AS/A Level History Student Conference: Germany 1918-1945

10:25– 10:30am                 Welcome and Introductions Dr Keith Milne

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10.25– 11.00 am: The Constitutional Experiment. Weimar, 1919-1924 Professor Richard Overy

• How far was the Constitution the most significant difficulty facing the Weimar Republic?
• How far did the period 1919 to 1924 represent more political continuity than change?
• To what extent had German Society recovered from the impact of war by 1924?

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11:00 – 11:30 am A Golden Age? 1924-1929? Professor Richard Overy

• How far was the contribution of Stresemann the key explanation for a Golden Age?
• A period of political conservatism but of economic and social reform?
• How successful was Germany in being accepted back in the ranks of the Great Powers?

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11.30 – 11.50 pm  Break – submit your questions on 20^th Century German History to the panel

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11.50– 12.25pm: Outstanding Evaluation of Source Material  Dr Keith Milne

• Analysis of a sample source – what students can do to clearly drive the top marks.
• Exactly what examiners wish to see in the assessment of value.
• Moving the description of provenance to evaluation as demanded in the very best answers

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12:25 – 1:00 pm: Establishing the chancellor and the dictator 1931 to 1934  Professor Richard Evans

• How far do the failures of von Schleicher and von Papen as individuals explain Hitler’s rise to Chancellorship?
• How far was Hitler’s consolidation of power accomplished by legal means?
• To what extent was the rise to dictator merely a consequence of opportunism?

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1.05 – 1.30 pm Lunch

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1:30- 1.40 pm Ask the Experts

• The experts answer the questions submitted by the students

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1.40 – 2.10 pm:   Rule by Consensus? Germany 1934-1939 Professor Richard Overy

• The extent to which the Terror State was a reflection of popular will
• To what extent was there more to gain in Germany from Nazi Rule than there was to lose?
• How far was there an economic miracle in the years 1934 to 1939?

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2.10 –2:30 pm:   The key to outstanding essays: Dr Keith Milne

• Exactly what should be done to achieve the higher levels and to extend student performance.
• The ideal essay structure and how it drives an excellent, consistent judgement
• Practical direction on how to integrate knowledge into an argument.
• Establishing the answer – outstanding introductions and their importance at the higher levels

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2.30 – 3.00 pm:  The Racial State 1933-1945: Professor Richard Evans

• The extent to which racial policy was the result of long-term planning?
• How was the broader German population complicit in the Racial State?
• The extent to which there was more continuity than change in the treatment of minority groups in the years 1933 to 1945?

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3:00-3:20pm: The Impact of War 1939-1945: Professor Richard Evans

• With what success did the German economy serve the demands of war?
• To what extent did women and youth benefit from the wartime state?
• How far was the only reason for the failure of opposition to the Nazi regime a lack of opportunity?

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3.20pm: Depart

Professor Richard Evans

Professor Richard Evans is Regius Professor of History and President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. His general area of research interest is modern German and European history, particularly social and cultural history since the mid-nineteenth century. He has published (Penguin publ) a large-scale history of the Third Reich in three volumes. Over the years, his work has won the Wolfson Literary Award for History, the William H. Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History, and the Hamburg Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Birkbeck College, London. His most recent book is on British historians and the European Continent and he is currently completing a book on the years 1815-1914 for the Penguin History of Europe.

Dr Keith Milne

Keith has 25 years of teaching experience in a wide range of schools and is currently Head of History in a large and very successful department of eleven full-time teachers. In addition to lecturing part time at university, whilst studying for a PhD in European History, he has written and also advised on a number of textbooks for A Level History students. He is a highly experienced Principal Examiner and Principal Moderator for a major examination body, leading a large number of very popular online and face-to-face conferences detailing the routes to exam success for all A Level students.

Professor Richard Overy

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He has written extensively on the history of the European dictatorships, the Second World War and air power in the twentieth century, including The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia (winner of the 2004 Wolfson Prize), The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilisation between the Wars, and The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945 (winner of the Cundill Award for Historical Scholarship). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Member of the European Academy for Sciences and Arts.

Students £25+VAT

One free teacher place for every 10 student places
Additional teachers £35+VAT
Individual teachers £80+VAT