Introduction to SG.

1) The Rise and Fall of the Weimar Republic

2) Hitler and Nazi rule

There is plenty of reading material available on this topic, and as always, learning best takes place by
wide reading. What follows are suggested references that are succinct, but the list is by no means
complete.

Essential reading:

1. Two Centuries or Hagan (Class texts)

2. The Students Guide, pp.182-187 (Particularly good summary of The Nazis in Power with the
interesting mnemonic W-A-R T-O-T-A-L to aid learning.)
3. Weimar Germany and the Third Reich, Corkery and Stone

VOCABULARY:

Spartacists.
Kapp Putsch
Dolchstosslegende
Lebenstraum.
Autapky
Totalitarianism

German words:
Weltanschauung
Machtergreifung
Gleichschaltung

HOW TO STUDY THIS TOPIC

My advice here is to study problems not periods. Ask those traditional history questions: when did it
happen? What happened? Why did it happen? In the HSC questions on this topic basically centre on
two issues

a) The failure of the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s rise to power.

b) Hitler’s consolidation of power and/or life in Nazi Germany

More books have probably been written about this period of history than any other. It is interesting to
consider why. Basically, because of its history, Germany has come to be seen as the “problem
country of Europe” in the first half of the twentieth century. This has come about because it was partly
responsible for WWI; almost entirely responsible for WWII; it was also an industrially and culturally
advanced nation that allowed itself to fall in the barbarism and militarism of Nazism. As the German
historian Meinecke asked, “What caused the ‘German catastrophe’?”

Sweeping statements such as, “the Germans are naturally warlike”, or “they are prone to surrender
their liberties to a strong regime”, or the view that, “through an accident of history the German people
fell into the hands of reckless and ambitious leaders “are neither convincing nor historically
acceptable. The problem, like all problems in history, is more complex than that. To a certain extent
the “German problem” was also a European one, as the development of a strong, centrally located
state like Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century upset the balance of power. This was
further complicated by internal developments as Germany’s rapid development if a modern industrial
economy did not see a corresponding development in society or government. At the end of WWI with
the birth of the Weimar Republic these pre-war structural problems remained unresolved.
Thus, the basic questions to consider as you study this topic, that will form the basis of class
discussions, are the following as outlined by Corkery and Stone:

a) How would the inheritance of pre-war institutions and values hinder the establishment of a
stable post-war Republic? Here you would need to consider the effect of the Bismarckian
period on the political parties, together with the continued existence of Wilhelmian attitudes
and institutions.

b) Why did Germany’s defeat in 1918 handicap the newly formed Republic?
Belief in Germany’s military invulnerability and the evolution of the “Stab in the Back” legend that was
created by the very people who knew that Germany had been defeated, the connection between the
Weimar Republic and German acceptance of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles.

c) How was the Republic affected by post-war economic problems of the 1923 hyper-inflation
and 1929 depression and the inability of the Social Democrats to cope with these problems:
the impact of this economic chaos on the middle class. The consistent opposition to the
Republic from both extreme left and right throughout its existence, but particularly the way
right wing groups and nationalists undermined the Republic which they never accepted.

d) Was the Nazi solution to Germany’s problems a backward-looking one, or something

essentially new?

e) Why did Germany become drawn under the control of a repressive and totalitarian fascist
regime?

THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

STUDY GUIDE NO. 1

1. NOVEMBER REVOLUTIONS
a) Where did they begin and by whom?
b) Where did they spread to?
c) What caused the revolutions?
d) What happened to the Kaiser and German state monarchs during the November
Revolutions?
e) What type of Government was announced in place of the monarchical system?
f) What parties formed the Provisional Government of the People’s Commissaries?