Cambridge IGCSE World History: Depth Study B, Germany 1918-45 (0470)

Depth Study B asks how Germany went from defeat and revolution in 1918 to Nazi dictatorship and total war by 1945. In Cambridge IGCSE History (0470) you must be able to explain why the Weimar Republic struggled and partly recovered, why Hitler could take and secure power by 1934, how the Nazis controlled Germany, and what life was like for different groups under Nazi rule. Examiners reward precise, dated evidence used to answer the key question, not narrative.

Where this fits in 0470

Every 0470 candidate studies one Core Content option plus at least one of five Depth Studies. On Paper 1 (Structured Questions, 2 hours, 60 marks), Section B sets two questions on each Depth Study and you answer one, split into parts (a), (b) and (c). Depth Study content is also the basis of Paper 4 (Alternative to Coursework) or Component 3 (Coursework), depending on which your school enters. Sibling pages for this Depth Study: Depth Studies revision notes and Depth Studies practice questions.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE IGCSE HISTORY (0470), 2024-2026 – DEPTH STUDY B: GERMANY, 1918-45

• Key question 1: Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start? How Germany emerged from defeat; the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on the Republic; recovery after 1923; the achievements of the Weimar period.
• Key question 2: Why was Hitler able to dominate Germany by 1934? What the Nazi Party stood for in the 1920s; why it had little success before 1930; how Hitler became Chancellor by 1933; how he consolidated power in 1933-34.
• Key question 3(a): How effectively did the Nazis control Germany, 1933-45? Opposition; treatment of political opponents; culture and the mass media; persecution of groups; whether Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state.
• Key question 3(b): What was it like to live in Nazi Germany? Young people; women and the family; whether most Germans benefited; how the coming of war changed life.

How did Germany emerge from defeat in 1918-19?

Defeat came suddenly for most Germans. Sailors mutinied at Kiel at the start of November 1918, workers’ and soldiers’ councils spread, and on 9 November the Kaiser abdicated and a republic was proclaimed. Friedrich Ebert’s government signed the Armistice on 11 November. A National Assembly elected in January 1919 met at Weimar, away from unrest in Berlin, and drew up the constitution adopted in August 1919.

The Weimar Constitution gave the vote to all adults over 20, used proportional representation and created a president elected every seven years. Proportional representation produced many parties and short-lived coalitions, and Article 48 let the president rule by decree in an emergency. The army’s leaders were not loyal to the Republic, and in 1920 the army refused to act against the Kapp Putsch, which collapsed only because of a general strike.

What was the impact of the Treaty of Versailles?

The treaty, signed on 28 June 1919, took Alsace-Lorraine, the Polish Corridor and all colonies, limited the army to 100,000 men, demilitarised the Rhineland and, through Article 231, blamed Germany for the war. Reparations were fixed in 1921 at 132 billion gold marks. Many Germans called it a Diktat and blamed the “November criminals” who had signed the Armistice, feeding the myth that the army had been “stabbed in the back”. The point for an answer is that Versailles tied the new Republic to national humiliation from its first year.

How serious was political disorder, 1919-23?

• Threats from the left: the Spartacist rising in Berlin in January 1919 was crushed by the army and the Freikorps; Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were killed.
• Threats from the right: the Kapp Putsch (March 1920), political murders such as those of Matthias Erzberger (1921) and Walther Rathenau (1922), and the Munich Putsch (November 1923).
• Economic crisis: when Germany fell behind with reparations, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in January 1923. The government backed passive resistance and printed money to pay striking workers, and hyperinflation followed; by November 1923 one US dollar was worth over four trillion marks. Savings were wiped out, hitting the middle classes hardest.

To what extent did the Republic recover after 1923?

Gustav Stresemann, Chancellor in 1923 and Foreign Minister until his death in October 1929, ended passive resistance and introduced the Rentenmark (November 1923). The Dawes Plan (1924) rescheduled reparations and brought American loans. Abroad, the Locarno Treaties (1925), entry to the League of Nations (1926) and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) restored Germany’s standing, and the Young Plan (1929) reduced the reparations total.

Recovery was real but fragile: it depended on short-term American loans, farmers were already in difficulty, and extremist parties survived. Weimar culture flourished – the Bauhaus school of design founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927), Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (1928) – but conservatives saw it as decadent.

Why did the Nazis have little success before 1930, and what changed?

The Nazi Party’s 25-point programme (1920) attacked Versailles, demanded living space and excluded Jews from citizenship. After the failed Munich Putsch of 8-9 November 1923, Hitler used his trial for publicity, wrote Mein Kampf in Landsberg prison and decided to win power through elections. Yet in the stable years the party won only 2.6% of the vote in 1928 (12 seats).

The Depression after the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 changed everything. American loans were recalled, unemployment reached about six million in early 1932, and governments ruled by Article 48 decree. The Nazis offered work, order and national revival, used Goebbels’s propaganda and the SA, and won 107 seats in September 1930 and 230 in July 1932, the largest party. After the November 1932 election cut them to 196 seats, Papen and Hindenburg’s circle persuaded the president to appoint Hitler Chancellor on 30 January 1933, believing they could control him.

How did Hitler consolidate his power in 1933-34?

Date	Event	Why it mattered
27 February 1933	Reichstag Fire	Emergency decree suspended civil rights; communists arrested
5 March 1933	Election	Nazis won 43.9%, still short of a majority alone
23 March 1933	Enabling Act	Government could make laws without the Reichstag for four years
May-July 1933	Trade unions abolished; other parties banned	One-party state
30 June 1934	Night of the Long Knives	Röhm and SA leaders killed; the army reassured
2 August 1934	Death of Hindenburg	Hitler combined the offices as Führer; the army swore an oath to him personally

How effectively did the Nazis control Germany, 1933-45?

Terror: the SS under Himmler, the Gestapo and concentration camps (Dachau opened in March 1933) removed opponents. Propaganda: Goebbels’s ministry controlled press, radio, film and the arts through the Reich Chamber of Culture; cheap radios spread Hitler’s speeches; books were burned in May 1933 and the 1936 Berlin Olympics showcased the regime. The churches: the Concordat of July 1933 with the Catholic Church did not stop later persecution, and Protestant pastors such as Martin Niemöller formed the Confessing Church.

Opposition existed but was fragmented: the Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth, the White Rose student group (its leaders, including Hans and Sophie Scholl, executed in February 1943) and the army officers’ bomb plot of 20 July 1944. Whether Nazi Germany was totalitarian is a judgement question: control was extensive, but it relied on popular consent and informers as much as on the Gestapo, and the regime’s leaders competed with one another.

What was it like to live in Nazi Germany?

• Young people: the Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens became compulsory; school curricula stressed race and physical fitness. Some young people resisted or simply withdrew.
• Women and the family: policies stressed “children, kitchen, church”, marriage loans and the Mother’s Cross; women were pushed out of some professions, though labour shortages drew them back into work later.
• Did most benefit? Unemployment fell through public works, rearmament and conscription, and the Strength Through Joy organisation offered leisure, but workers lost trade unions and real wages rose little. Persecuted groups – Jews, Roma, disabled people, homosexuals – suffered; Jews lost citizenship under the Nuremberg Laws (September 1935) and were attacked in Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938).
• The coming of war: rationing began in 1939; after Stalingrad Goebbels declared “total war” (February 1943) and Albert Speer, armaments minister from 1942, expanded war production using forced labour. Allied bombing devastated cities such as Hamburg (1943) and Dresden (1945). The Final Solution – the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews, co-ordinated at the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 – was carried out in death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Worked example: planning a (c) answer

“The Depression was the main reason Hitler became Chancellor in 1933.” How far do you agree? [10]

1. Agree: the Nazi vote rose from 2.6% (1928) to 37% (July 1932) as unemployment soared; the crisis discredited Weimar governments.
2. Disagree: Nazi propaganda and organisation turned discontent into votes; fear of communism won support from business and the middle class.
3. Disagree: Hitler did not win a majority – he was appointed through the “backstairs intrigue” of Papen and Hindenburg’s advisers.
4. Judgement: the Depression created the opportunity, but the political deal of January 1933 decided it.

Common mistakes

• Treating Weimar as “doomed” without weighing the genuine recovery of 1924-29.
• Saying Hitler was elected Chancellor; he was appointed by Hindenburg.
• Confusing the Munich Putsch (1923) with the Night of the Long Knives (1934).
• Describing propaganda without judging how effective it was or for whom.

Frequently asked questions

Is Depth Study B examined in Paper 2? No. Paper 2 is set on a prescribed Core Content topic. Depth Study B is examined in Paper 1 Section B and can be used for Component 3 or Paper 4.

What dates should I know best? January 1919, 1923 (Ruhr, hyperinflation, Munich Putsch), October 1929, July 1932, 30 January 1933, March 1933, 30 June 1934 and 2 August 1934 carry most answers on key questions 1 and 2.

Was Nazi Germany totalitarian? Arguments for: one party, terror, censorship, control of youth. Arguments against: limited opposition survived, the churches kept some independence, and rival Nazi leaders competed for power. A strong answer reaches a judgement.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE History (0470) syllabus for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026 – cambridgeinternational.org (Depth study B, focus points and specified content). Always check the current syllabus before an exam.