Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963

88 questions
8 subtopics
Non-British period study, one of twenty-four
Y201 to Y224

Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963 is unit Y221 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics are the establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933, the establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939, the impact of war and defeat on Germany: 1939–1949, divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963. 80 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — early crises, hyperinflation and recovery

Explain why the Kapp Putsch of March 1920 collapsed.

Show the answer
Although Wolfgang Kapp's Freikorps took Berlin and the army refused to fire on them, a general strike by Berlin workers paralysed the capital and the putsch fell apart within days.
The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — the Stresemann years, the Depression and Hitler’s appointment

Why was the prosperity of 1924–1929 more fragile than it looked?

Show the answer
It depended on short-term American loans that could be recalled at any moment, agriculture stayed depressed, and unemployment never fell below about 1.3 million.
The establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939 — seizing and holding power

Define Gleichschaltung and give one example of it in practice.

Show the answer
It was the co-ordination of German institutions under Nazi control, seen in the April 1933 civil service law that removed Jewish and politically unreliable officials.
The establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939 — opposition, the economy, society and racial policy

Give three ways the Nazis cut unemployment from about six million to under half a million by 1938.

Show the answer
They used public works such as the motorways, the reintroduction of conscription in 1935 and rearmament orders to industry, helped by removing women and Jews from the official count.
The impact of war and defeat on Germany: 1939–1949 — war economy and Total War, morale and rationing

How did Germany fill the labour gap created by conscription?

Show the answer
It imported and coerced foreign workers and prisoners of war on a huge scale, so that by 1944 around seven million foreigners were working in the German economy.
The impact of war and defeat on Germany: 1939–1949 — resistance, defeat, occupation and the Berlin Blockade

What condition was Germany in at the surrender of May 1945?

Show the answer
Around seven million Germans were dead, cities and transport lay in ruins, national government had ceased to exist, and millions of refugees and expellees were on the move.
Divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963 — Basic Law and constitution of West Germany

What was the outcome of the first Bundestag election in 1949?

Show the answer
The CDU/CSU narrowly beat the SPD, and Adenauer became Chancellor of a coalition with the Free Democrats by a single vote in the Bundestag.
Divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963 — Adenauer’s foreign policy, elections, rearmament and the DDR

Describe the political system of the German Democratic Republic set up in 1949.

Show the answer
Power in the GDR lay with the SED under Ulbricht; the other parties survived only inside the National Front, and voters were offered a single list of candidates for the People's Chamber.

The 8 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — early crises, hyperinflation and recovery	Recall questions on the Republic’s troubled birth, Versailles, the constitution, the Spartacist rising, the Kapp Putsch, the Ruhr occupation and hyperinflation, the Munich Putsch and the Dawes and Young Plans.	12
The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — the Stresemann years, the Depression and Hitler’s appointment	Recall questions on Stresemann’s diplomacy, the Golden Years and their fragility, the Depression, Brüning’s government, the rise of the Nazi vote and appeal, and Hitler’s appointment in January 1933.	8
The establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939 — seizing and holding power	Recall questions on the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, Gleichschaltung, the one-party state, the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler’s move on Hindenburg’s death, Nazi government, Goebbels’s propaganda and the machinery of terror.	9
The establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939 — opposition, the economy, society and racial policy	Recall questions on opposition and the churches, the economic plans of Schacht and Goering, unemployment, the Labour Front, women, youth, the Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, other targets of racial policy and the regime’s popularity.	11
The impact of war and defeat on Germany: 1939–1949 — war economy and Total War, morale and rationing	Recall questions on the war economy and Total War, impact of bombing, war and racial policies, the Final Solution, morale and rationing.	9
The impact of war and defeat on Germany: 1939–1949 — resistance, defeat, occupation and the Berlin Blockade	Recall questions on the White Rose and July Bomb Plot, the limits of resistance, Germany in 1945, Potsdam and reparations, Bizonia, the Soviet zone and the causes, defeat and consequences of the Berlin Blockade.	11
Divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963 — Basic Law and constitution of West Germany	Recall questions on the Basic Law and constitution of West Germany, the 1949 election, the economic miracle, political and social stability.	8
Divided Germany: The Federal Republic and the DDR 1949–1963 — Adenauer’s foreign policy, elections, rearmament and the DDR	Recall questions on Westbindung, reconciliation with France, the Hallstein Doctrine, the Berlin Wall and Spiegel crisis, the DDR’s system, 1953 uprising and control of society, the Bundestag elections, rearmament, NATO and the Treaty of Rome.	20

Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963 is 88 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.