Name________________________________________ Date___________________

Weimar Republic and Hitler Classwork

Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1. What was the Weimar Republic and why was it created? What document created it?

2. Explain two major problems that the Weimar Republic faced.

3. How did reparations affect the Weimar economy? What is hyperinflation?

4. Explain how the Great Depression affected the Weimar Republic.

5. Why do you think the economic crisis caused many people to have extreme political views?

6. What did Adolph Hitler promise the people of Germany?

7. What were the two names of Hitlers political party?

8. Explain why Hitlers views are an example of nationalism.

9. How did Hitler become a dictator in Germany?

10. Explain how the bad economic crisis help Hitler become the Chancellor of Germany.

Documents: Weimar Inflation 1919-1923

Date

Marks

U.S. Dollars

1919

4.2

1921

75

1922

400

Jan. 1923

7,000

Jul. 1923

160,000

Aug. 1923

1,000,000

Nov. 1, 1923

1,300,000,000

Nov. 15, 1923

1,300,000,000,000

Nov. 16, 1923

4,200,000,000,000

1. What does this chart show you about the Weimar

economy in the years 1919-1923?

2. How does this chart measure German inflation?

3. What caused this changed in the German economy?

Document 2: An account of Weimar Germany

Lingering at the [shop] window was a luxury because shopping had to be done immediately. Even an additional minute
meant an increase in price. One had to buy quickly because a rabbit, for example, might cost two million marks more by
the time it took to walk into the store. A few million marks meant nothing, really. It was just that it meant more lugging.
The packages of money needed to buy the smallest item had long since become too heavy for trouser pockets. They
weighed many pounds. . . . People had to start carting their money around in wagons and knapsacks. I used a knapsack
1. Why did Germans stop lingering at shop windows during this time?

2. Why did Germans have to uses wagons or knapsacks to carry their money?

3. What do you think life was like for people in the Weimar Republic at this time?

Imagine it is election day in Germany 1933. Here are the three candidates for Chancellor of
Germany. Explain who would you vote for, and why?
Candidate A comes from Germanys wealthy, Roman Catholic nobility. He is a World War I
hero and spymaster who learned through his experience there and during the Mexican
Revolution that sometimes problems need to be solved under the table. He is also unafraid of
using force, deception and espionage to get what he and Germany need. He is a lifelong
diplomat (he has been a part of the German government or military almost all his life) who at
ease dealing both with legitimate politicians and revolutionary groups like the IRA (Irish
Republican Army) with whom he worked to try to defeat the British during the Great War.
Candidate A promises you that he will fix Germanys problems with pen and sword; truth and
deceitpolitics and Realpolitik.

Candidate B believes in 3 major goals.

Setting aside of the Treaty of Versailles.
Unification of all Germans (such as those in Austria and Czechoslovakia).
Acquiring more land [Lebensraum] to feed the German nation.
Candidate C offers the most for the widest range of people in Germany. He has promised
prosperity and to abolish unemployment. He will accomplish this goal by instituting a wide
range of public works projects (just like FDRs New Deal), and by encouraging both adults and
youth to work for the German nation. According to candidate B, Germanys economic
problems are due to the unfair requirements of the Treaty of Versailles as well as the infusion of
foreigners and communists on German soil. Candidate B supports private property and rural
farmers, believing in cheaper credit and low taxes.

Ultimately, candidate B promises to rebuild a strong German nation that is the opposite of the
Weimar Republic: respected, decisive and orderly.

Candidate C is the incumbent (returning) candidate for this election. He is a hard-working

politician who strongly supports the Weimar Republic and who believes it is necessary to
continue to pay reparations from the Treaty of Versailles and to follow the treaty agreements.
He successfully repressed a group of German revolutionaries that attempted to block French
occupation of the Ruhr, an industrial region in the west of Germany that France occupied as a
result of Germanys failure to pay reparations.

Candidate C is also a skilled statesman who has a great deal of negotiating experience. He has
worked with American and global leaders to create a long-term payment plan that would allow
Germany to pay reparations gradually. In 1925, he helped to negotiate the Locarno Treaty, a
treaty between Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Italy that guaranteed the borders of each
of those countries and that served as a military alliance system. A year later, in 1926, Candidate
C signed a treaty with the Soviet Union that promised neutrality in the event of an attack.
Candidate C solidified his international record when Germany joined the League of Nations
later that year. As a result of his efforts, candidate C was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of
1926.

Who would you vote for?

Why did you choose this candidate?

Which candidate is Hitler?