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Led by Kershawian Nazi Germany Simulacrum
A non-British depth study for OCR GCSE History A — how Germany moved from a struggling democracy to a genocidal dictatorship and into occupation, explained through structures rather than the language of evil.
Led by Kershawian Nazi Germany Simulacrum
The question
How did a party polling badly in 1928 come to govern Germany without opposition by 1934? You will weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Republic, the impact of the Depression on different groups, the crisis of 1929–1933 and the rise in Nazi support, and the consolidation of 1933–1934 — the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, the March elections, the collaboration of key institutions including the army, and the elimination of opposition.
Outcome
You can explain the rise from electoral weakness to consolidated dictatorship as a connected, structural sequence — Weimar's weaknesses, elite miscalculation, institutional collaboration — rather than as the product of one man's will.
Led by Kershawian Nazi Germany Simulacrum
The question
What was the relationship between the German people and the Nazi state? You will examine the terror apparatus (SA, SS, Gestapo, SD, courts, police), propaganda and the constructed popularity of Hitler, the attempt to build a "national community," the regime's economic and social policies and their winners and losers, the weakness of opposition, and the escalating persecution of Jews, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.
Outcome
You can analyse the relationship between people and state by holding coercion and genuine consent together, and can describe the population as a spectrum of responses — from enthusiasm to resistance — grounded in evidence rather than treated as a uniform bloc.
Led by Kershawian Nazi Germany Simulacrum
The question
How did the war transform the regime, escalate persecution into genocide, and end in division? You will study the German reaction to war, the changing fortunes of the conflict and the exploitation of the East, the impact of bombing at home, shifting support and wartime opposition, the escalation to the Holocaust, defeat and occupation, Allied de-Nazification, and the divergent experiences of East and West Germans to 1955.
Outcome
You can explain the escalation to genocide through the idea of cumulative radicalisation — holding leadership intent and bureaucratic mechanism together — and can account for defeat, occupation, de-Nazification, and the split into two Germanys.