Germany citizenship test (Leben in Deutschland) · Curriculum chapter 3 · 6 min read
Chapter 3: History and responsibility
From the Paulskirche of 1848 and the Empire of 1871 through Weimar, the Nazi dictatorship and the Holocaust, the division of Germany and the GDR, to the peaceful revolution, reunification, migration and Europe. Study notes for the German naturalisation test.
Why this chapter matters
The curriculum area History and responsibility (Geschichte und Verantwortung) explains how Germany became a parliamentary democracy, why it failed once and what the country learned from the Nazi era. The official curriculum stresses connections rather than lists of dates, but a handful of dates come up again and again. Learn them together with the reason they matter.
The road to democracy
| Year | Event | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1848/49 | The first freely elected all-German parliament, the National Assembly, meets in St Paul's Church (Paulskirche) in Frankfurt am Main | It drafted a constitution with basic rights. It failed, but its ideas and its colours, black, red and gold, returned in the Basic Law |
| 1871 | The German Empire (Kaiserreich) is founded, with Otto von Bismarck as Reich Chancellor | Germany became one state, but the Kaiser and his Chancellor held the real power; the parliament (Reichstag) was weak. Its flag was black, white and red |
| 1918 | Defeat in the First World War; the Kaiser abdicates and the republic is proclaimed on 9 November | Women gain the right to vote |
| 1919 | The National Assembly meets in Weimar and adopts a democratic constitution | Women vote for the first time in January 1919. The republic is named after the town, but Berlin stays the capital |
Why Weimar failed, and what the Basic Law learned
The Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933) faced defeat, hyperinflation in 1923, the world economic crisis from 1929, mass unemployment and enemies of democracy on the left and right. Its constitution also had weak points:
| Weimar | Basic Law |
|---|---|
| The President could govern by emergency decree and dissolve parliament | The Federal President has limited powers |
| Parliament could topple a Chancellor without agreeing on a new one | Constructive vote of no confidence: only by electing a successor |
| Many small parties split parliament | Five per cent threshold |
| Basic rights could be suspended | Basic rights bind all state power; human dignity and democracy are protected by the eternity clause |
| Democracy had no defence against its enemies | Defensive democracy: unconstitutional parties can be banned by the Federal Constitutional Court |
The National Socialist dictatorship
- 30 January 1933: Adolf Hitler is appointed Reich Chancellor. Within months the Nazis abolish the separation of powers, ban other parties and trade unions, censor the press and persecute opponents.
- 1935: the Nuremberg Laws take civil rights from Jews and ban marriages between Jews and non-Jews.
- 9/10 November 1938: in the November pogroms synagogues are burned and Jewish shops and homes destroyed; thousands of Jewish men are sent to concentration camps.
- 1 September 1939: Germany attacks Poland, and the Second World War begins in Europe. In 1941 Germany attacks the Soviet Union.
- The Holocaust (Shoah): the Nazi regime murders about six million European Jews. Sinti and Roma, people with disabilities, political opponents, homosexuals and many others are also persecuted and killed.
- 20 July 1944: a group of officers around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg tries to kill Hitler with a bomb. The attempt fails; it is remembered as a symbol of resistance.
- 8 May 1945: the German armed forces surrender unconditionally, and the war in Europe ends.
Remembrance: 27 January, the day Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz in 1945, is the day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism. Germany's responsibility for these crimes, and in particular for the protection of Jewish life, is part of what people commit to when they are naturalised.
Division
- 1945: Germany is divided into four occupation zones (American, British, French and Soviet), and Berlin into four sectors. Millions of German refugees and expellees (Vertriebene) arrive from the east.
- 1948/49: the Soviet Union blocks the land routes to West Berlin; the Western Allies supply the city in the Berlin Airlift (Luftbruecke).
- 1948/49: the Parliamentary Council (Parlamentarischer Rat) in Bonn writes the Basic Law.
- 1949: two states are founded: the Federal Republic of Germany (Basic Law in force from 23 May; first Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, first Federal President Theodor Heuss, seat of government Bonn) and, in October, the German Democratic Republic (GDR, DDR) in the Soviet zone.
| Federal Republic | GDR | |
|---|---|---|
| Political system | Parliamentary democracy | Dictatorship of the SED (Socialist Unity Party) |
| Economy | Social market economy (Ludwig Erhard), the "economic miracle" | Centrally planned economy |
| Alliances | NATO (from 1955), European communities | Warsaw Pact |
| Freedoms | Basic rights, free elections, free press | No free elections; secret police, the Stasi, spies on the population |
- 17 June 1953: a workers' uprising in the GDR is crushed with Soviet tanks.
- 13 August 1961: the GDR builds the Berlin Wall to stop its people leaving for the West. People are killed trying to cross the border.
- 1970: Chancellor Willy Brandt kneels at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a gesture of asking for forgiveness, as part of his policy of reconciliation with the East.
Peaceful revolution and unity
- Autumn 1989: hundreds of thousands join the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig and other cities, calling "We are the people" (Wir sind das Volk) for freedom and democracy.
- 9 November 1989: the Wall opens.
- March 1990: the GDR holds its first free election.
- 1990: the Two-plus-Four Treaty between the two German states and the four wartime Allies settles the international questions of unity, including the borders.
- 3 October 1990: reunification, now the Day of German Unity (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), the national holiday. The GDR's Laender join the Federal Republic, and the Basic Law applies throughout Germany.
- Berlin becomes the capital; the Bundestag moves into the Reichstag building in 1999.
9 November is a date to know in German history: 1918 (republic proclaimed), 1938 (pogroms), 1989 (Wall opens).
Migration history
- After 1945 about twelve million refugees and expellees settle in the two German states.
- From 1955 the Federal Republic signs recruitment agreements, first with Italy, later with Spain, Greece, Turkey (1961) and other countries, to bring in guest workers (Gastarbeiter) during the boom. The GDR recruits contract workers, for example from Vietnam.
- Many guest workers stay and bring their families; later come ethnic German resettlers, refugees and EU citizens. Germany is now a country of immigration.
Germany in Europe
- 1957: the Treaties of Rome found the European Economic Community, with the Federal Republic among the six founding members.
- 1963: the Elysee Treaty seals the friendship between Germany and France.
- 2002: euro notes and coins replace the Deutsche Mark.
- Naturalised Germans also become citizens of the European Union.
Common questions
Do I need to learn many dates? Learn the key ones in the tables and, above all, what each event led to. The curriculum is more interested in why than when.
Why is the Weimar Republic so important for the test? Because many rules of the Basic Law, such as the constructive vote of no confidence and the defensive democracy, are answers to its failure.
Ready to practise? Start Germany citizenship practice test 2.
Based on the curriculum area "Geschichte und Verantwortung" named by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (bamf.de) and the Rahmencurriculum in the Einbuergerungstestverordnung. Written in our own words; check the official pages before your test.