GRADE IX

HISTORY

Chapter 3- Nazism and the Rise of Hitler

Q1. The Treaty of Versailles was harsh and humiliating on Germany. Justify.
1. The peace treaty at Versailles with the Allies was a harsh and humiliating peace.
Germany lost its overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13% of its territories, 75% of
its iron and 26% of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark, and Lithuania.
2. The allied powers demilitarized Germany to weaken its power. Its army strength was
reduced and should not produce any war weapons.
3. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages the Allied
countries suffered. Germany was forced to pay compensation amounting to 6 billion pounds.
4) The Allied armies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland for many years. Many
Germans held the new Weimar Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the war but
the disgrace at Versailles.

Q2. Explain the economic crisis which led to the hyperinflation in Germany? (5)
1. Political radicalization was heightened by the economic crisis of 1923. Germany had
fought the war largely on loans and had to pay war reparations in gold. This depleted gold
reserves at a time resources were scarce.
2. In 1923 Germany refused to pay, and the French occupied its leading industrial area,
Ruhr, to claim their coal. Germany retaliated with passive resistance and printed paper
currency recklessly.
3. With too much printed money in circulation, the value of the German mark fell.
4. As the value of the mark collapsed, prices of goods soared.
5. This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally
high.

Q3. Examine any 3 inherent defects in the Weimar constitution.(3)

Ans: The Weimar Constitution was unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship.
1. Proportional Representation: This made achieving a majority by any one party, a near
impossible task, leading to a rule by coalition.
2. Article 48: Another defect was Article 48, which gave the president the powers to
impose emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
3. Within its short life, the Weimar Republic saw twenty different cabinets. A liberal use of
Article 48 made people lose confidence in the democratic parliamentary system, which
seemed to offer no solutions.

Q3. What was the impact of the Great Economic Depression on Germany? (3)
Ans:1. The German economy was the worst hit by the economic crisis. By 1932, industrial
production was reduced to 40 percent of the 1929 level.
2. Workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages.
3. As the jobs disappeared, the youth took to criminal activities and total despair became
commonplace.

Q4. Enumerate the events which led to the Great Economic Depression. (5)
Ans: 1. German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term
loans largely from USA.
2. This support was withdrawn when the Wall street Exchange crashed in 1929.
3. Fearing a fall in prices, people made franctic efforts to sell their shares.
4. On one single day, 24 October, 13 million shares were sold.
5. This was the start of the Great Economic Depression.

Q5. Describe the five steps taken by Hitler for the destruction of democracy.
1. Fire Decree: The fire decree of 28 February 1933 indefinitely suspended civic rights like
freedom of speech, press and assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar
constitution
2. Concentration camps: Then he turned on his arch-enemies, the Communists most of
whom were hurriedly packed off to the newly established concentration camps.
3. Enabling Act: On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed. This Act
established dictatorship in Germany. It gave Hitler all powers to sideline Parliament and rule
by decree.
4. Special surveillance and security forces: These were created to control and order
society in ways that the Nazis wanted. Apart from the already existing regular police in
green uniform and the SA or the Storm Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state
police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and the Security Service (SD).
5. No legal procedures: People could now be detained in Gestapo torture chambers,
rounded up and sent to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without any legal
procedures. The police forces acquired powers to rule with impunity.

Q6. Examine the strategies used by Hitler to rise to power?

1. Powerful speeches: a) Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved
people.
b) He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and
restore the dignity of the German people.
c)He promised employment for the youth.
d) He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against
Germany.
2. Hitler’s new style of politics: a) Hitler devised a new style of politics. He understood
the significance of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilization.
b) Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Hitler and
instill a sense of unity among the people.
c) The Red banners with the Swastika, the Nazi salute and the ritualized rounds of applause
after the speeches were all part of this spectacle power.
3. Projection of Hitler as a messiah: a) Nazi propaganda skillfully projected Hitler as a
messiah, a savior, as someone who had to deliver people from their distress.
b) It is an image that captured the imagination of a people whose sense of dignity and pride
had been shattered, and who were living in a time of acute economic and political crisis.

Q7. What steps were taken by Hitler to recover German economy?

1. Hitler assigned the responsibility of economic recovery to the economist Hjalmar Schacht
who aimed at full production and full employment through a state- funded work –creation
program.
2. Hitler pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and
integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan One people, One empire and One
leader.
3. He then went on to wrest German speaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia and
gobbled up the entire country.
4. Hitler chose war as the way out of the approaching economic crises. Resources were to
be accumulated through expansion of territory. In September 1939, Germany invaded
Poland.
5. In September 1940, a Tripartite Pact was signed between Germany, Italy and Japan,
strengthening Hitler’s claim to international power.
Q8. Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview. Explain the statement.
i) According to this there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy. In
this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located
at the lowest rung.
ii) Hitler’s racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Darwin
was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the
concept of evolution and natural selection.
iii) Herbert Spencer later added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea,
only those species survived on earth that could adapt themselves to changing climatic
conditions.
iv)The Nazi argument was simple : strongest race would survive and the weak ones would
perish. The Aryan race was the finest. It had to retain its purity, become stronger and
dominate the world.
v)The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or
living space. He believed that new territories had to be acquired for settlement. It would
enhance the material resources and the power of German nation.

Text book Questions

1. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.

The problems faced by the Weimar Republic were:

→ Versailles treaty: The Versailles Peace Treaty at the end of the First World War
dispossessed Germany of its territories, its resources and its pride as a nation. He also had
to pay 6 billion pounds as war compensation. In spite of the harsh terms, the Weimar
Republic accepted the humiliating treaty, thereby making it unpopular amongst the German
masses.

→ Economic Crisis: The German state was financially crippled due to overwhelming war
debts which had to be paid in gold. Subsequently, gold reserves depleted and value of
German mark fell. Prices of essential goods rose dramatically.

→ Political defects: The Weimar Republic was weak due to inherent constitutional
irregularities such as proportional representation and Article 48 (which gave the President
the power to impose emergency and rule by decree). The democratic parliamentary system
seemed to give the people no solutions or benefits in the times of the severe economic
crisis.

2. Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.

Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930 due to following reasons:

→ The most apparent being the Great Depression. The Weimar Republic did little to remedy
the country’s economic downfall, and Hitler was presented as a saviour to the humiliated
German people living in economic and political crises.

→ The powerful speeches of Hitler in which he sought to build great nation, undo the
injustice of the Versailles Treaty, restore the dignity of German people and provide
employment for all stirred hopes in people.

→ Nazi propaganda was unique. Red banners with the Swastika, Nazi salute and the rounds
of applause attracted the people making Nazism very popular.

3. What are the peculiar features of Nazi thinking?

The peculiar features of Nazi thinking were

→ A belief in racial heirarchy and Lebensraum or living space.
→ Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while the jews formed the lowest rung of the
racial ladder.
→ They believed that only the strongest race would survive and rule.
→ New territories must be gained for enhancing the natural resources and power of
Germany.

4. Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.

Nazi propaganda was effective in creating hatred for the jews:

→ The Nazis used the language and media effectively with great care. The racial theory put
forward by the Nazis that the Jews belonged to a lower race and as such were undesirable.

→ The traditional Christian hatred for the Jews, because they were accused to have killed
Christ, was fully exploited by the Nazis in order to make the Germans pre-judicial against
Jews.

→ The Nazis injected hatred against the Jews even in the minds of the children from the
very beginning during the days of their schooling. The teachers who were Jews were
dismissed and Jews children were thrown out of the schools. Such methods and new
ideological training to the new generation of children went a long way in making the Nazi’s
propaganda quite effective in creating hatred for the Jews.

→ Propaganda films were made to create hatred for the Jews. Orthodox Jews were
stereotyped and marked. For example, one such film was‘The Eternal Jew’.

5. Explain what role women had in Nazi society. Return to Chapter 1 on the French
Revolution. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the role of women in the
two periods.

Answer
Role of women in Nazi society followed the rules of a largely patriarchal or male-dominated
society.

Hitler hailed women as “the most important citizen” in his Germany, but this was true for
only Aryan women who bred pure-blood, “desirable” Aryans.

Motherhood was the only goal they were taught to reach for, apart from performing the
stereotypical functions of managing the household and being good wives.

This was in stark contrast to the role of women in the French Revolution where women led
movements and fought for rights to education and equal wages. They were allowed to form
political clubs, and schooling was made compulsory for them after the French Revolution.

6. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people?

The Nazis established control over its people by various means:

→ They used different propaganda through posters or films to glorify their behaviour.
→ Media was carefully used to win support for the regime and popularise it.
→ Nazism worked on the minds of the people, tapped their emotions and turned their
hatred and anger against those marked as ‘undesirable’.
→ Special surveillance and security forces to control and order society in ways that the
Nazis wanted, was created.
→ The police forces had powers to rule with impunity. Genocide also created an atmosphere
of fear and repression which helped them to establish total control over its people.