History Flash Cards

Front 1

Kaiser Wilhelm

1859-1941

Back 1

-German Kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888-1918.

-Supported Alfred von Tirpitz and Adolf Hitler.

Front 2

Friedrich Ebert

1871-1923

Back 2

-9th Chancellor of Germany (1918-1919)

-1st President of Germany (1919- 1923)

-Political party: social democrats- ic party of Germany.

Front 3

Social Democrats

Back 3

-The SPD was founded as a Marxist party in 1875.

-It started as the General German Workers' Association and the Social Democratic Workers' Party, then merged 1875, under the name Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.

Front 4

Karl Liebknecht

1871-1919

Back 4

-Co-founder of the Spartacist League,

-Best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919.

-He was tortured and executed by the Rifle Division of the Cavalry Guards of the Free Corps.

Front 5

Rosa Luxemburg

1871-1919

Back 5

-Co-founder of the Spartacist League.

-She was a Marxist theorist,

philosopher, economist and revolutionary socialist of Polish-Jewish descent.

-She was tortured and executed by the Rifle Division of the Cavalry Guards of the Free Corps.

Front 6

Wolfgang Kapp

1858-1922

Back 6

-Born in London, where his father was a political activist.

-He was the leader of the Kapp Putsch along with Walther von Lüttwitz. They aimed to overthrow the German revolution and the Weimar Republic. It was supported by parts of the Reichswehr, or the military.

Front 7

Freikorps

Back 7

-Volunteer units the members of which effectively fought as mercenaries, regardless of their own nationality.

-They received a lot of support from the Minister of Defence, Gustav Noske.

-Used to stop the German Revolution and the Marxist Spartacist League.

Front 8

Anton Drexler (1884- 1942)

Back 8

-Far-right political leader, who aided the formation of the pan-German and anti-Semitic German Workers' Party.

-He served as a mentor to Adolf Hitler in the early political days.

Front 9

Adolf Hitler

Back 9

-After becoming a decorated veteran of WW1, he joined the German Worker's party.

-The leader of the Nazi party during WW2.

-Was responsible for the genocide of 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims.

Front 10

Ernst Röhm (1887- 1934)

Back 10

-A German officer in the Bavarian Army and was badly wounded during World War I.

-He was an early leader of the Nazi party, and a close friend of Hitler. He was able to address Hitler by his first name and Du, the German informal way of saying you.

-He was also openly homosexual.

Front 11

Gustav Stresemann (1878- 1929)

Back 11

-Part of the National Liberal Party, German Democratic Party and the German People's Party.

-He was Chancellor of the Weimar Republic in 1923.

-He was also the Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929.

Front 12

Paul Von Hindenburg (1847- 1934)

Back 12

-A German field marshal, statesman and politician.

Served as Germany's second President from 1925- 1934.

-Interdependent political party.

Front 13

Heinrich Brüning (1885- 1970)

Back 13

-Chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. He was the longest continuously serving Chancellor (not including Hitler).

-He was part of the Centre Party, and was elected to the Reichstag in 1924.

Front 14

Franz von Papen (1879- 1969)

Back 14

-Served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932, and vice-chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933- 1934.

-He joined the Centre Party and was a member of the parliament of Prussia from 1921 to 1932.

-Papen was forced to resign from Schleicher, in 1932.

Front 15

Kurt von Shleicher (1882- 1934)

Back 15

-Was the second to last Chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

-He was also appointed the Minister of Defence by Schleicher.

-He was assassinated after he resigned by Adolf Hitler, in the Night of the Long Knives. Also known as Operation Hummingbird, in which the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders.

Front 16

Heinrich Himmler (1900- 1945)

Back 16

-He was a leading member of the Nazi Party. During the third Reich Hitler appointed him Military Commander.

-Formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps.

Front 17

Hermann Goering (1893- 1946)

Back 17

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-After helping Adolf Hitler take power in 1933, he became the second most powerful man.

Front 18

Joseph Goebbels (1892- 1984)

Back 18

-Reich Minister of Propaganda.

-He was a close friend of Hitler's and stayed with him in the Führerbunker until 30th April, when Hitler committed suicide.

-After Hitler's death he became chancellor, but only for one day, before he and his wife killed themselves and they're six children.

Front 19

Martin Niemöller (1892- 1984)

Back 19

- A German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor, famous for his quote "First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist ...... and there was no one left to speak for me." however he did initially support Adolf Hitler.

-He met with Ho Chi Minh during the Vietnam War and was a committed campaigner for nuclear disarmament.

Front 20

Paul Schneider (1897- 1939)

Back 20

-An Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union pastor who was the first Protestant minister to be martyred by the Nazis.

-In order to please Nazi officials he was sent to a remote part of Germany.

-He was taken in to "protective custody" and interrogated.

-He was murdered by lethal injection in the camp where he was being held.

Front 21

Cardinal Clemens August Graf von Galen

(1878- 1946)

Back 21

- He was a German count, Bishop of Münster, and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was also a German nationalist and aristocrat.

-He led a Catholic protest against the Nazis in world war two.

-He was beatified (a declaration by the pope that the person is in bliss) by the German Pope Benedict XVI, in 2005.

Front 22

Baldur von Schirach (1907- 1974)

Back 22

-A Nazi youth leader. Who was married to Henriette Hoffmann, the daughter of Heinrich Hoffman. Hitler insisted on the marriage, even against Baldur's family protesting.

-He surrendered in 1945 and was convicted with crimes against humanity. He was sentenced and served 20 years as a prisoner in Spandau Prison, Berlin.

-During his imprisonment Henriette divorced him.

Front 23

Gertrude Scholtz-Klink (1902- 1999)

Back 23

- A member of the Nazi party and leader of the National Socialist Women's League.

-She spoke out again the participation of women in politics as a bad example.

- She was detained in a Soviet prisoner of war camp near Magdeburg, but escaped shortly after.

Front 24

Sophie Scholl (1921- 1943)

Back 24

- She was a German student and Christian anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.

-She was convicted of high treason after being found distributing anti-war leaflets in Munich university, with her brother Hans.

-They were both executed by guillotine.

Front 25

Claus von Stauffenberg (1907- 1944)

Back 25

-A German officer and a member of German nobility.

-He was a leading member in the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to remove the Nazi party. He was also a important figure in the German resistance movement.

-However he was executed by firing squad due to his involvement in the failed Operation Valkyrie (part of the July 20 plot).