Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed
Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45 — exam questions
15 original Incandio exam-style questions on Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45, 150 marks, about 225 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45 — the option that teaches it. Read the option first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
3 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the option still loses the mark.
- What (6 marks)
- analysis of what the author SELECTED and how they treated it, rather than what happened Misread as: evaluating whether the author is right, which earns nothing on this question
- Explain (6–8 marks)
- TWO of whatever is asked for — effects, causes or ways — each analysed and shown to lead somewhere Misread as: one of them explained superbly, which is capped at 4 with no access to Level 3
- How (8–16 marks)
- a judgement on the EXTENT, built from both sides — agreement and disagreement, or three aspects and a criterion Misread as: agreement only on the source question (capped at 4), or the two printed bullets and nothing else on the sixteen-marker (held at 10)
Assessed on Paper 1 (4HI1/01) and Paper 2 (4HI1/02), against AO1, AO2, AO4.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) — statements 4HI1 3.5 AO4 · 4HI1 3.4 AO4 · 4HI1 3.2 AO4 · 4HI1 3.1 AO4 · 4HI1 3.3 AO4 · 4HI1 3.2 AO1 · 4HI1 3.2 AO2 · 4HI1 3.3 AO1 · 4HI1 3.3 AO2 · 4HI1 3.4 AO1 · 4HI1 3.4 AO2 · 4HI1 3.5 AO1 · 4HI1 3.5 AO2 · 4HI1 3.1 AO1 · 4HI1 3.1 AO2. Incandio is aligned to this specification; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording.
The 15 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the option's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about the German Home Front in the years 1942–45? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: Total war was declared in a sports hall in February 1943 to an audience that had been selected in advance, and it arrived in the factories a great deal later than in Britain. Women were still being kept out of the plants in 1942 for reasons of ideology while foreign labourers were brought in by the million to do the work instead. The bombing did not break the cities; it moved them underground and made the ration and the shelter queue the whole of civilian life. From a history of wartime Germany, written by a British historian in 2008. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 1 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about Nazi racial policy in the years 1933–39? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: There was no plan on a desk. In April 1933 the boycott lasted a day and was called off because foreign trade mattered more; in 1935 the laws were drafted at Nuremberg over a weekend because a speech had been promised and something had to be in it; in 1938 the pace was set by men who wanted the property. What ran through all of it was not a timetable but a direction, and everyone who mattered knew which way it pointed and competed to get there first. From a study of the Nazi state, written by a German historian in 1991. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 2 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about Germany's recovery in the years 1924–29? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: For five years the shops were full and the trains ran and Berlin was the most interesting city in Europe. It was all borrowed. American money came in on ninety days' notice and went out again in a fortnight when Wall Street wanted it, and the men who had rebuilt the currency knew it. Stresemann was asked in 1928 what would happen if the loans stopped, and answered that Germany was dancing on a volcano. From a history of the Weimar Republic, written by a British historian in 2004. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 3 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about German reactions to the Treaty of Versailles? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: The delegation was handed the terms in a room where nobody rose, and given fifteen days to reply in writing. When the text reached Berlin the cabinet resigned rather than sign it, and the men who did sign in the end were the men who had ended the war, not the men who had begun it. That was the arrangement's lasting achievement: it left the army's reputation intact and put the humiliation in the hands of the Republic. From a history of Germany between the wars, written by a British historian in 2003. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 4 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about the SA in the years 1930–32? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: Wherever the brown columns marched, the streets emptied of argument. Their opponents learned that a meeting hall could be cleared in four minutes and that the police would arrive afterwards to take names. Yet in the same winter these men ladled soup in the yards behind their hostels, and a young man with no work and no supper found in them the only organisation in Germany that fed him and gave him a uniform. From a study of the Nazi rise to power, written by a British historian in 1997. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 5 = 6 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the Dawes Plan (1924) on Germany.
(Total for Question 6 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the Great Depression on support for the Nazi Party in the years 1929–32.
(Total for Question 7 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the Enabling Act (1933) on Germany.
(Total for Question 8 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the Second World War on life in Germany in the years 1939–45.
(Total for Question 9 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of hyperinflation on Germany in the years 1923–29.
(Total for Question 10 = 8 marks)
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(16)How
'The main reason the Nazis were able to control Germany in the years 1933–39 was the use of terror.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the Gestapo and the concentration camps • Nazi propaganda
(Total for Question 11 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'The main reason the Weimar Republic survived the crises of 1919–23 was the weakness of its opponents.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the Spartacist uprising (1919) • the Kapp Putsch (1920)
(Total for Question 12 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'The main reason opposition to Hitler failed inside Germany in the years 1933–45 was the effectiveness of the police state.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the Gestapo and denunciation • the youth opposition groups
(Total for Question 13 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'Germany's recovery in the years 1924–29 was more apparent than real.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • American loans • Stresemann's foreign policy
(Total for Question 14 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'The main reason Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 was the impact of the Great Depression.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the Great Depression • the role of von Papen
(Total for Question 15 = 16 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 15 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45 to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — three rounds against the mind with the strongest claim on it, marked against descriptors you can read first.
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Back to the option
- Germany: development of dictatorship, 1918–45 — Option 3: the establishment of the Weimar Republic and its early problems; the recovery of Germany, 1924–29; the rise of Hitler and the Nazis to January 1933; Nazi Germany 1933–39; germany and the occupied territories during the Second World War.
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