Year 12 Modern - The End of World War Two

Hi Modern folks. Welcome back after the trials, and welcome to the end of the war. We are going to polish off the Conflict in Europe topic by the end of next week, and then it's on to some good old-fashioned revision.

First: a few of the online resources we used in class yesterday, inlcuding some rather cool Nazi newsreel footage. I'll put the PowerPoint up soon as well.

You can access an animated map with an overview of WW2 here.

Here is the Youtube clip showing the rescue of Mussolini in 1943:



And here is the clip showing the Battle of Kursk:



And finally, the last film footage of Hitler, awarding medals to some alarmingly young Hitlerjugend members:

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Hi guys, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays...and studying hard. There are plenty of old exam papers you can be looking at on the BOS website.

meanwhile, the latest poll results (a few days late, I know):

Why did Xerxes leave Greece after Salamis? According to 77% of you, it was because he was so humiliated after the battle.

And why did Hitler invade the USSR? 83% of you believed he wanted more territory (lebensraum), whilst 50% each (you could make mulitple responses) said it was because he hated communism, and because it had been his lifelong obsession. All pretty accurate, I would say - Hitler certainly did see the fight with Russia as an ideological and racial showdown, that was both inevitable, and necessary for Germany's survival.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Hurray! The biggest voting numbers yet! I guess it could have something to do with the assessments last week...(which I hope went well, by the way...)

When it came to Hitler's biggest mistake in WW2 - 69% of you said it was his invasion of the USSR. Certainly, that would be the view of most modern historians.

As for the most interesting battle in the Persian Wars - 71% of you went with Thermopylae. That must be The 300 effect. 19% of you voted for Salamis, and the rest went with Marathon. Surprise, surpise - nobody voted for Artemisium, Plataea, or Mycale.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Polls Closed

Here are this week's poll results:

For Ancient, 54% of you believe that Xerxes was a failure as a military commander; 27% each said that he was a great ruler, and that he was ifted in running domestic affairs. So you have not all been sucked in by the anti-Xerxes Greek sources!

For Modern, 40% of you asserted that the Allies should have gone to war with Hitler when he reoccupied the Rhineland; 30% each said they should have done so after he announced rearmament, or after he invaded Czechoslovakia. Based on that, none of you believe that the policy of appeasement should have been followed all the way to the invasion of Poland.

Year 12 Modern - The Road to War PowerPoint

Hi Modern folks. Here is the presentation we did this week, on the 10 steps to World War Two - from leaving the League of Nations in 1933, to invading Poland six years later.


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

You can download it here.

Year 12 Modern - Hitler's Foreign Policy 1933-39

Remembering LA-SCRAMCUP is a good way to start with Nazi foreign policy...but for a little more depth than the acronym alone, try visiting some of these sites:

This is a brief summary of Nazi foreign policy, written by Stephen Tonge.

This revision PowerPoint by Louisa Andersen is a very detailed and useful resource.

These student notes by John D. Clare might assist you in creating your own revision notes.

I will put the LASCRAMCUP PowerPoint up soon.

Year 12 Modern - Propaganda and Terror

Hi Nazi Germany experts...here is the PowerPoint on propaganda and terror in Hitler's Germany. Enjoy!


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

Download the presentation here.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Latest Polls Closed

When did Germany take the fateful step to being a dictatorship? A huge percentage - 85% - said it was when the Enabling Act of March 1933 was passed...which is when Hitler had the power to make any law he wanted, so I think you were pretty spot on there.

For Sparta - 44% of you said the perioeci were most integral to the economy, and 33% went for the helots. Again, pretty much as expected, as these groups certainly did underpin the crafts/agriculture side of the economy, while the Spartiates were off training or waging war.

New polls up very soon!

Year 12 Modern - Triumph of the Will

Triumph of the Will was the documentary/propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl, as a record and celebration of the Nazi Party Conference held in Nuremburg in September 1934.

As a record of a truly historical event, it is quite amazing. When you recall that the Nazis had only been in power for just over 18 months, the scale of the celebrations and the rallies are quite stupendous.

One viewing of this film will stand you in good stead when it comes to discussing how the Nazis used propaganda and symbolism, and how Hitler could manipulate the masses.

Year 12 Modern - From Democracy to Dictatorship

Hitler was a very canny operator. He became Chancellor in January 1933, supposedly the puppet of Hindenburg and von Papen...but by April, he was able to pass any law he liked, and by mid-1934, he was the total ruler of Nazi Germany. How did this transformation occur?

Here is today's presentation, listing the 8 steps (Rigged German Election Leads To Psychopath Nazi Fuhrer):


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

And here is the Youtube video, posted by mrjportman, on the 4 steps that took Hitler from Chancellor to dictator:

Year 12 Modern - Latest Poll Closed

What was it that enabled the Nazis to come to power in 1933? Well, according to those of you who voted, 50% put it down to the Great Depression, while 37% attributed it to Hitler's own personality and charisma. It was actually a complex interplay of factors that catapulted Hitler into the chancellorship, but certainly, without the Depression, he would never have made it.

New poll up soon.

Year 12 Modern - Happy Holidays!

Hi guys. Hope you are having a great holiday. I know you are probably spending this first week just relaxing and forgetting about the half-yearlies, but if you do feel the urge to do some revision/preparation next week, before coming back to school, then here you go:

This is a powerpoint designed by Mr Moorhouse, on Hitler's rise to power.

This is another powerpoint by a Mr Ellis, which charts how Hitler turned Germany into a Nazi dictatorship.

And here is a summary of how Hitler cemented his dictatorship from 1933 to 1934.

Year 12 Modern - LIMP PAPER

LIMP PAPER? What am I talking about? Well, it's a way of remembering how Hitler rose to power, courtesy of John Clare, who has lots of helpful Germany resources online.
LIMP PAPER is an acronym for the main reasons that Hitler came to power, as follows:

Long-term bitterness (over WW1 and Versailles)
Ineffective Constitution (Article 48, proportional representation)
Money (finanical support for the Nazis from big business)
Propaganda (the Nazis were good at publicising themselves and their ideas)

Program (Hitler's 25-point program of ideas to 'save' Germany appealed to almost everyone
Attacks on other parties (the SA used violence to intimidate Hitler's opponents)
Personal qualities (Hitler was a mesmerising speaker who had a lot of power/charisma)
Economic Depression (Germany's economy collapsed and support for the Nazis soared)
Recruited by Hindenburg (after Bruning, Papen and Schleicher, the Pres gave Hitler a go...)

Check it all out here.

Year 12 Modern - Newspaper Article on Hitler

This is an article from 18 February's Independent newspaper, on Hitler's personal habits. Not quite something we cover in the syllabus, but it makes for interesting reading...

Adolf Hitler's "uncouth" personal conduct, including biting his nails during meals, have been exposed in secret intelligence papers discovered in an unknown house in the South West.

The documents paint a picture of Hitler based on information from one of his wartime aides, who describes the Nazi leader as a solitary man "of extremely few but intense emotions" and "shocking" table manners.

The account by the unknown German officer, who kept the war diary at the Wolf's Lair military headquarters and dined with Hitler at least 30 times, form part of an end-of-war intelligence report, which is to be sold at auction at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire next month.

According to the informant, simply referred to as Lieutenant Colonel PW, Hitler "ate prodigious amounts of cake", which contributed to a "digestive disorder", and lost himself in thought during meals.

"Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically - for him food is merely an indispensable means of subsistence" he wrote.

"Quite often Hitler will sit there throughout the entire meal, turned to his own thoughts, seemingly without listening to the talk going on around him.

"However, he does follow the drift of the conversation vaguely, to him the conversation seems to have the effect that music has on others; it stimulates his thoughts and relaxes him."

Dated May 1945 - the year Hitler died - and marked "must be destroyed within 48 hours of reading", the report said the Fuhrer spoke "in a mellow baritone, without that raucous, unpleasant stridency of his public speeches".

But it added: "At the table and in his speech he shows many facets of his rather uncouth behaviour. He abstractedly bites his fingernails, he runs his index finger back and forth under his nose, and his table manners are little short of shocking."

Hitler also preferred stewed vegetables and fruit to meat, herbal tea to coffee and banned smoking in his presence, according to the informant.

Year 12 Modern - Weimar 1919-1923 Powerpoint

This is the presentation we did today in class. It covers Weimar Germany from 1919 to 1923...


Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith

Year 12 Modern - 90th Anniversary of Weimar Germany

Here is a story from the Earth Times from last week, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Weimar Republic:

Weimar, Germany - The German city of Weimar commemorated its role Friday in the brief flowering of German democracy between the monarchy and the Nazis 90 years ago, with Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier saying the Weimar Republic deserved more respect. German legislators met on February 6, 1919 in Weimar, a quiet provincial city far from the riots and violence of Berlin, to found a republic, replacing the monarchy which had lost the First World War. The assembly stayed in the town till August 1919. Despite its ferment of creativity and reforms, the Weimar Republic disappointed many voters, who replaced it with a Nazi dictatorship, the Third Reich, in free elections in 1933. Many Germans still view the fractious Weimar period as a failure. Chancellor Angela Merkel did not attend Friday's ceremonies, which were organized by the city and left-of-centre parties which take a more sympathetic view of the first German democracy. Steinmeier, the top-ranking Social Democrat in the Merkel government, said at a ceremony in the city's National Theatre that the first democracy failed because its citizens had not been committed to its preservation. "The Weimar Republic was not condemned from birth to failure," said. "It bore hope and the promise of a free order in Germany."He hailed its achievements including the vote for women, freedom of expression, the legalization of trade unions and unemployment insurance. Steinmeier said the republic had been destroyed by an "unholy alliance" of the far left and far right. This year contains two other important German anniversaries where Merkel is to preside. They are the 60th birthday of the present-day German Federal Republic and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and with it the end of communism in Germany.