Transcript The state of Germany in 1945 - Watford Grammar School for Boys

The state of Germany in
1945
The state of Germany in
1945
By May 1945 the war was lost:
• Hitler and Goebbels among others had committed
suicide
• Central government had broken down
• Germany and Berlin had been divided by the Allies
into four zones controlled by the Soviet Union, the
USA, Britain and France
The Battle of Berlin had been the largest of the war – in
Jan 1945 alone, approx. 450,000 German troops were
killed
Social and economic
crisis in Germany
In the short term, Germany’s biggest problem in the
Spring of 1945 was the extent of social and economic
crisis. Use Layton p.185-88 to complete the spider
diagram
Population
displacement
Urban
destruction
Germany in 1945
Food and fuel
shortages
Economic dislocation
The state of Germany in
1945
• As morale collapsed, so too did the authority of the Nazi Party
and Hitler
• However the Nazi regime did not relax its efforts to maintain a
firm grip on Germany – police, SS and armed forces ordered to
intensify terror to prevent defeatist attitudes including
executions of those unwilling to fight, deserters captured and
shot
• Civilian population was exhausted and suffering severe hardship
but few signs of outward resistance or rebellion
• On the whole, Germans reacted passively and with resignation
to the final collapse of the regime and occupation by foreign
forces – bound together in a ‘community of fate’
The end of Nazi
Germany
‘When it came, the collapse of the
Nazi dictatorship was remarkable in
its speed and thoroughness.
Seemingly overnight the hold of the
regime evaporated. Despite
expectations to the contrary, despite
the remarkable grip which National
Socialism had had on the German
people across twelve years of
indoctrination in the schools, the
media and public institutions of all
kinds, despite police terror and
widespread complicity in the crimes
of the Nazi regime, when German
towns and cities were occupied by
Allied forces Nazism disappeared.’
Complete the mind map activity on p.55 of
the revision guide – a sentence to explain
each point then prioritise your reasons
homework
• Start revising for a full practice paper on 23/04
• Revise content AND techniques
• A good list of practice 12 mark ‘explain’ questions on
moodle and past papers with mark schemes
• To get the full hour and a half you will need to stay for
some of break – this is obviously optional but I highly
recommend you use the full amount of time!