Robert+Hines+&+Sawyer+Folks

= = =**Germany** = = =

= = =1920 - 1950 =

Germany Timeline 1920 – 1950 1923 - The Nazis attempt an unsuccessful armed rebellion led by Adolf Hitler 1933 - Hitler was chancellor - The Nazis start killing Jews 1934 - Hitler declares himself der Fuhrer (German Nazi dictator in World War II)- The Nazi government is called the Third Reich 1938 - Germany took over Austria 1939 - Germany occupies Czechoslovakia 1939 - Germany invades Poland - starts World War II 1940 - Germany captures Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg. The Allies including Russia, UK and USA retaliate 1945 - Hitler commits suicide - shoots himself 1945 - Germany surrenders 1945 - Germany divided into four zones of military occupation 1949 - The Allies approve a constitution for western Germany and East Germany adopts a Communist-prepared constitution October 1949 - The German Democratic Republic was formed

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 Germany(1919-1933) Weimar Republic The German revolution came to an end in August of 1919, this is when the Weimar Republic began. The head of the German government was accused of betraying Germany by signing the Versailles treaty. The people of Germany had no identification with their government because the government was unstable. Nazi Germany grew out of national disgust and resentment after the Treaty of Versailles (1919) assigned blame to the Germans for World War I. The Treaty resulted in huge costs to Germany including the loss of territories, heavy reparation payments and severe military restrictions. Other reasons for the rise of Nazism was the great Depression and a desire of Germans to be patriotic again. In 1933 President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany and the Third Reich began. During World War II, Germany conquered and occupied most of Europe and Northern Africa. The Nazis persecuted and murdered millions of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust Final Solution. Despite an alliance with other nations (mainly Italy and Japan), by 1945, Germany had been defeated and occupied by the Allied powers. =====

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Germany was home to brilliant scientists who helped move Germany into a position of dominance in industrialized nations. Several critical scientists defected or refused to work to avoid working for the Nazis – including (but not limited to) Albert Einstein (theoretical physics), Max Born (quantum physicist), Wernher von Braun (rocket scientist). See below for links to learn about these famous scientists and their contributions to science. =====

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 * ** German Scientists ** || || Max Born || Gustav Hertz || || Walther Bothe || Pascual Jordan || || Wernher von Braun || Max von Laue || || Walter Dornberger || Phillipp Lenard || || Albert Einstein || Hermann Oberth || || Klaus Fuchs || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hans von Ohain || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">James Franck || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Otto Meyerhof || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Walter Gerlach || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rudolf Peierls || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hans Geiger || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Max Planck || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fritz Haber || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Johannes Stark || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Otto Hahn || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Fritz Strassmann || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Werner Heisenberg || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Carl von Weizsäcker || || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ernst Heinkel || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Karl Wirtz ||=====

__**The Holocaust**__
===The Holocaust was Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jews. There were 11 million people killed in the Holocaust, about 6 million of them were Jewish. This was about two thirds of the European Jewish population. Not only Jews were killed in the Holocaust though. Gypsies and homosexuals also fell victim to Hitler. The people in the concentration camps were very badly malnourished and sick. The people in the camps would be executed by guns, poison gas, or ovens most of the time. Towards the end of the war prisoners would have to go on death marches where many died of exhaustion. they would be marched from camp to camp as Germany retreated. Whenever the Germans would abandon a camp they would kill as many prisoners as they could and put them in a mass grave.=== Band of Brothers: Abandoned Concentration Camp

=<span style="background-color: #030202; color: #e41111; display: block; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">1950-1990 = = =
 * COLD WAR **

==== After WWII, the Russians could not agree with the Western world on how Europe should be structured. Tensions were high. It never came to actual military violence between the countries, but pressure was exerted on both sides. The Cold War lasted from 1947-1991. The Soviet Union created the Eastern Bloc of which East Germany was a part. The US and the Allies formed NATO as a way to defend themselves against communism. Two German states were formed in 1949 as a result of the Cold War: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR) which was communist. West Germany, or the democratic FRG followed Western economic, political and security organizations, the EC (later the EU) and NATO. The GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. Life between the two countries was dramatically different as West Germany’s economy and country thrived while East Germans lived under hardship, famine, no freedom and a poor economy. ====

The Berlin Wall
==== In 1961, the Berlin Wall was built as a symbolic and actual wall to keep any form of threat to a communist lifestyle out of the GDR, and to keep the citizens inside the boundaries and under the control of the Communists. Because of a loophole in the immigration/ emigration laws between the FDR and the GDR, many defected from the difficult communist lifestyle in GDR to West Germany. East Germany experienced a greater than 20% reduction in population, mostly educated professionals. To stop this brain-drain, the Soviets built a wall which closed off the influences from the Western world on the communist world. Towards the end of the Cold War, in 1989, President Reagan addressed Communist leader, Secretary Gorbachev and implored him to “Bring down this Wall” referring to the Berlin Wall. By October 3, 1990, the wall was torn down completely. It has taken decades (and is still a work in progress) to improve the East German infrastructure and economy to Western standards. Unemployment in some areas can still exceed 20%. ====

Videos
Regan Speech Peter Jennings Speech Fall of the Berlin Wall

Germany (1945-1990)
East Germany (GDR) and West Germany (FRG)



= = =<span style="background-color: #030202; color: #e70d0d; display: block; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">1980 - Present =

Germany is now Europe's largest economy and the fifth largest in the world, and is second most populous nation (after Russia). Germany is a leading exporter of machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and household equipment and benefits from a highly skilled labor force as a result of the industrialization boom started in 1870.

There are many common household names that show the high quality exports made in Germany -



Germany is the fourth largest auto-producing country in the world next to __Japan, China, US.__