Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945

Section A Source A (source written for this paper; the author is fictional but typical of the period): from a letter by a Berlin shopkeeper to a newspaper, November 1923. 'My life savings, forty years of work, will today buy a loaf of bread. Those who signed the treaty and printed the money have ruined honest people. Is it any wonder that men listen to anyone who promises to restore order?' Source B (source written for this paper; the author is fictional but typical of the period): from a speech by a Social Democrat deputy in the Reichstag, 1928. 'The Republic has survived putsch and inflation. The Dawes Plan has brought stability, Stresemann has brought Germany back into the League. Our democracy is young, but it is growing strong.' Source C (source written for this paper; the author is fictional but typical of the period): from the memoirs of a former Nazi Party member, written in 1955. 'In 1932 we did not vote for Hitler because of his ideas about the Jews. We voted for work and bread. The other parties had nothing to say to us. Only later did we understand what we had chosen.' With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the weaknesses of the Weimar Republic.

Section B 'Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 because of the political intrigue of Germany's elites.' Assess the validity of this view.

Section B How far did the Nazi regime achieve a Volksgemeinschaft in the years 1933 to 1939?