Germany 1919-45 Quiz - By Dan Guiney

This Article treated Germany as the sole nation responsible for the horrors of the war. People referred to those who signed the armistice as the ‘November Criminals’ and the idea of a Dolchstoss came about – this is the belief that Germany (whose soldiers were still on foreign soil at the end of the war) had not been defeated in battle but had been betrayed by people at home. The impact of war, the loss of a Kaiser, and the harsh treaty imposed between January-June 1919 at Versailles combined to make life extremely difficult for the new government.

A momentous event took place on 27th February 1933 which would change the course of modern History. The German parliament, the Reichstag, was set on fire and the man accused of doing this was a 24 year old Dutch Communist with learning difficulties called Marinus van der Lubbe. There has been a big debate about whether he really did do this. Some think he was set up by the Nazis so they could find a scapegoat and create a reason to attack the Communists – for this reason the West Berlin authorities pardoned him in 1980. However, Historian Ian Kershaw does believe it was van der Lubbe’s fault (he had a past history of arson attacks). Whether or not he did do it might always remain a mystery but what we do know for sure is that the Nazis used this event as an excuse to attack their opponents. Hitler whipped up anti-Communist sentiment (remember negative cohesion was already a factor in Weimar Germany) and used it to help him pass the Enabling Act which gave him dictatorial powers in what he described as a ‘state of national emergency’. This was known as the Decree for the Protection of the People and State. It led to a policy of violence and terror: meetings of the SPD and KPD were broken up, trade unions assaulted, and their leaders sent to concentration camps (KZ). 69 people were killed during the first 5 weeks of this. This policy was part of what was known as Gleichschalltung (co-ordination). The KPD (Communists) had been banned immediately after the Reichstag Fire. The SPD (socialists) were officially banned on 22nd June and the Catholic party on 5th July.

Perhaps the most obvious changes came in the field of culture. Like in America (the period there is known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’ the German people hoped for change and progress in their day to day lives. Movies became incredibly popular and stars from Germany made it big in Hollywood, such as the fantastic actress Marlene Dietrich who starred in The Blonde Venus. American star Josephine Baker was a big hit and she toured Europe with her risqué banana-skirted ‘Dance of the Savages’ (It’s on YouTube).

Germany normalized its currency by changing the old mark to the new Rentenmark in 1925. As such by 1928 German production levels were finally back to pre-war level and exports were on the increase.

France spoke of "revanche" and a war in perpetuity having been invaded in both 1870 and 1914 by Prussia/Germany. As such they wanted a buffer zone between themselves and Germany.

Interest free loans of 600M were given to young women who withdrew from the labour market to get married, helping to ease unemployment figures. Moreover, there were specialist organisations set up to cater for these people such as National Socialist Womanhood which was led by Gertrud Scholtz-Klink and which promoted Nazi views towards women. Marriage loans of half a year’s salary were provided, one quarter of which was given as a one off ‘gift’. Family allowances improved dramatically and maternity benefits improved. However, on the other hand those women who did not wish to conform to the kinder, kirche, kuche (children, church, kitchen) Nazi model did not fare so well. A party regulation of 1921 had excluded women from all senior positions in the party and women were not encouraged to work except in professions such as midwifery. The number of employed women reduced from 37% to 31%. Moreover, abortion was banned and strict anti-contraceptive laws were introduced, thus curtailing women’s sexual freedom. Many women also witnessed the murders of their children through Nazi euthanasia, especially the Operation T4 programme aimed at young people with learning difficulties, and some were brainwashed by Nazi ideology into taking part in the Lebensborn programme which tried to improve ‘racial standards’. Indeed, 12,000 children were born as part of this programme.

Germany had been treated as an international pariah at the peace talks in 1919 and many, especially France, did not trust them to play a role in international affairs. Therefore in this respect the Republic has some notable successes. Germany signed the Locarno Pact in the spirit of peace in 1925 and was accepted as a member of the League of Nations in 1926. Moreover, Stresemann managed to remove foreign troops from the Rhineland in 1929. Some on the right wing argued however that the signing of Locarno and joining of the League was a tacit acceptance of Versailles. Nevertheless, Stresemann had been successful in this respect in that Germany was an international player once more.

The Nazis used propaganda in original and unique ways which hugely increased their support. Josef Goebbels was crucial in this in his role as Minister of Propaganda. Rallies were held, particularly in the Zeppelinfeld in Nuremburg, which made people feel part of a greater good and posters portrayed simple, easy to remember messages such as ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer’ – ‘one people, one state, one leader’. The radio became an important source of media and by 1939 70% of households had one.

Stresemann was against Versailles but was a realist. On the surface this improvement in the nation’s economic health seems overwhelming support for the idea that Germany was indeed recovering during the ‘Golden Years.’

The DAP had only 50 members in 1921 but 100,000 in 1928, one year before the crash. Much of this was due to anti-semitism in German society.

As a result the Weimar Republic (without an army of much use to defend itself) adopted a policy known as ‘passive resistance’ which in effect meant putting down their tools and stopping working in key industries. The French and Belgians couldn’t take what wasn’t being produced – that was the idea.

This was an 800 million marks loan from the USA. Germany was to receive an initial loan of 40 million GBP and was given a two year moratorium (break). In total Germany received 3000 million GBP during 1924-30 and experienced a 17% rise in industrial output. In 1929 the Young Plan further cut down reparations by 25% and annual payments were fixed to run only until 1966, not 1984 as originally requested.

Bulgaria, another defeted nation, had its reparations completely cancelled.

Article 48 effectively allowed the President of the Weimar Republic to suspend parliament in times of emergency and many blame this for the Republic’s eventual collapse. The constitution also stated that the Republic would adopt a system known as Proportional Representation (often referred to simply as PR). This was a system whereby political parties gained the same percentage of seats in the Reichstag (German parliament) as votes received. Whilst this seems quite fair it must be considered that this would result in many, many small parties being allowed to form part of the government and led the new Republic to be associated with the problems of pluralism. There were six coalition governments (makeshift governments created when one party could not get a majority in the Reichstag) which undermined the credibility of the Weimar Republic – it had a hard time agreeing upon anything.

There were 3.5 million displaced Germans in the Sudetenland.

David Lloyd-George was concerned about the threat of Communism across Europe as far back as 1919 and the events which followed between the years 1919-23 exacerbated this fear in many ordinary Germans. Germany remember had experienced left wing protests in both Berlin and the Ruhr, the most famous being the Spartacist uprising of January 1919. Historian Gordon Craig describes this phenomenon as “negative cohesion” – the idea that people were so scared of Communism that they were prepared to vote for the other political extreme, i.e. Nazism. Many of these people, often in the Mittelstand or middle-class, did not necessarily share all of Hitler’s ideas but they did share the same fear over a common enemy. Germany remember was both economically and militarily weak and appeared under the Weimar Republic unable to fend off the ‘red threat’. Russia following its 1917 Bolshevik Revolution had been thrown into a civil war and this was the last thing most Germans would have wanted. In 1921 Hitler had set up the SA who were responsible for protecting party meetings which in practice often meant deliberately provoking and beating Communists (often with legs of tables which they smashed) and many were prepared to accept or overlook this political violence in the same way they accepted the violent role of the Freikorps in crushing Luxemburg and Liebknecht’s Spartacist uprising. The fear of Communism and the belief that the Weimar government was not dealing with it effectively was therefore an important factor in explaining the demise of the noble experiment of German democracy and indeed of the rise of Hitler and Nazism.

Article 232 was the article which dealt with reparations. At Versailles it was left as a blank cheque. The reality of this meant people lived off turnips which had previously been used only to feed horses, that bread was filled with sawdust to make it go further, and that people drank ersatz (substitute) coffee.

'The inflation King’ Hugo Stinnes actually made money from the crisis! His story was exceptional though and for the vast majority of Germans the end of 1923 was the worst year of their lives economically.

The Wall Street Crash in October 1929 devastated the world, not just Germany. People were desperate and starving and many simply lost all of their savings and could not find work. A little known fact is that an American called William Cuno invested all of his money into the market at the last minute trying to prevent the crash (and effectively save the world) – he lost everything. In Germany the massive loans taken out in 1924 and 1929 had to be paid in full within just 90 days and this was to prove impossible, effectively bankrupting the nation. The volcano Stresemann had spoken of had erupted with a violence that few had anticipated. In extreme times people tend to look for extreme solutions and so it is common that extreme political parties, such as Communists and Nazis, should grow in support in such a time. In 1925 55% of Hitler’s SA came from the ranks of the unemployed. Nazi Party membership had stood at 100,000 in 1928 but the crash helped this figure swell especially amongst the middle classes.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George had concerns over the threat of Communism in a weakened post-war Germany, especially because of the Russian Revolution which had taken place in 1917 across the border. So perhaps it should be no surprise that the KPD or German Communist Party was committed to establishing a Bolshevik-style government in Germany. In January 1919 a group called the Spartacists (named after the famous Roman slave Spartacus who fought for his freedom) tried to take power in a failed coup in Berlin. It was headed by Karl Liebknecht and an exceptional Polish woman called Rosa Luxemburg. Luxemburg was a committed Communist who suffered from a disability and who had been to prison three times previously.

Hitler offered a simple 25-point programme which outlined the Nazi policy of autarky or self-sufficiency which included ideas such as the creation of public works schemes and a war economy (the German word for this is wehrwirtschaft) and this appealed to many to be the answer to Germany’s economic woes. The Wall Street Crash is often cited by historians as a massive turning point in the fortunes of the Weimar Republic and the Nazis.

The Kaiser, Wilhelm II, had fled to Holland and it was decided that for the first time Germany would embark upon a democratic form of government – historian Detlev Peukert called this “the noble experiment”. However, right from the start it faced huge difficulties. Thus, the new Republic which was set up in the small town of Weimar (because Berlin, the capital, was deemed too dangerous) was born out of defeat. Many argue that this was a millstone around the neck of the new government and that it struggled to recover from this right from the start.

Jewish businesses were attacked, notably on Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) - 9/11/38 - in which the Nazis encouraged widespread violence against Jewish firms and a boycott of Jewish businesses and 7,000 Jewish shops/businesses attacked which was part of the build up to the Endloslung (Final Solution) whereby 5.93 million Jews would be killed. Local and small Nazi businesses profited from this persecution. Oskar Schindler was one notable exception who, as a German businessman, tried to save Jews by employing them in his factory.

The Enabling Act was passed on 23rd March 1933. It is important to realise that event at this late point before the Enabling Act was passed Hitler did not have total control. That is to say, until the Enabling Act was passed. Hitler needed a two-thirds majority to get this passed and to achieve this he charmed the Catholics and Conservatives with false promises and deception whilst all the time aware he was dismantling democracy by using democratic methods. The bill was passed by 444 votes to 94. Hitler now was a dictator.

As with Otto Runge it was clear the Republic were being fairly lenient on the right wing. This was in part because they sympathized with some of their grievances (such as the diktat) and also because many in power saw the left wing as the greater threat.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30th January 1933. He had achieved power through the ballot, not the bullet, in what Karl Bracher has termed a “legal revolution”. However, he was not a dictator when he became Chancellor. It was the crucial events which took place between 1933-34 which transformed Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship.

When Hitler came to power it was through the ballot not the bullet.

The Germany army was severely restricted and so many Germans felt defenceless in the heart of a vengeful Europe.

Although value in land in Berlin rose by 700% in this period it was dependent on these loans not being called in quickly. In 1928 alone Germany had borrowed 5 billion marks and even at the height of recovery unemployment still stood at 1,000,000.

The Bauhaus movement took off and is still incredibly stylish and popular today. 15,000 people visited the first ever Bauhaus exhibition and the famous ’51 chair’ design is one which is very popular today.

Passive resistance had a huge impact on the German economy which slowed down significantly. As a result the government turned to a policy today referred to as quantitative easing in which they decided to print more money, the result of which was hyperinflation. There are many stories of people burning money because it was cheaper than firewood and of making dresses and kites out of old notes. However, one key figure you might consider remembering is that the value of the mark to the British pound went from a ratio of 20:1 in 1914 to 16,000,000,000,000 in 1923. Unemployment rose from 2% to 23% and many starved and some turned to semi prostitution or crime. This was a disaster for Germany and many people and businesses went bust and lost their savings.

When the Wall Street Crash hit the world’s stock markets on Black Tuesday in October 1929 the crash hugely impacted the US economy and ensured they called all the loans back in – a tragedy for the Weimar Republic. What is more the USA gave Germany just 90 days to repay them in full. No other power had the money to help and companies went bankrupt and millions were laid off or fired from their jobs. Unemployment rose to 3,000,000 in two years and disillusionment with democracy and the ‘great experiment’ resurfaced. The Nazis for example won 107 seats in the General Election of 1930.

The government allowed the Freikorps (bands of mostly demobilized soldiers with right-wing persuasions who liked to roam the streets) to use force to disband the Spartacists and the attempted revolution was bloodily put down. The two leaders themselves were tortured for several hours before being killed and thrown in a freezing Berlin canal.

The remainder being scuttled at Scapa Flow.

The early Weimar Republic faced threats from both the left and the right.

The first major right wing insurrection was by a New-York born German called Dr. Wolfgang Kapp in what became known as the Kapp Putsch (putsch is a German term for revolution or coup d’état). In March 1920 Kapp and General von Luttwitz attempted to overthrow the government with 12,000 soldiers and members of the Freikorps and revolted in Berlin. Defence Minister Gustav Noske ordered the army or Reichswehr to restore order but General von Seeckt refused to order his troops to attack former soldiers. Trade unions organized a general strike which paralysed the city and forced Kapp to realise his attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic had failed. He fled to Sweden.

Germany was left devastated at the end of the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles imposed enormous penalties on the defeated nation in terms of economic, territorial, military, and social areas. Many had expected a fairer peace based upon Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points but any hopes of a fairer settlement were soon abandoned.

The movie scene was big in Germany also and its most famous director was Fritz Lang, a creative genius of Jewish faith who created epic movies such as Metropolis (with its amazing hand painted sets) – this movie changed cinematography forever. Later in life his wife became a Nazi and left him because of his faith.

Life for outsiders under the Nazi state though was atrocious. Gypsies, slaves and Jews were deemed untermenschen in Hitler’s racial hierarchy and seen as inferior. Prostitutes, alcoholics, criminals, vagrants and the workshy were deemed asocials and 15,000 homosexuals were sent to KZ camps and forced to wear pink triangles. Jews had to wear yellow triangles. Jews were forbidden to marry Aryans and were rounded up into ghettoes. If somebody had one parent who was Jewish they were termed ‘mischlinge’. After years of systematic abuse 5.93 million Jews were killed in what was known as the Holocaust or Shoah, perhaps the single greatest tragedy of the Twentieth Century.

The situation in Germany was dire in 1919 due to the problems of a four year long war which had exhausted the economy, a depleted workforce due to high casualties amongst young working men, and of course the crippling economic terms imposed at Versailles. However, events took a turn for the worse in 1923. Germany had been struggling to pay back the huge indemnity imposed upon it and which it had begun paying in 1921. If it had continued paying the terms of the peace (it was amended in 1929 under the Young Plan) the nation would have still been paying off this debt in the year 1984. The mark had declined in value and Germany defaulted on its payment. France and Belgium which had witnessed the bulk of the fighting, were not prepared to allow for this and Raymond Poincare (who had wanted Germany wiped off the map at Versailles) took the decision to invade Germany on 11th January 1923 to simply take what it could instead. The area they chose to invade was the Ruhr, the rich industrial heartland of Germany. This was clearly a breach of the League of Nations’ rules but it took no action, perhaps because France was so influential in it.

Hitler’s SA or Brownshirts had 3 million members and were led by a homosexual alcoholic friend of Hitler’s, Ernst Rohm (although in private Rohm had reportedly said “Hitler is a swine”). Rohm hoped to merge his powerful SA with the army and Hitler knew the one group who could unseat him from power was the army so he could not risk upsetting them. Instead, Hitler purged the SA and ensured the army swore a personal oath to him. This had been planned out between Hitler and two key generals, Blomberg and Fritsch, on the board a ship called the Deutschland. As a result on 30th June 1934 200 SA soldiers were killed, including Rohm, in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

Owen D. Young's middle initial 'D' stood for ... absolutely nothing. It was purely decorative!

He went on to be held up as a martyr type figure in Nazi Germany

Many countries, such as Britain, have evolved into democracies over thousands of years. Germany on the other hand was attempting to go straight from authoritarianism to democracy in a rapid space of time and some believe this was always going to present difficulties. The new Republic’s constitution, or written set of rules by which to govern, was agreed upon in August 1919 and was the work of lawyer Hugo Preuss (who later died of appendicitis).

The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring allowed for compulsory sterilization of 350,000. ‘Mercy deaths’ against those with learning difficulties were carried out under Operation T4.

Hitler created a totalitarian state in which opposition was effectively suffocated.

In 1921 Hitler replaced Anton Drexler at leader of the Volkische group the DAP (Deutsche Arbeiter Partei or German Workers’ Party).

The same report said “his ability to influence a popular assembly is uncanny” and Hitler often used the technique of seeking a scapegoat – often the Jews and left wing Weimar politicians. C. Zuckmeyer describes how he would “rise higher and higher in crescendo … ‘and whose fault is it? It’s all … the fault … of the Jews!”. Extreme opinions are more likely to be accepted in extreme times. Moreover though Hitler was a decorated soldier, having won the Iron Cross First and Second Class in the First World War in his Bavarian unit. In a post-Versailles Germany stripped of its ability to defend itself and used to authoritarian rule this went down well. He had written Mein Kampf in prison in 1924 during his short spell following the Beer Hall Putsch and outlined several ideas which held popular appeal.

Germany had suffered tremendous losses in terms of casualties in four years of horrific fighting and its industry and agriculture had been severely hit by both the war and the peace settlement. West Prussia had been given to Poland, thus cutting Germany in two.

When President Hindenburg died it was therefore now easy for Hitler to merge the titles President and Chancellor and to add a new one: Fuhrer. Hitler had achieved complete control of Germany and had destroyed democracy.His 1000 year Reich actually lasted only 12 years (1933-45).