrests, but didn't actively hunt these groups as they didn't express anti-Nazi messages all the time. |
| Who were the Edelweiss Pirates and what did they do to oppose the regime? | -A working-class movement that expressed anti-Nazi views. -Didn't wear Nazi uniform to express that they were not part of the Hitler Youth. -Some did simple things such as: running their own activities. -Some painted anti-Nazi slogans on walls or collected anti-Nazi leaflets dropped by Allied planes. -Some went further and and worked with resistance groups. --If caught, they were executed. |
| Who were the White Rose Group and what did they do? | -A group of students at the University of Munich. -Distributed anti-Nazi material urging sabotage and exposing the Nazi murder of the Jews, while urging non-violent resistance against the Nazis. -They were caught and executed. |
| Give another way in which people were disobedient to the Nazis. | People helped other people that the Nazis wanted to arrest to escape the country. |
| --Attempts to assassinate Hitler-- | --Attempts to assassinate Hitler-- |
| From July 1921 to July 1944, how many attempts on Hitler's life were made? | 15 |
| How many were made after 1939 and by whom and what does this show? | 7 were made all by army members or groups led by army members. This shows the loss in faith from the army against Hitler, signifying a drop in support for the regime from the army. |
| What also fuelled the unrest within the army? | The disapproval of the SS, and the other extreme Nazi views and actions such as the extermination of the Jews and other undesirables. |
| What was the July Plot of 1944? | -Led by Claus von Stauffenberg. -20th July: Stauffenberg left a bomb in a briefcase in a conference room where Hitler was going to meet military aides. -The leaders of the plot, as well as 200 others, were captured and executed in revenge for this attempt. |
| --Church opposition-- | --Church opposition-- |
| What was the Concordat and why did Hitler set this up? | -An agreement between the Catholic Church and Hitler that they wouldn't get involved in politics if Hitler left the Catholic Church alone. -Hitler did this because he knew the power of religious beliefs and wanted the loyalty of German people to be directed to him alone. |
| What did Hitler develop in order to counter the influence of the Catholic Church? | -He created the strongly Nazi-influenced 'People's Church'. -In control of the German Evangelical Church. -These church members were soothed by Nazi nationalism, conservatism and anti-communist stance. |
| What happened by 1933 in terms of the People's Church? | It had become extremely clear that it was becoming less Christian and more Nazi, displaying Nazi banners and even banning the Old Testament from the Bible as it was 'Jewish'. |
| What was created in reaction to this and what was this organisation's view on the matter? What happened to members of this Church? | -The Pastors' Emergency League that developed into the Confession Church in May 1934. -Condemned the People's Church for obeying the state, being anti-Semitic and encouraging atheism. Many members were caught and executed. |
| --Spontaneous protests-- | --Spontaneous protests-- |
| Give 2 examples of 2 occasions where there were informal reactions by the public. | -October 1934, when Nazis imprisoned two bishops for speaking out against the Nazis. -Consideration of invading Czechoslovakia in 1938. |
| --Political dissent and active challenge, 1949-89-- | --Political dissent and active challenge, 1949-89-- |
| What 3 things did the Basic Law state that helped opposition voices? | -Freedom of speech. -Freedom of the press. -No censorship. |
| Name 4 things that were going on in the FRG, which made political dissent and active challenge be less important. | -Rebuilding the government, working together in useful coalitions to avoid the problems that the Weimar government had had. -Building a sense of identity while leaving room fro reunification with East Germany. -Rebuilding the economy and physically rebuilding the country. -Establishing the FRG as a viable, moderate member of Europe; even the newly re-established communist party stressed it wanted German Socialism, not a revolution. |
| What significance did the results of the 1949 elections have? | -Since it was the CDU, it shows that there was a feeling among voters that they wanted parties that trod a moderate line. -This is also shown by the fact that the SPD, the party with the most radical agenda, wasn't part of government. |
| What did the SPD oppose during the 1950s? | -'Year zero' approach to past membership of the Nazi Party. -His desire to align the FRG with the rest of Europe. |
| --Demonstrations and marches in the 1950s-- | --Demonstrations and marches in the 1950s-- |
| How did the government suppress extreme opposition in 1952? | They banned the right-wing Socialist Reich Party as it expressed views much like the Nazi party. |
| Which demonstrations did the communists hold? | -Munich in 1953, 6,000 communists clashed with the police. -This was because the KPD didn't feel represented in the Bundestag as it hadn't won enough seats. |
| --Changes in the 1960s-- | --Changes in the 1960s-- |
| What new form of protest was gaining speed throughout the West? | Youth protest. |
| Name 3 ways in which youth opposition was prevalent in the FRG. | -Young people objected to the 'year zero' principle, and taunted the older generation. -Protests against the FRG's military; its involvement with the West and NATO that they might store atomic weapons within the FRG, or develop them themselves. -Young people joined the discontent of the USA's involvement in the Vietnam war. |
| --The APO-- | --The APO-- |
| What was the APO? | -Ausserparliamentarische Opposition. -Made up of left-wing young intellectuals. -Created due to the distrust of young intellectuals for the established, conservative government. |
| Why else was the APO created? | There were no left-wing parties to absorb them after the KPD was banned and the SPD revised its policies to be less radical in 1959. |
| What was the issue with the SPD reforms? | Even though it got them more power in government, it left people on the left wing (especially students and trade unionists) feeling unrepresented. |
| What was the membership of the APO like and what did they support? | -Strong university based membership. -Supported theories such as: --How to oppose the government. --Action as more important than argument. --Student protest as a key method of protest. |
| --The SDS-- | --The SDS-- |
| What was the SDS? | -German Socialist Student Union. -Had been part of the SPD but broke away in 1961, due to the party becoming less and less radical and no longer representing its feelings, over rearmament, for example. |
| Name some issues that the SDS protested about. | -Vietnam War. -Nuclear weapons. -Former Nazis holding office in government. -FRG's involvement in NATO. |
| How did student protest progress form 1965-67? | -1965 - SDS Leader is Rudi Dutschke, who escalated the violence in student protests. -1967 - During demonstrations against the human rights record of Iran during a visit from its shah, conflict escalated with the police and a student was shot. |
| What was the effect of this on the SDS? | -Led to an increase in the membership of the SDS. -Led to a split regarding how violent demonstrations should be. -Gudrun Ensslin (protester) said that after the shooting, violence was the only way to answer violence and there was no arguing with the Auschwitz generation. |
| What happened in April 1968? | Rudi Dutschke was shot by a right-wing fanatic, who read criticisms of student protests in newspapers published by conservative newspapers. |
| What happened as a result of this? | -The 'Easter Riots'. -These consisted of attacks on offices of the Springer Press all over Germany. |
| When and for what was the last SDS demonstration? | -11th May 1968 in Bonn. -Protested against the Emergency Law (along with 80,000 other people) which many saw as a violation of the Basic Law's human rights principles. |
| --Challenges in the 1970s-- | --Challenges in the 1970s-- |
| How did the amount of protest that happened die down? | Government put a lot of pressure on emergency laws to use the police to control these rebellious groups. |
| What was the effect of this? | Made the opposition groups feel more marginalised, therefore they increased their levels of violence which resorted in terrorism. |
| What happened as a result of this by the government? | -At first, police and government thrown off balance by terrorists' refusal to work through conventional protest. -Later, they developed hard-line policies to deal with them, including putting up posters of known terrorists, appealing to the public to turn them in. |
| What was one of the most prominent terrorist groups, and when was it set up? | -Early 1970. -Known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, and called itself the Red Army Faction or RAF. |
| How did this terrorist group protest and how was support for them shown? | They used extreme methods such as: -Bombings. -Hunger strikes (if in prison). Support for them shown by bombings in other major cities such as: Paris and Stockholm. |
| Why did the bombings in the FRG slow? | -Increase in government activity. -Due to a feeling that this form of protest was not achieving anything. |
| --Timeline-- Terrorist activity in the FRG, 1968-75 | --Timeline-- Terrorist activity in the FRG, 1968-75 |
| 2nd April 1968 | Andreas Baader, Gundrun Ensslin, Horst Söhnlein and Thorwald Proll plant bombs in two department stores in Frankfurt. They are caught and imprisoned. |
| November 1969 | West Berlin Tupamaros formed; they set off a series of bombs in West Berlin. Members of the Kommune I groups (formed in the late 1960s) try to bomb a motorcade containing the US president, Richard Nixon, on a state visit. The bomb is discovered and the groups arrested. |
| May 1970 | A group of terrorists attack the Dahlem Institute for Social Research, there is shooting and a staff member is killed. The press name for the group is the Baader-Meinhof Gang (after two of its members). |
| September 1970 | The Baander-Meinhof Gang and a group that becomes the Movement 2 June group some time in 1971 rob three banks. |
| January 1971 | Baader-Meinhof robs more banks. |
| February 1971 | Socialist Patients Collective (SPK) try to plant a bomb on a train that the president of the FRG is on. They miss the train. By July the members have been absorbed by the Baader-Meinhof Gang. |
| December 1971 | Baader-Meinhof robs a bank, shooting a police officer. |
| February 1972 | Baader-Meinhof robs a bank. |
| May 1972 | Baader-Meinhof bombs: -The HQ of the US Army in Frankfurt and a US army base in Heidelberg -Police stations in Augsburg and Munich -The Hamburg HQ of the Springer Press -The car of a judge who signed most of the warrants for the arrest of Baader-Meinhof members. |
| September 1972 | Black September Palestinian guerrillas take Israeli hostages at the Olympic Village during the Munich Olympics. |
| October 1974 | The five Baader-Meinhof leaders go to trial. |
| February 1974 | Movement 2 June kidnap the CDU candidate for mayor of Berlin, Peter Lorenz. |
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