A republic born in defeat

As the First World War collapsed, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and a republic was proclaimed on 9 November 1918; the armistice followed on 11 November 1918. A National Assembly met at Weimar and adopted the Weimar Constitution in August 1919.

• The Reichstag was elected by proportional representation — democratic, but it made stable majorities hard and encouraged many small parties.
• A directly elected President (first: Friedrich Ebert, SPD) could rule by decree in an emergency under Article 48.
• The new republic was blamed for the armistice — its leaders were smeared as the "November Criminals" and by the "stab-in-the-back" myth (Dolchstoss).

Early crises, 1919–23

• Treaty of Versailles (signed 28 June 1919): the "war guilt" clause (Article 231), reparations, an army capped at 100,000, loss of territory and colonies, and a demilitarised Rhineland. It was hated as a Diktat.
• Threats from both extremes: the Spartacist uprising (January 1919, crushed; Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht killed) on the left, and the Kapp Putsch (March 1920, defeated by a general strike) on the right.
• 1923 — the year of crisis: after Germany fell behind on reparations, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr (January 1923). Passive resistance and money-printing triggered hyperinflation, wiping out savings.
• In November 1923 Hitler and Ludendorff attempted the Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch — it failed; Hitler was jailed and wrote Mein Kampf.

The 1923 crisis

The Stresemann years, 1924–29

Gustav Stresemann (Chancellor in 1923, then Foreign Minister) helped stabilise the republic. The new Rentenmark ended hyperinflation in late 1923, and recovery followed:

• Dawes Plan (1924) — American loans and a rescheduling of reparations.
• Locarno Treaties (1925) — Germany accepted its western borders, easing tension.
• Germany joined the League of Nations (1926).
• Young Plan (1929) — reduced the reparations total and extended the timetable.

How stable, really? Weimar culture flourished (Bauhaus, cinema), but recovery rested on short-term American loans. Stresemann himself warned Germany was "dancing on a volcano." This fragility is a key interpretive theme.

Recovery under Stresemann

From slump to power, 1929–33

• Stresemann died on 3 October 1929, days before the Wall Street Crash. American loans were recalled and unemployment climbed to roughly 6 million by 1932.
• Chancellor Brüning's austerity deepened the misery; he governed increasingly by Article 48 decree, weakening parliamentary democracy.
• The Nazi vote surged: from 12 seats (1928) to 107 (1930) and 230 (July 1932) — the largest single party.
• After backstairs intrigue by von Papen, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on 30 January 1933, expecting to control him.

Which phase of German history?

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Consolidating power, 1933–34

• The Reichstag Fire (27 February 1933) was used to pass a decree suspending civil liberties and to round up Communists.
• The Enabling Act (23 March 1933) let Hitler make laws without the Reichstag — the legal basis of the dictatorship. It passed with Centre Party support after the KPD was excluded.
• Trade unions and other parties were banned; by July 1933 Germany was a one-party state.
• Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934) — the SA leadership, including Ernst Röhm, was purged, reassuring the army and big business.
• When Hindenburg died (2 August 1934), Hitler merged the offices of Chancellor and President as Führer; the army swore a personal oath to him.

The legal foundation of dictatorship

Put the events in order

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Living under the Nazi state

• Economy: Hjalmar Schacht cut unemployment through public works and rearmament; Göring's Four-Year Plan (1936) pushed autarky and war readiness.
• Terror: the SS (Himmler) and Gestapo policed dissent; the first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in 1933.
• Propaganda & control: Goebbels managed media and rallies; the Hitler Youth and "Strength Through Joy" bound people to the regime.
• Persecution: the Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of citizenship and banned intermarriage; Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938) saw state-backed violence against Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues.

Anti-Jewish persecution

Germany and occupied Europe at war

The Second World War began with the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Early victories gave way to a grinding war that reshaped German society:

• The economy shifted towards total war (Albert Speer, from 1942), drawing on plunder and forced labour from the occupied East.
• In occupied Eastern Europe the Nazis pursued ruthless exploitation and racial policy. The Holocaust was co-ordinated at the Wannsee Conference (January 1942); around six million Jews were murdered.
• On the home front, Allied bombing, shortages and mounting casualties eroded morale.
• Facing total defeat, Hitler took his own life on 30 April 1945; Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May 1945.

How did the Nazi state work?

AS 1 rewards students who can weigh historians against one another rather than simply narrate. A central debate concerns how far Nazi Germany was driven by Hitler's own intentions or by the chaotic structures of the regime:

• Intentionalists such as Karl Dietrich Bracher stress Hitler's ideology and will as the master key to the dictatorship.
• Structuralists (functionalists) such as Hans Mommsen describe Hitler as in some ways a "weak dictator" presiding over competing agencies — a polycratic chaos.
• Ian Kershaw offers a synthesis: officials "working towards the Führer" radicalised policy without needing detailed orders.
• On Weimar's collapse, Detlev Peukert read the republic as a "crisis of classical modernity", not simply doomed from birth.

Exam skill: good answers explain why a historian argues as they do (their evidence and emphasis), then judge how convincing it is against other views — not just label the "schools".

Match the historian to the interpretation

Tap a historian on the left, then their argument on the right.

Judging an interpretation

The big ideas to know

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