Unit 3 Overview

 5 weeks (now through winter break)
 Major topics:



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The Weimar Republic and its failings
Hitler’s rise to power
Nazi ideology and laws
The Holocaust
 Assessments:
 Nazi Germany paper (week after Thanksgiving)
 Discussion: who was responsible for the Holocaust?
 One DBQ; two quizzes
A fact to ponder:
Adolf Hitler came to
power legally and
democratically
The End of the
First World War

Review: World War I

 1914-1918
 Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Ottoman Empire) defeated by Allied Powers (France,
United Kingdom, Russia, US)
 Effects on Germany
 About 2.5 million dead; many more wounded
 Political turmoil
 Psychological shock – Germans didn’t expect to lose
the war
The End of the War

 July 1918: US troops arrive in
France
 October 1918: Germany requests
an armistice based on Woodrow
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
 November 10: Kaiser Wilhelm
abdicates
 Armistice signed November 11
Two Questions

 How should Germany be governed after WWI?
 How should the Allies make peace with Germany?
 Woodrow Wilson (USA)
wants fair treatment,
self-determination, and a
League of Nations
 The other Allies (France,
UK, Italy) want revenge
Questions for Analyzing
the Treaty of Versailles

1.
What is this document saying? (Translate it into plain English)
2. Why might Germans be upset about this document?
The Treaty of Versailles

 Signed June 28, 1919
 Treaty ending World War I with Germany
 Germany was not allowed to negotiate – a diktat
 Major provisions



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Blame – the War Guilt Clause
Army – severe limits on Germany’s military
Reparations – Germany owed money to the Allies
Territory – Germany lost 13% of territory + all
colonies
Blame: The War Guilt Clause

“The Allied and Associated Governments
affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility
of Germany and her allies for causing all the
loss and damage to which the Allied and
Associated Governments and their nationals
have been subjected as a consequence of the
war imposed upon them by the aggression of
Germany and her allies.”
The War Guilt Clause

 June 28, 1919 (included in Treaty of Versailles)
 Blamed Germany for WWI
 Germans resented this provision
 Justified demands for huge reparations
Army: Restrictions on the Military

 Germany’s army and navy
severely restricted
 Germans worried about
external threats
 Left many Germans
unemployed
 Freikorps – unofficial antiCommunist armies
And Now, a Fancy German Word

 Dolchstoßlegende – “stab
in the back” myth
 Held that Jews or other
traitors stopped
Germany from winning
WWI
 Gave Germans an
outlet for frustration
over losing WWI
Reparations

 Germany forced to pay back massive amounts of
reparations to Britain and France
 Britain and France needed reparations to pay back
wartime loans from the US
 Total:
 Initially $63 billion ($768 billion in 2010 money)
 Later reduced to $33 billion ($402 billion in 2010
money)
 Last payment made October 3, 2010
Territory

 Germany lost territory in Europe
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
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
Alsace-Lorraine (to France)
Saar (to League of Nations)
Rhineland (to be demilitarized)
Danzig (to League of Nations)
 Also lost all its colonies
 Total losses:
 13% of European territory
 10% of population (about 6.5 million people)
German Territorial Losses after WWI