Tuesday III-IV History 11
Wednesday III History 11

EXAMS

Details of the exam timetable are here
morning of 10 May 2012: Paper 1: 2 hours: choice of 2 questions on the core content
.........and 1 question (choice of 2) on the depth study (Germany 1918-1945)
morning of 18 May 2012: Paper 2: 2 hours: source-based question; no choice
morning of 23 May 2012: Alternative to coursework: 1 hour

A checklist of topics to study.

THE SUMMARISATION EXERCISE, NOT YET DONE

Using the green textbook, write five- or six-point summaries of each of the following topics.

THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
== ended the First World War
== signed at Versailles, just outside Paris, in June 1919
== negotiated by the Allies (America, Britain, France, Italy); German delegates forced to sign
== Germany admitted responsibility for the war
== Germany had to pay massive reparations
== Germany lost territory to France, Denmark and Poland, and all her colonies

THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC

THE SPARTAKISTS AND THEIR REVOLUTION

THE FREIKORPS

THE KAPP PUTSCH

EBERT

HYPERINFLATION

OCCUPATION OF THE RUHR

CULTURE IN WEIMAR GERMANY

GUSTAV STRESEMAN

THE ORIGINS OF THE NAZI PARTY

THE BEER-HALL PUTSCH

DAWES PLAN

THE TREATY OF LOCARNO

WAS THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC DOOMED?

THE WALL STREET CRASH AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION

THE RESURGENCE OF THE NAZIS

HINDENBURG

THE END OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT

VON PAPEN AND SCHLEICHER

7th December 2011: Life under the Nazis

We're thinking about opposition to the Nazi regime. Watch the following videos, on
1. life under Hitler for the young;
2. the young people of the whose vain heroics of the White Rose, who canvassed against Hitler and were beheaded.
3. Here's an excellent B.B.C. documentary on the opposition.

Nazi Atrocity

Watch the following videos, on life and death in the concentration camps.
Munich
2. life and death in the concentration camps;

and part II:

Now have a look at this clip from the film Cabaret (1972), about the cultural life of Weimar Germany. We are in Berlin in 1931; in a very little while the Nazis will come to power: meanwhile, here is the dying republic, sleazy, creative, cosmopolitan, hardbitten, defeated, worldly, cynical, careless.

Here's another clip from Cabaret: the Hitler Youth singing joyously of what is to come: Der mogige Tag ist mein.

And here's footage of the real Hitler Youth:

Finally, the outcome: the ruins of Germany in 1945, set, not very tastefully, to music:

II. Political parties

Here is a rough sketch of the political spectrum to illustrate Weimar German history.

III. German history footage

1. The armistice of 1918
2. The experience of defeat (in German)
3. The failed Spartakist revolution of 1919
4. Kapp putsch of 1920
5. The Treaty of Locarno 1925
6. Documentary about Weimar
7. Nazi rally around 1928
8. Hitler on the verge of power in 1932
9. The burial of the republic: Hindenburg's funeral 1934
10.This is Germany: American propaganda, 1945

IV. Two full-length films

1. Weimar optimism: Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (Walter Ruttmann, 1927)

2. And here is the greatest piece of Nazi propaganda: Leni Riefenstahl's 1934 movie The Triumph of the Will, about the Nazi Congress or Nuremberg Rally: 700,000 people, 30 cameras, 105 minutes, one dictator.
(You can see more official footage of here, if you can stomach it; and below is an early example, from 1926.)

V. Fascism and Nazism

Fascism was the invention of Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy (with her inadequate king, Victor Emmanuel III). He achieved some initial success in government, and began to build a colonial empire; he was much imitated throughout Europe: here is a map of fascist regimes in the 1920s and 1930s.
What is fascism?
authoritarian:
totalitarian single-party state
nationalist:
mass mobilisation of the nation through indoctrination, physical education, and family policy
reversal of decadence:
national rebirth, regeneration of nation as organic unity (created by ancestry, culture, history and blood)
dictatorial:
cult of the leader, the strongman
social:
unity of all classes, predominance of state over private property

VI. Weimar culture and 'decadence'

Weimar Germany saw an astonishing explosion of creativity in the arts, in science and humane thought.

Glance at this article.

Then look at the great Expressionist films Metropolis (1927) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (or here; read about it here; compare with the remake of 2006).

Marvel at the incomparable Josephine Baker, toast of Weimar Berlin, here performing her infamous banana dance.

In the period after World War One the great political object of most Germans, and almost every non-German, was to make sure such a war never happened again. The most spectacular expression of anti-war feeling was the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, made into film by Hollywood in 1930 (and, of course, banned by the Nazis the moment they came to power). Here are three of its most memorable scenes:

VII. The rise of the Nazi state

A newsreel of the elections of 1932.

Hitler's speech about Roosevelt's letter.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil. A drama about Hitler's seizure of power: Hindenburg, fights with Communists and ending.

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Contacting me

Here is a typical Weimar German disaster:
the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1935.
To email me, click on the flames.
.....