What were the social and economic problems facing Germany 1920-39 and how were they dealt with?
#625Lab – History, marked 80/100, detailed feedback at the very bottom. You may also like: Leaving Cert History Guide (€).
The period in German history of 1920-39 saw many problems arise, from the issuing of the treaty of Versailles to the collapse of democracy and the Weimar republic and the swing to extremist parties. The German people were left disillusioned by democracy as they felt the “November criminals” had stabbed them in the back by agreeing to the harsh terms of the treaty of Versailles. The post-war despair, the battered economy and high unemployment rates were all contributing factors to the swing to the far right.
After Germany was defeated in world war one they were forced to sign the treaty of Versailles. The newly established Weimar Republic signed the infamous peace treaty. The treaty forced Germany to agree to a war guilt clause, to give up large areas of land, and to pay reparations to the winning countries. How did this create social and economic problems? Did the German people react poorly?
In 1922 Germany couldn’t pay reparations to France and so they invaded the Ruhr industrial region to seize adequate payment. This angered the Germans and led to passive resistance among them. This led to hyperinflation and by 1923 one dollar was the equivalent of four trillion marcs. The marc had become worthless. Highlight that this was specifically an economic problem – did this lead to social problems?
Germany dealt with this economic problem by setting up a new government under Gustav stressman (spelled Stresemann) and setting up the Dawes plan. The Dawes plan was a scheme in which the Germans received large long-term loans from the US. The marc (spelled mark) was abolished and a new currency the rentenmarc (spelled rentenmark) was put in its place. This aided German trade. (How?) These economic plans led to Germans unemployment to fall to 8%. However, the German economy was far too dependent on American loans. “We are dancing on top of a volcano,” gustav stressman. (good use of quotation, but it needs to form a full sentence, something like: “As Stresemann said, “we are dancing on top of a volcano”)
In 1929 the wall street crash led to massive economic and social problems in Germany. Unemployment, already at 1.2 million in 1929, rose to 3.2 million by 1932. Bruning, then chancellor of Germany, dealt with the problem by cutting government spending on social welfare and the wages of civil servants. This led to him gaining the nickname “hunger chancellor,” his methods proved to be ineffective and the next general election showed a swing to extremism. Bruning also used president Hindenburg’s power to rule by decree to pass his unpopular laws. This showed up the failure of democracy. This is a good paragraph – maybe add a quick description of the Wall Street Crash to improve.
In 1933 Hitler came to power after feeding off the general disarray and disunity of the country, the failure of democracy to fix Germany’s heavy unemployment and economic problems, and the societal disillusionment with the current government led to Hitler coming to power. Hitler immediately established a dictatorship. His methods of propaganda, indoctrination and terror allowed him to achieve this. This had massive societal effects and the Germans became a beaten people. There isn’t much factual information in this paragraph – try going into more detail about the election of Hitler
Goebbels (Give him his full name, Josef Goebbels), minister for propaganda established a cult of personality around Hitler. “Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuehrer.” (Good quotation, but needs to be in a sentence like His slogan was “ein reich, ein volk, ein fuehrer”) He held daily press conferences with the media to direct them what view they should be taking on various matters. Leni Riefenstahl commissioned propagandist movies such as “triumph of the will” and “Olympia”. Goebbels organized a book burning to rid Germany of anti-Nazi ideas. How did this have an impact on society? Were people’s lives changed as a result?
The Gestapo under Heydrich (Hermann Göring is really the key personality they look for in relation to the Gestapo, not Heydrich) and the SS under Himmler (give him his full name, Heinrich Himmler) organized widespread terror among ordinary Germans. They were, as a nation suppressed and concentration camps such as Dachau and Sachsenhausen. Hitler also used organizations such as the Hitler youth and the league of German maidens to indoctrinate the youth. History was taught in schools to make Nazis into heroes and only devout Nazis were allowed to teach the subject.
Hitler came to power with the promise of reducing unemployment and now he had to do this. He introduced large-scale public works, such as autobahn (motorways), which were built all around Germany. These were funded by government investment. The introduction of conscription and the increase of heavy industry aided Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy all contributed to virtually reduce unemployment by 1939. By 1939 there were 200,000 unemployed.
Hitler’s second prominent economic policy was autarky. This policy strived for economic self-sufficiency and saw Hitler attempt to recycle synthetic materials and increase grain growth within the country. However this led to a fall in grain production and lots of materials, such as rubber, still had to be imported. Hitler would have to conquer further afield to attain the lebensraum needed to achieve autarky.
Hitler’s economic policies benefited the workers. Programmes such as strength through joy helped improve working conditions and beauty through joy helped improve leisure time. As people became more prosperous the people car, the Volkswagen became more widely used. Big business’s (businesses) also flourished under Hitler’s economy and 70% of production was in the hands of monopolies.
From 1920-39 Germany suffered two economic depressions, the failure of multiple democratic governments, and the rise of fascism. The German people chose extremism as a method to deal with the economic and social problems it was withstanding, unfortunately, this was to be to their detriment.
Feedback: This has the perfect number of paragraphs, and they’re all of nice lengths. Most of your information is accurate and relevant, and you definitely answer the question, you just need to be clearer about which aspect of the question you’re addressing in some parts. You make good use of quotation but you need to work on incorporating it into the paragraph so that it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the argument. Watch out for spelling errors, especially when it comes to historical names and terms. When you provide the facts, you should then comment on them, but elaborating on how they were problems or how effective the solutions were.
Cumulative Mark: This could achieve 60 out of 60 as its cumulative mark, as you have plenty of paragraphs.
Overall Evaluation Mark: This would achieve around 20 marks out of 40 for Overall Evaluation – to bring this up you can aim to provide more commentary on the information you’re providing.
Total Mark: 80/100