Introduction
You will use skills of critical reading, analysis and synthesis to pursue knowledge and personal understanding of the major events and individuals living in Germany between 1919-1939. This “Learning Pursuit” provides tasks for you to complete as well as a Resource page of Web sites, videos and reading sources to guide your research efforts.
You will receive daily assignments via our Learning Management System that will be used in conjunction with this learning pursuit.
The Essential Questions for this unit of study are:
•What conditions increase and nurture the expansion of democracy?
•What conditions increase opportunities for totalitarian dictatorships to gain power?
•How do totalitarian/dictatorial regimes govern through terror, coercion, and “managing” of consent?
The more focused Unit Questions are:
•Was it possible for Germany to have a form of democratic government? Take a position.
•Why were the years 1920-1923 a period of crisis for the Weimar Republic?
•Who were the main groups opposing the Weimar Republic? How did the lack of support from the Left weaken the Republic?
•How did the Weimar Republic experience stability and better “health” between 1924-1929?
•How did the Great Depression affect the health of the Weimar Republic?
•How were Hitler and the Nazis able to rise to power? What was Hitler’s “skill set”?
•What were the effects of the Nazi totalitarian government upon the ESPRAT aspects of German life?
•How did the Nazis consolidate their power and organization in 1933?
•How did the Nazis follow through on their anti-semitism?
•What were the main aims and methods of Nazi foreign policy?
•Who was really in control of the government and decision-making in the Third Reich?
•To what extent was Nazi Germany a totalitarian state?
The IB themes are:
•Origins and nature of authoritarian and single-party states
•Establishment of authoritarian and single party states
•Domestic policies and impact
•Examine foreign policy as a precursor to WWII
Key Topics, People and Actions
Fascism
SA
SS
Gestapo
Gleichschaltung
capitalism
socialism
Night of the Long Knives
anti-Semitism
Holocaust
Enabling Act
Third Reich
Ernst Rohm
Henrich Himmler
Herman Goering
Joseph Goebbels
Rudolph Hess
Adolf Hitler
Hilter Youth
Gleichschaltung
Lebensraum
Fuhrer
Aryan
Volk
Reichskristalnacht
Leni Riefenstahl
Nuremberg Rallies
Holocaust
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact)
Totalitarianism
Kapp Putsch
Munich Beerhall Putsch
Freikorpts
Reichswehr
Reichsmark
Rentenmark
Hyperinflation
Nationalism
Weimar Republic
Weimar Constitution
Gustav Stressman
Nazi Party NSDAP
Social Democrat Party SPD
Communist Party KPD
German Peoples Party DVP
German National People’s Party DNVP
Dada art movement
Paul von Hindenburg
Coalition Government
General von Schleicher
Chancellor Heinrich Bruning
Chancellor von Papen
Great Depression
Reichstag
Reichstag Fire
Mein Kampf
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Some of the questions draw from:
Europe: 1870-1991 by Terry Morris and Derrick Murphy
Germany: 1918-1945 by Greg Lacey and Keith Shephard
Hitler by Mary Fulbrook
Image Source
Updated: May 1, 2012
Author: David Carpenter