Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918-45

The 8-mark 'explain two effects' question rewards AO2: the consequence followed to an outcome, not just that an effect happened. 'The Depression caused unemployment' is recall only; a good answer adds the outcome, that unemployment destroyed faith in Weimar and drove voters to the extremes, so Nazi seats rose in 1930 and 1932. Build each effect as cause, effect, outcome.

On the 16-mark 'how far do you agree' question, even knowledgeable candidates lose marks by asserting one factor was 'more important' without saying by what measure. State a criterion first (which factor was necessary, or had the widest impact), then apply it to judge how far you agree. That is what reaches Level 4, not more knowledge.

DS3 spans 1918-45, but each question sets a narrow focus and marks only relevant material. Examiners flagged candidates dragging in the Kapp Putsch (March 1920) when it lay outside the focus, or mixing phases (the golden years when asked on the 1919-23 crises; the 1944 July Plot when asked on pre-war control). Off-focus material earns nothing, however accurate.

On the 6-mark impression question, selecting or quoting words that fit an impression reaches only Level 2. On the Night of the Long Knives and 1918-19 protest extracts, candidates who backed an inference with the author's language stalled at Level 2; those analysing the author's emphasis, selection and omissions reached Level 3. Explain HOW the impression is built.

These early Weimar revolts came from opposite extremes. The Spartacist rising (January 1919) was a LEFT-wing communist revolt in Berlin, crushed with help from the Freikorps. The Kapp Putsch (March 1920) was a RIGHT-wing attempt to seize Berlin, defeated by a general strike. Do not swap their politics or dates: left 1919, right 1920.

A common error is to think Hitler seized power by force. The 1923 Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch FAILED; Hitler was jailed, wrote Mein Kampf, then chose to gain power legally through elections. He was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 by Hindenburg, not by a coup. The violence came AFTER, to consolidate control once he was in office.

Examiners flagged candidates who wrote the Great Depression caused hyperinflation, confusing two crises. Hyperinflation was in 1923 (Ruhr occupation, money-printing), ended by Stresemann's Rentenmark. The Depression after the 1929 Crash did the opposite: deflation and mass unemployment as US loans were recalled. Its effect came through unemployment, not inflation.

Do not collapse the 1933 consolidation into one event. The Reichstag Fire (27 February 1933) did not make Hitler a dictator; it was a pretext for the Fire Decree (28 February), which suspended civil liberties and allowed arrests of communists. The legal turning point was the Enabling Act (March 1933), letting his government make laws without the Reichstag.