No Nazis Allowed Trivia Quiz

Answer: Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius was born in Berlin in 1883, and became one of Germany's most famous architects. Among his first designs was the Fagus Factory, a shoe factory in Alfeld, that was designated a world heritage site in 2011. He also founded the art school Bauhaus as well as Modernist housing estates in Berlin, both of which UNESCO designated as world heritage sites.

His works also include the University of Baghdad, MetLife Building, and John F Kennedy Federal Building. Gropius' works influenced International Style, which arose during the foundation of modern architecture.

Answer: dinosaur bones

Ernst Stromer was a German paleontologist. He set on a paleontological expedition to Egypt to look for fossil mammals, because he believed that humans originated in Africa. Instead of mammals, his expedition found Egypt's first dinosaurs at Bahariya Oasis.

When he was able to assemble and study them, he discovered several new dinosaurs, including Aegyptosaurus and Spinosaurus. Stromer housed his collection of Egyptian fossils in a museum in Munich, but they have unfortunately been destroyed since then.

Some photographs and illustrations remain, however.

Answer: Notgeld

Germany experienced hyperinflation twice in the 20th century (1919-23 and 1944/5-48). Institutions would often hoard coins during hyperinflation, when their intrinsic value far exceeded their nominal value. The resulting shortage of coins necessitated the use of notgeld ("emergency money"), which then became used in daily transactions. Many entities issued notgeld, resulting in a great variety of colorful and artistic notes. Though mainly issued as paper notes, some notgeld was issued in the form of coins, silk, postage stamps, porcelain, and even compressed coal dust.

Some towns has already issued "emergency money" in the later stages of World War One to overcome a shortage of small change. Many collectors call these early issues "Kriegsgeld" ("war money") rather than notgeld.

Answer: Physics

Germans have contributed many centuries' worth of mathematical, scientific, and engineering discoveries to the world. One of the 'golden ages' of this knowledge would have been Germany in the 1910s and 1920s. It was around this time that Max Planck created quantum mechanics to describe atomic and subatomic particles. Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger (who lived and taught in Germany) had appended quantum mechanics with things like the uncertainty principle and the wave equation.

Then there was Albert Einstein, who published his theory of general relativity in 1916 while living in Germany. Germans have won numerous Nobel prizes for their work in physics, including the very first one ever awarded (in 1901, to Wilhelm Röntgen, for discovering X-rays).

Answer: Beetle

In the 1950s, Germany experienced economic growth that in retrospect was something of a miracle. West Germany adopted the Deutsche Mark as its national currency, and strict monetary policy set by the Bank deutscher Länder (and later the Deutsche Bundesbank) made it a reliable and stable currency for decades.

A policy called "ordoliberalism" reduced taxes on the middle class and businesses, bolstered pensions and social programs, and lifted some price controls. Germany's skilled workforce proceeded to supply (and demand) an incredible amount of goods. Among the many industries that prospered was Germany's automotive industry.

In West Germany, the Volkswagon Beetle -- the "people's car" -- was a common car intended to be affordable by everybody.

Answer: they lived with lavish, comfortable accomodations

The Beatles -- including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best -- made their way to Hamburg when their agent, Allan Williams, wanted to emulate the success of another group he had sent there. The experience was not a pleasant one in any sense at all.

At the time, the entertainment district of Hamburg was a rundown place filled with disreputable people. They lived in an austere storeroom next to toilets, and regularly woke up to "the sound of old German women pissing next door." At one point, the cheap stage they performed on was broken by a rival band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

A lot of the Beatles' equipment were lost in the fiasco, and the manager of the club had both bands beaten over the loss.

Answer: Nobel Peace Prize

Willy Brandt was once the mayor of West Berlin. His election as chancellor of West Germany in 1969 was seen as a moment of change in Germany, and a number of social reforms earned him the nickname Chancellor of Domestic Reform. It was however his foreign policy reform that earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. Unlike previous policies, Brandt's Ostpolitik sought to work with (not against) Eastern Europe. Eastern European borders were formally recognized, and formal relations were opened up to countries.

It was also during Brandt's time as chancellor that West Germany agreed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty regarding nuclear weapons.

Answer: Red Army Faction

Sometimes called the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Red Army Faction was a militant group founded in 1970 by four people. During its existence, it was responsible for the deaths of 34 people along with various acts of terrorism. The kidnapping, murder, and hijacking that the group committed in 1977 became known as German Autumn. Though responsible for numerous acts of violence, a fairly large percentage of the population of Germany sympathized with the group and its fight against what, it claimed, were fascist and imperialist policies. Three of its four founders had died violently by 1977, long before the group dissolved in 1998.

Answer: Erich Honecker

If you have a difficult time imagining a passionate kiss between two old, wrinkled communist leaders, don't worry: photographers were there to immortalize the event. On October 7, 1979, then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev visited East Germany for its 30th annivesary as a communist nation.

The two entities signed a 10-year pact to support each other economically. The socialist fraternal kiss was a common type of greeting between communist leaders. In 1990, Dmitri Vrubel faithfully reproduced the picture as graffiti art on the Berlin Wall, and titled the piece "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love."

Answer: reunification support from France

The thing about monetary policy is it tends to affect your neighbors. The famous strength and stability of the Deutsche Mark meant that the Deutsche Bundesbank ended up with a lot of influence over the monetary policy of Germany's neighbors, such as France. France wasn't all too fond of this and was one of many nations in favor of a European Economic and Monetary Union (the Eurozone, essentially). Germany was in no hurry for this change, as it meant its monetary policy would be influenced by inflationary policies such as those of Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain*. France was also extremely opposed to the reunification of East and West Germany, for no particular reason whatsoever. In 1989, France dropped its opposition to reunification and got Helmut Kohl to commit to the Monetary Union. The rest, perhaps, is history.

*Italy, Greece, Portugal, and Spain are four of the five countries that lovingly became known as PIIGS during the European debt crisis of 2009. Surprise!