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105 Cards in this Set
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Hugo von Hofmannsthal:
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✪ An Austrian-born author of plays, operas and later movies.
✪ During the First World War, he held a conservative government position and wrote many articles and speeches supporting the war and the preservation of monarchy in Austria-Hungary. |
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Dr. Schacht:
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✪ A German economist who co-founded the German Democratic Party and supported both, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.
✪ In the early years of Nazi Germany, Schacht ran the Ministry of Economics and the Reichsbank under Hitler. ✪ However, he would eventually leave the Nazi party and join the German Resistance to Hitler and was jailed for his involvement in the 20 July 1944 assassination plot. |
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Kurt von Schleicher:
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✪ A general and the final Chancellor of Germany under the transitional Weimar Republic, which was succeeded by the Nazi-run government on Jan.30, 1933.
✪ Schleicher was assassinated by the SS in the Night of the Long Knives (June 30 – July 2, 1934) in the course of which the Nazi party executed SA leaders, personal enemies of Hitler, and leaders of the former Weimar Republic. |
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Franz von Papen:
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✪ Served as Chancellor of Germany preceding Kurt von Schleicher and would later serve as vice-chancellor under Adolf Hitler (1933-1934).
✪ Papen was a nationalist conservative supporter of Hitler during his rise to the position of Chancellor. ✪ Papen survived the Night of the Long Knives. He later served the Nazis in diplomatic capacities in Austria and Turkey. |
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Frederick Wilhelm II:
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✪ The King of Prussia and the German Kaiser, ruling from June 1888 to November of 1918.
✪ He proved to be an uncontrollable and aggressive leader who was considered to be an inhibitor of peace for Germany. ✪ He was finally asked to abdicate and he fled to The Netherlands in November of 1918, where he eventually died at his estate in 1941. |
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Otto von Bismarck:
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✪ A German politician as well as the minister president of Prussia. He ruled from 1862-1873 as prime minister of Prussia and then from 1871-1890 as Germany’s first Chancellor.
✪ He is commonly considered the founder of the German Empire, bringing early victories against German opponents such as Austria and France in the 1860’s and 70’s, further strengthening Germany and allowing it to grow. |
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Friedrich Ebert:
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✪ Ebert was Weimar Germany’s first president from 1918 to 1925, and under his presidency the Weimar constitution was introduced.
✪ He supported Germany’s protraction of WWI, which caused a split within the Social Democratic Party. ✪ Ebert’s coalition government relied on the German Army; but the army and the Freikorps were uneasy about supporting Ebert and the new government. But Freikorps men were happy to destroy the Spartacists who had attempted to impose a Soviet in Bavaria. ✪ Ebert and his friend Noske were willing to use force against anyone who threatened the stability of Germany. ✪ During the revolution of 1918-19 he had to relocate from Berlin to Weimar where he became president. ✪ A general sense of humiliation from the Treaty of Versailles later led to a loss of supporters. |
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Walther Rathenau:
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✪ (1867-1922) Rathenau served as head of the German KRA (economic war management department) from 1914-1915.
✪ Rathenau was a patriotic German nationalist. His resignation resulted from anti-Semitic accusations that his company, AEG, was profiting from his economic policies; this type of ‘Jewish-conspiracy-theory’ was taken up later by the Nazis. ✪ Rathenau joined the Democratic Party (DDP) following the agreement of the armistice in late 1918. He served as post-war minister of reconstruction and then foreign minister, but was murdered by right-wing extremists in Berlin in June 1922, after he signed the disliked Treaty of Rapallo with the Soviet Union. |
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Karl Liebknecht:
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✪ German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany.
✪ He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919. The uprising was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps (paramilitary units formed of World War I veterans) and Liebknecht and Luxemburg were assassinated. |
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Rosa Luxemburg:
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✪ Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist, and activist, of Polish-Jewish descent. She was a naturalized German citizen.
✪ In 1906 she published “The Mass Strike, the Political Party, and the Trade Unions”, in which she correctly predicted the effectiveness of a general strike (The general strike, described by Haffner, p.42-43, is what saved Germany from probable civil war after the Kapp Putsch in 1920). ✪ Luxemburg co-founded the Spartacist League; see above. |
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Gustav Stresemann:
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✪ German liberal politician and statesman who served as Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.
✪ He was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. ✪ Today, he is generally considered one of the most important leaders of Germany and a staunch supporter of democracy in the fragile Weimar Republic. ✪Arguably, his most notable achievement was reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and Aristide Briand received the Peace Prize. |
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Heinrich Brüning:
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✪ A German politician during the Weimar Republic, best known for being Chancellor during the time from 1930 to 1932.
✪ Brüning’s main goal as Chancellor was to liberate the German economy from all of the war debt they still had to pay; his austerity measures were not popular. ✪ During Hitler’s reign, he fled Germany into the Netherlands, and finally made his way to the United Kingdom. ✪ In 1939, he became the leading professor of political science at Harvard. Brüning died in 1970, in the state of Vermont. |
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Hermann Müller:
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✪ He was a Social Democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1919-1920 and the Chancellor of Germany during two different periods, both 1920 and 1928-1930.
✪ When he was Foreign Minister he signed the Treaty of Versailles. ✪ He also was an editor of a Socialist newspaper known as the Görlitzer Volkszeitung. |
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Gustav Noske:
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✪ Gustav Noske was the German Minister of Defense from 1919-1920.
✪ He was a member of the Social Democrat Party. ✪ He supervised the ruthless killing of political opponents, such as Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. This stopped the leftmost party from getting any power after WWI. After the Kapp Putsch in March 1920, his Freikorps associates killed hundreds of workers who had taken over in the Ruhr area. |
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Talleyrand:
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✪ A French diplomat, who worked since the 19th century through the French Revolution.
✪ He is notorious for turning his back on the Catholic Church after ordination to the priesthood. ✪ Some regard him as one of the most versatile, skilled and influential diplomats in European history, while some believe he was a traitor. |
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Ernst Röhm:
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✪ Rohm was a military leader in the Bavarian army and an early Nazi Leader.
✪ He was personally recruited by Hitler to be the Chief of Staff for the SA. ✪ In the end he was assassinated on orders from Hitler, who feared him a political rival. |
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Philip Scheidemann:
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✪ A German Social Democratic politician who announced the creation of the German Republic on November 9, 1918.
✪ He would become the second chancellor of the Weimar Republic. |
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Emil Eichhorn:
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✪ USPD member (left-wing, between SPD and KPD) who was also police president of Berlin from Nov. 9, 1918 until the Spartacist uprising in January 1919. It is notable that a communist-leaning socialist held such a public position.
✪ In the early years of the Weimar Republic this was still possible, though dangerous, considering the number of armed right-wing freikorps men looking for a fight. |
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Erich Ludendorff:
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✪ General and de facto commander of the German Army during 1918.
✪ He was susceptible to anti-Semitic and anti-leftist impulses, and he was a strong proponent (possibly even the originator) of the “Stab-in-the-back” legend, which asserted that WWI was lost because international and Jewish interests had infiltrated Germany’s home front. ✪ His nationalist and militarist views led him to participate in both the Kapp Putsch (1920) and Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch (1923). ✪ Ludendorff did not approve of the Nazis after 1930. |
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Stefan George:
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✪ A German poet, editor, and translator who is associated with the Weimar Republic. He is known for his poem “Der Krieg” (The War).
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Karl Helfferich:
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✪ A German politician (Deutsch-Nationale=national monarchist=right-wing), economist, and financier. Helfferich strongly opposed the terms of the Versailles treaty, esp. reparations payments.
✪ During the hyperinflation of 1923, he proposed an idea for a type of currency based on the price of rye, and though it was rejected, pieces of his plan were utilized in the creation of the RentenMark. |
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[GROUPS]
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[GROUPS]
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Spartacus League:
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Also known as German Spartakusbund, a left-wing socialist branch of the German Social Democratic Party founded in response to World War I. Started in the autumn of 1914, officially founded by Karl Liebknecht in 1916 and existent to the end of 1918, it was a revolutionary organization that outwardly opposed the war through social demonstrations, strikes and rebellion. The Spartacus League was transformed into the Communist Party of Germany at a party congress held from Dec. 30, 1918, to Jan. 1, 1919. On January 15, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were arrested and murdered in Berlin by members of the conservative Free Corps (Freikorps), who had seized control of the city’s police presidium.
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Hitler Youth:
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An organization set up by Adolf Hitler in 1933 for educating and training male youth in Nazi principles. On July 1, 1936, it became a state agency that all young “Aryan” Germans were expected to join. Once a German boy turns 10, he was registered and investigated (especially for “racial purity”) and, if qualified, inducted into the Deutsches Jungvolk (“German Young People”). Two leagues also existed for girls. The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) trained girls ages 14 to 18 for comradeship, domestic duties, and motherhood. Jungmädel (“Young Girls”) was an organization for girls ages 10 to 14.
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Freikorps:
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After WWI former senior officials that served in the German army started forming private armies called Freikorps to protect German borders of invasions from the Red Army, and also to protect against attempts of revolution from Germans. A group of the soldiers were led into Berlin to try and take it over but were stopped by a strike of trade unionists. The Freikorps dissolved in 1921 and many joined Hitler’s private army.
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League of Nations:
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It was an intergovernmental organization as a result of the Paris Peace Conference and was a precursor to the United Nations. Its main purpose was to maintain world peace. It depended on the Great Powers to provide armed forces for enforcement.
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SA (Sturmabeilung):
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Also referred to as “storm troopers” or “brownshirts”. The SA was a Nazi party parliamentary organization that aided in Hitler’s rise to power in the 20’s and 30’s. The SS was a top division of the SA originally. The SA became less important after Hitler’s “blood purge” in 1934 (a.k.a. The night of the long knives) after which the SS became highly favored. They ruled over different regions of Germany in groups called “Gruppe(n)”. They had branches for recruiting, finance, and supply handling.
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Communists (German version):
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The German Communist party was formed from the Spartacus League. Much of the party’s support came from the Reichstag, a parliament of the Weimar republic, mostly left-wing radicals from the Spartacus League. The Communist party was involved in the revolution of 1918. It was banned by Hitler from 1933-1945.
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SPD – Social Democratic Party of Germany:
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The SPD is Germany’s oldest political party and represents the center left position. During the years of the Weimer Republic the SPD took part in Coalition governments from 1918-1921, 1923 and 1928-1930. In 1933 Hitler banned the SPD under the Enabling Act. During this time some party officials went into exile or were imprisoned or killed. Today the SPD aims for the goal of social democracy and supports European integration.
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NSV (Nationalsozialistische Volksfürsorge):
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A social welfare organization established in 1933. It was located in Berlin and was headed by Erich Hilgenfeldt, a Nazi party member. The NSV was known for discriminating against Jews by offering them no aid. The NSV was home to the “Winterhilfswerk” (WHW=winter social help) which figured prominently in Nazi propaganda. Hitler youth were charged with collecting for the WHW.
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[EVENTS]
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[EVENTS]
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Kapp Putsch:
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A 1920 attempted coup d’etat aimed to overthrow the Weimar Republic. Wolfgang Kapp and General Luttwitz led the Freikorps on March 13th, 1920 to seize Berlin.
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Night of the Long Knives:
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(June 30 – July 2, 1934) the purge of SA leaders probably orchestrated on the basis of false documents by Heinrich Himmler, endorsed by Adolf Hitler. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization’s leaders, including Ernst Röhm. Also killed were about one hundred other perceived opponents of Hitler, including Kurt von Schleicher and Gregor Strasser. All the killings were retroactively legalized on July 3 by Hitler himself on the basis of “state self-defense against treasonable intent”. Ten days later Hitler publicly took full responsibility for giving the orders to shoot the traitors. The effect on the public, surprisingly, was positive: Here was a decisive leader who would keep law and order for the protection of his people.
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The German Inflation of 1923:
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The inflation started in 1914 in small increments of one and two percent. The amount of gold in banks was not equal to the amount of paper notes being printed. By 1923 the reichsbank issued 496.5 quintillion marks that were all worth one trillionth of the 1914 Gold value. See Haffner, pp. 62-65 for an account of how this inflation affected normal people.
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The revolution (Germany 1918):
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The revolution began with German soldiers refusing to engage with the British army during WWI. These sailors began to form councils, which spread to the western front and most major cities and ports in Germany. Early in 1919 Bavaria was declared an Independent socialist party-state and it was announced that all private property would be protected by the newly appointed government system. A coalition was formed with the German Social Democrat Party with Kurt Eisner as the leader but shortly after, a single nationalist (Count Arco) assassinated him. Supporters of Eisner formed councils that took over the government from the national assembly. Eugen Levine became the new leader of the Bavarian Republic. He established a Red Guard to protect the revolution that was later brought down by the German army and the Freikorps.
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[PLACES]
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[PLACES]
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Ruhr:
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The region near the Western border of Germany made up of several industrial cities. It is bordered by the Ruhr river on the south, Rhine on the west, and Lippe on the north. It was bombed during WWII which caused significant decrease in equipment that was produced there for the majority of the country
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Pomerania:
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Pomerania is a region that divides Poland and Germany and is situated on the southern coast of the Baltic. Pomerania can be translated literally to mean “seacoast” and its main industries are metal work, paper, the refining of sugar, and the extraction of natural resources. The Soviet Military controlled all of Pomerania following the defeat of the Nazis.
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[CONCEPTS]
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[CONCEPTS]
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Guns Before Butter:
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It is a model between the relationship of a nation's investment in defense and civilian goods. The nation has the option to spend its money for the military or for food
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Dawes Plan:
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Plan proposed by an American named Charles Dawes to institute annual payments of reparations on a fixed scale. Hitler opposed this idea because it did not reduce the reparations total.
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Plebiscite:
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a direct vote by the people of an entire country or district to decide on some issue, such as choice of a ruler or government, option for independence or annexation by another power, or a question of national policy. In a plebiscite, each person with voting rights casts one vote. There are no elected representatives involved.
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Anchorite:
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Anchorite: A person who for religious reasons retreats from secular society. The purpose of this is to lead a lifestyle where one can intensely pray and practice religion. As hermits, anchorites shun interaction with the outside world.
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Endsleg:
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Meaning “final victory,” Endsieg was a term that was frequently used in propaganda and Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” to refer to the final victory over the Jewish people. Currently, this word is only used in contexts referring to the third Reich.
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Anti-Semitism:
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discrimination or hatred for the Jewish population as a group or as individuals. This was prominent in many periods of history including Hitler’s third Reich.
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Third Reich:
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The Nazi regime was known as the Third Reich and rose to power after the Weimar Republic. Hitler was named chancellor and after his first few months, he instituted a policy of coordination in which all culture, economy, education and law were all under Nazi control. When the German president died, Hitler assumed the role of president and the army swore an oath of personal loyalty to him. The Allies forced the German power to surrender in 1945.
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Treaty of Rapallo:
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The treaty was signed in 1922 between Germany and the USSR. The two sides mutually cancelled any prewar debts and renounced all war claims. It was an advantage to Germany with the most-favored-country clause and extensive trade agreements. The treaty allowed the German army to produce and perfect in the USSR weapons forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.
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Reich:
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An empire, in both the temporal and the geographic sense. This word is often associated with the German Third Reich which lasted from 1933-1945. It also, however, refers to the First Reich- led by Kaiser Otto- which lasted from 962-1500’s and the Second Reich- usually known simply as Deutsches Kaiserreich- which lasted from1870-1918.
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War Guilt:
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Known as Kriegsschuld in German. War guilt was article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles. The article reads,
“The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.” The acceptance of this article by German representatives would lead to much anger amongst the German populace. |
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Stalhelm:
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a nationalist paramilitary organization established at the end of 1918 in the Weimar Republic. The ‘Stahlhelm’ was a branch of the German National People’s Party (DVP) and was founded by Franz Seldte, who would later become Reich Minister of Labor in Hitler’s cabinet. The Stahlhelm was absorbed into the SA in 1933.
(Stahlhelm in English literally translates to “steel helmet.” Stahlhelme are exactly as their name suggests steel helmets that the German army implemented during World War I, in 1916. They are widely recognized for their iconic shape and were often the subjects of military and nationalist propaganda on both sides. |
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Armistice:
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The temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement between the opponents.
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Appeasement:
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Commonly used diplomatic policy used to avoid war. The term refers specifically to the policy of the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain toward Hitler and Nazi Germany. Only after the Saar, the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland’s border with Germany were successively occupied by Hitler’s forces, did Great Britain and France take military action, on Sep. 3, 1939.
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Entente:
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An entente is an agreement made between two or more governments. The Triple Entente was an alliance set up between Russia, Great Britain, and France in 1907. The enemies of The Triple Entente were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy who formed The Triple Alliance.
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Locarno Treaty:
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The Locarno Treaty was created in Locarno, Switzerland following the defeat of Germany in World War I. It was formally signed in London on December 1st 1925. The treaty was created by the Allied Powers and the new states of Eastern and Central Europe. The purpose of the treaty was to secure the post-war territorial settlement.
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Horror Vacui:
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“fear of empty space,” Haffner’s metaphor (p. 70) for the feeling in part of Germany, particularly in the flat gray northeast: one wants something to happen, something against the monotony, something to fill the emptiness.
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The Kaiser:
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Kaiser is the word for emperor in German. Willhelm II was the last German kaiser.
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Reichstag:
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The German parliament from 1918 to 1933. This legislative body comprised of elected representatives was crippled after the Enabling Act was passed on March 23, 1933, and was effectively dismembered by “Reich Co-ordination” (Gleichschaltung) in January 1934, although it still convened occasionally until 1942. It now exists again but is called the “Bundestag,” and the Berlin building in which the Bundestag holds its sessions is still—anachronistically—called the “Reichstag building”. The artists Christo&Jeanne-Claude wrapped the entire building in 1995.r
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Volksschule:
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("People's School" In 1938, a law was issued which required eight years of schooling for every German child. These first eight school years were the Volksschule. Until 1945, the curriculum was informed by nazi ideology. The term ‘Volksschule’ has been replaced by ‘Grundschule’ in Germany; Austria still uses ‘Volksschule’ where we in the US would say ‘elementary school.’
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Prussian Puritanism:
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According to Oswald Spengler, Prussian characteristics existed across Germany that included creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity, and self-sacrifice.
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Immanuel Kant:
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One of the most influential German philosophers. Born on April 22, 1724, he was known primarily for his work Critique of Pure Reason, the idea of the “categorical imperative”, and the branch of philosophy known as Transcendental Idealism
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Frederick the Great:
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Frederick the Great – A “King in Prussia” from 1740-1772 and the King of Prussia from 1772-1786. He was a proponent of religious tolerance in Prussia, and was an avid lover of the arts.
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John Calvin:
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Theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. Calvinism stressed the absolute sovereignty of God and the necessity of divine intervention for the salvation of human kind, and the doctrine of predestination.
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Roi de Prusse:
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"King of Prussia" in French
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Voltaire:
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French enlightenment thinker and philosopher who advocated civil liberties, such as freedom of religion and trade. He was personally acquainted with Frederick the Great. Voltaire’s best-known literary work is Candide.
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Gottfried Keller:
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Swiss Author best known for his work Green Henry. Keller’s novella Clothes Make the Man is about an unemployed tailor who because of his outfit is treated like a nobleman.
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Bureaucrat:
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Someone within an institution of a government or corporation. Stems from the French word for “desk” (bureau)
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January 30th, 1933:
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the day that Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, with Franz von Papen as vice-chancellor.
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Captain Göring:
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A leading member of the Nazi party, Göring was a fighter pilot during WWI. He was appointed commander of the Luftwaffe in 1935, and Reichsmarschall in the mid 40’s. He was tried for war crimes in the Nuremberg trials, and committed suicide the night before his execution.
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DVP:
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Short for Deutsche Volkspartei, the DVP was a national liberal party in the Weimar Republic that promoted Christian values and was seen as promoting the cause of German industrialists. The DVP abolished itself after the rise of the Nazi Party to power.
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Marinus van der Lubber:
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Dutch council communist accused of and executed for committing the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933.
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'Wagnerian Wotan':
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Reference to the utilization of Nordic figures in Wagner’s operas. This refers to the prototypical image of what would be used in Nazi propaganda, i.e. the holy, traditional figure speaking to the people.
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Carl Severing:
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German Social Democrat politician during the Weimar Republic, he was the Interior Minister of Prussia from 1920 – 1926, Minister of the Interior from 1928-1930, and Interior Minister of Prussia once more from 1930-1932.
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Albert Grzesinski:
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German SPD politician who was the Minister of the Interior of Prussia from 1926-1930. In 1931, as police president of Berlin, he suggested deporting Hitler as an “undesirable alien,” but Brüning did not follow up.
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Otto Braun:
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German Social Democratic who served as Prime Minister of Prussia from 1920-1932. He emigrated to Switzerland after Hitler rose to power in 1933, and was active in trying to design a post-Hitler government from abroad.
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Horst-Wessel Song:
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The anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930-1945. After the rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, the song became the country’s de facto national anthem. (Horst Wessel was a young Nazi ‘martyr’ who wrote the words to the song.)
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Reichsbanner:
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Social Democratic paramilitary force in the Weimar republic. Separated into two organizational structures: A registered politcal association and a military fighting force. In 1932 it had a membership of over three million people. The Reichsbanner was disbanded in 1933.
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Julius Streicher:
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Nazi member who founded the newspaper Der Stürmer. This was a highly anti-Semitic propaganda piece that routinely defamed Jewish citizens, and was coupled with three anti-Semitic children’s books that were published by his firm. He was convicted of crimes against humanity after the war and executed.
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Aryan:
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The Nazis’ ideal race is pure invention. The Nazi aryans were supposedly descended from ancient tribes who were strong, blond and blue-eyed. Beginning in 1935 (the time of the Nuremberg racial laws) the term “aryan” was no longer used in Nazi propaganda and legal texts; the phrase “of German blood” replaced it.
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Plötzensee:
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Prussian prison built sometime between 1869 and 1879 near the Plötzensee lake just outside Berlin. Utilized by the Nazi Party as a prison, many enemies of the state were executed here “while trying to escape.”
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Werner Finck:
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(1902-1978) German comedian and cabaret actor. He ran the “Katakombe”, a Berlin cabaret, from 1929 to 1935. Haffner describes an evening there.
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"The Sorrows of Young Wether":
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A novel by J.W. Goethe chronicling the tale of a man named Werther who is forced to cope with the marriage of his best friend and the woman he loves. After accepting the inability for happiness to exist with the three of them living, Werther commits suicide. The book inspired what could be considered the first copycat suicides in history.
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"The Book of Songs":
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One of the most significant German poets of the 19th century, Heinrich Heine's "Book of Songs" was one of the most popular books of German verse ever published.
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Werner von Blomberg:
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Hitler’s minister of defense, General and Feldmarschall in the German Wehrmacht; resigned in 1938 (Although Blomberg had become a loyal Nazi, his disagreement with Hitler about Germany’s war planning timetable was a problem, and Hitler used a scandal in Blomberg’s personal life to force Blomberg’s resignation.) Blomberg was an ‘old fighter’ from WWI.
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Kammergericht:
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German state court of Berlin.
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Association of National Socialist Lawyers:
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headed by Hans Frank. 1933 Membership: approx. 80,000
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Carola Neher:
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A German actress who worked with Bertolt Brecht, amongst others. She eventually emigrated to the Soviet Union after Hitler’s rise to power and was declared as a Trotskyist along with her husband during the Stalinist purges. She later died in a gulag in 1942.
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Hans Otto
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(1900-1933) famous actor murdered by the SA for being a member of the communist party.
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Heinrich Mann
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German novelist who wrote about social themes. He criticized the militaristic nature of pre-WII Germany, leading to both his exile and his books being burned by the Nazis.
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Lion Feuchtwanger:
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German-Jewish novelist and playwright who was heavily critical of the Nazi Party even before they seized power. He was imprisoned in France in 1940 and later escaped. His novel, Jud Süß was adapted into a movie by Goebbels and distorted so as to have an anti-Semitic slant.
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Joseph Roth:
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Austrian journalist and novelist who chronicled both the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well as Jewish migrations post-WWI.
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Jakob Wassermann:
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Jewish-German writer.
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Berliner Tageblatt:
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Liberal German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872-1939. Particularly critical of the Nazi Party before their rise to power, the newspaper was eventually shut down in 1939.
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Vossische Zeitung:
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Liberal newspaper published in Berlin from 1721-1934
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"Angriff"
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Nazi newspaper founded in 1927 containing propaganda attacking the Weimar Republic and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Declined in importance after the Nazis gained power.
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Völkischer Beobachter:
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Newspaper of the Nazi Party, established in 1920. Functioned as official public face of the Party, reporting general news and Nazi Party activity, portraying all actions of the party as unconditional successes.
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Die Tat:
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Monthly publication of politics and culture, founded in 1909.
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Concentration Camps:
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Political prisons established by the Nazi Party to house “enemies of the state”, and acting both as a prison as well as a source of surveillance of the public. Eventually evolving into forced labor camps and death camps, the concentration camps would become the central mechanism behind the Holocaust itself.
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DDP (Deustsche Demokratische Partei):
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German Democratic Party, a social liberal party founded in November 1918. National party that opposed the Treaty of Versailles yet maintained a protective stance towards ethnic minorities and pushed for international cooperation. The DDP was strongly pro-Weimar Republic.
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Cöpenick Blood Week:
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(June 1933) Arrests by the SA of the socialist families of Cöpenick (town near Berlin) turned violent when one young socialist defended his house and shot two SA men. The SA retaliated by not only arresting but gruesomely torturing all SPD and KPD members, Reichsbanner members, Jews, and union members, they could find in the community. Approximately one hundred civilians died.
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"A bold Mussolini expression":
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Mussolini had been in power since 1922 and called himself “Il Duce” (The Leader) starting in 1926. Later, Mussolini and Hitler formed an alliance called “The Axis”, which referred to the geographic line Berlin-Rome.
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Eiserne Front:
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Anti-Nazi, anti-monarchist, anti-Stalinist paramilitary group formed in 1931 by the SPD. Banned in 1933.
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Gestapo:
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“Secret State Police.” (under Goering from spring 1933 to spring 1934; under Himmler from 1934 to 1939; subsumed into the RSHA in 1939. ) The Gestapo was an institution for widespread surveillance of the German people. While few were stationed in each city in comparison to the general population, the feeling of the Gestapo being an omnipresent force, and the resulting fear, caused the citizens of Germany to police themselves, in effect.
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"Liberation Wars" of 1813 - 1815:
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Germans unified to fight against Napoleon, who had invaded all the way to eastern Germany.
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Bismarck unified Germany during ______________:
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Bismarck unified Germany during "the wars of 1864 to 1870:
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Law for the Re-establishment of the Civil Service:
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April 7, 1933: this law summarily dismissed non-Aryans and people who were not for the Nazis from their positions.
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