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Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited

  • 19 subtopics
  • 57 things to know
  • Paper 3
  • Paper 3 themes option, chosen from sixteen

What Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited covers

A Paper 3 option combining aspects in breadth on German society, women, industry and government economic policy across 120 years with aspects in depth on the founding of the Empire, its collapse in 1918, the Nazi state, the making of the Federal Republic, and reunification.

Where it is assessed

Paper 3

Themes in breadth with aspects in depth, one option of sixteen.

Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗

The 19 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Who and when

How did regional and social divisions shape party politics?

Key term

What were the constitutional reforms 'from above' in October 1918?

Process

What was the artisan (Mittelstand) tradition?

Numbers

What were the potential weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution?

Key term

What was the idea of the Volksgemeinschaft?

Key term

How thorough was de-Nazification in the 1950s?

Key term

What were the main reasons for reunification?

Who and when

How did Germany's class structure change between 1871 and 1990?

Numbers

What was women's legal position in Imperial Germany?

Numbers

How did the First World War change women's work?

Numbers

What was economic and monetary union in 1990?

Who and when

Why did German industry grow so fast in the nineteenth century?

Key term

What was the economic effect of naval building from 1898 to 1914?

Key term

What was the impact of Nazi economic policy?

Key term

How did the 1871 constitution try to reconcile unity and division?

Who and when

What powers did the individual states keep?

Numbers

What social insurance did Bismarck introduce in the 1880s?

Key term

What was the Kulturkampf?

Key term

What was the 'War in Sight' crisis of 1875?

Key term

What was Erzberger's Peace Resolution of 1917?

Numbers

How did the Independent Socialist Party (USPD) emerge?

Numbers

What happened in the revolution of 1918–19?

Key term

What was the scale of unemployment from 1930 to 1932?

Numbers

What was Gleichschaltung?

Numbers

Why did the purge of June 1934 matter?

Key term

What was Hitler's style of government?

Key term

What was Hitler's working method?

Key term

What was the relationship between party and state?

Numbers

How was the Federal Republic created?

Key term

Why was the FRG's founding document of 1949 called a Basic Law rather than a constitution?

Who and when

Why did Adenauer bind West Germany to the West (Westbindung)?

Numbers

How did the SPD change in this period?

Numbers

What did coming to terms with the past mean in West Germany in the 1950s?

Who and when

Why did East Germans want to leave in 1989?

Numbers

What was the pan-European picnic?

Numbers

What were the Monday demonstrations?

Key term

Why was 9 October in Leipzig decisive?

Numbers

Why did the Four Powers accept reunification?

Who and when

How did social mobility change after the Second World War?

Numbers

What rights did women gain in the Weimar Republic?

Evaluation

What natural advantages did German industry have?

Numbers

What was the post-war 'economic miracle' (Wirtschaftswunder)?

Key term

What was the significance of the Prussian three-class franchise?

Key term

What were the main parties of the Empire?

Numbers

What did the May Laws of 1873 require of the Catholic Church in Prussia?

Numbers

How did Germany's war effort strain society?

Numbers

What was Rosa Luxemburg's role?

Key term

What were the salient features of the Weimar Constitution?

Key term

How was regional and local government 'coordinated'?

Numbers

How often did the cabinet meet?

Key term

How far was the Volksgemeinschaft achieved?

Key term

What was the constructive vote of no confidence?

Key term

What was the significance of the 1963 Elysee Treaty?

Key term

What was de-Nazification?

Key term

What happened at the West German embassies?

Who and when

How did the Berlin Wall come to open?

Numbers

What was the Two Plus Four Treaty of 1990?

Take Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did Germany's class structure change between 1871 and 1990?

    Model answer

    The urban industrial working class and white-collar ('new Mittelstand') workers grew, while the landowning Junker elite and the peasantry slowly declined.

  2. 2

    What was the artisan (Mittelstand) tradition?

    Model answer

    A layer of skilled craftsmen and small producers whose status and security were squeezed by large-scale industrialisation.

  3. 3

    How did social mobility change after the Second World War?

    Model answer

    Post-war reconstruction and the economic miracle increased social mobility and expanded the middle class in West Germany.

  4. 4

    How fast did the urban working class grow after 1871?

    Model answer

    Germany's population rose from 41 to 68 million by 1914 while the share in agriculture fell to about a third, so industrial towns absorbed the increase.

  5. 5

    Who were the Junkers?

    Model answer

    The Prussian landowning nobility east of the Elbe, who supplied the officer corps and senior civil service and dominated Prussian politics until 1945.

  6. 6

    What was the position of the Mittelstand?

    Model answer

    Artisans, shopkeepers and small farmers squeezed between big business and organised labour, whose insecurity made them receptive to nationalism and later to Nazism.

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Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited revision questions

What does Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited cover in Edexcel A-Level History?
19 subtopics: changes in class structure and prosperity, 1871–1990, the changing role of women, 1871–1990, strength in manufacturing and agriculture's slow decline, 1871–1990, government policy and economic change, 1871-1990, impact of the new germany's constitution, the reichstag and the political parties, attempts to consolidate the new germany, strains of war, tensions and military dictatorship 1917, constitutional reforms from above 1918, the attempt to achieve unity through democracy, gleichschaltung, 1933–34, hitler's role as führer, the nature of the new nazi state, the creation of the frg and its constitution, adenauer, the cdu and the spd, de-nazification and coming to terms with the past, the flood of refugees from the gdr in 1989, the revolution in the gdr, 1989 and reasons for and problems of reunification. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Germany, 1871–1990: United, Divided and Reunited organised?
By the Edexcel 9HI0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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