Nazi Germany Timeline

 Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Read and learn....and then watch! Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devils roams about seeking whom he may devour.  He loves to devour men who are in positions of power so that he can establish his kingdom on the earth...the kingdom of darkness.  A word to the wise is sufficient.....

 
This timeline for Nazi Germany covers the major domestic events between 1933 when Hitler was appointed Chancellor to the year World War Two broke out – 1939. From 1933 to 1934 Hitler consolidated his power so that by the end of 1934 he held supreme power throughout Nazi Germany.

1933

January 4^th: Papen met Hitler at the home of German banker Kurt von Schroeder.

January 15^th: An election in the state of Lippe saw the Nazi Party win 38,000 votes out of a possible 90,000 – 39.6%.

January 22^nd: Oskar Hindenburg, son of the President, and Otto Meissner, Chief of the Presidential Office, met Hitler.

January 28^th: Schleicher resigned as Chancellor when Hindenburg refused to grant him another dissolution of the Reichstag.

January 30^th: Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany

February 1^st: Hitler announced his ‘Proclamation to the German People’ and promised new elections for March 5^th. Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag.

February 4^th: A decree ‘For the Protection of the German People’ gave Hitler the power to ban political meetings and the newspapers of his political rivals.

February 17^th: Goering issued a decree that ordered the police to make “good relations” with nationalists associations (SA + SS) but to make free use of their weapons against the Left.

February 22^nd: Goering united the SA, SS and Stahlhelm into one single police force.

February 23^rd: The first restrictions on homosexual rights groups were introduced.

February 27^th: The Reichstag building was burned down.

February 28^th: ‘The Emergency Decree for the Protection of People and State’ was passed, which led to the suspension of civil rights, a ban on the left wing press and the rounding up and arrest of communist and socialist leaders.

March 5^th: Elections to the Reichstag were held. The Nazis gained 288 seats (43.9% of the votes). The German National Party gained 52 seats (8% of the votes). Combined, this gave the Nazis a majority of support in the Reichstag.

March 6^th: Communist and Socialist Party headquarters were occupied by the state police as were trade union headquarters. Buildings housing publishing companies associated with the left wing were also occupied.

March 9^th: All states that were previously not loyal to the Nazis now had Nazi-loyal state administrations.

March 13^th: Joseph Goebbels set up the Reich Propaganda Ministry.

March 15^th: The German press received its first directive from Goebbels.

March 20^th: Himmler announced the establishment of a concentration camp at Dachau.

March 21^st: The newly elected Reichstag sat for the first time.

March 22^nd: The Interior Ministry set up a racial hygiene department.

March 23^rd: The Enabling Act was passed by the Reichstag that gave Hitler huge personal power.

March 28^th: The first open attacks by the SA against Jewish businesses occurred. Gleichschaltung was introduced – the forcible removal of all known opponent to the Nazis.

April 1^st: An official one-day boycott of Jewish shops took place. Literature produced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses was banned.

April 7^th: A law for the ‘Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’ was introduced that banned all Jews and non-Germans from public service.

April 26^th: The Gestapo (Secret Police) was established by Goering.

May 1^st: Hitler gave his ‘Day of German Labour’ speech.

May 2^nd: Trade unions were banned

May 6^th: The Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Workers’ Front) was introduced to replace trade unions.

May 10^th: ‘Un-German’ books were publicly burned.   

May 19^th: The Reich government took on the task of regulating workers contracts.

June 22^nd: The Social Democrat Party was officially banned.

July 5^th: All political parties other than the Nazi Party were banned.

July 14^th: A ‘Sterilisation Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases’ was passed.

July 20^th: Hitler agreed a Concordat with the Papacy.

September 23^rd: Work on the first autobahns was started.

October 14^th: Hitler pulled Nazi Germany out of the League of Nations and the Disarmament Conference.

November 17^th: The Nazi Party won 92% of the votes cast in an election.

November 27^th: Strength Through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) and the Beauty of Labour organisations were introduced.

December 1^st: A law was passed that safeguarded the unity of the party and the state.

1934

January 20^th: A law was introduced ‘for the ordering of national labour’. Decisions made in the workplace were weighted in favour of the management and against the workers.

January 24^th: Alfred Rosenberg was appointed ideological supervisor of the Nazi Party.

January 26^th: A German-Polish non-aggression pact was signed.

January 30^th: the independence of the state governments was abolished. The ‘Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich’ was passed.

March 21^st: ‘The Battle for Work’ started.

April 20^th: Himmler was made Acting Chief of the Prussian Gestapo.

April 24^th: A People’s Court was established to deal with treasonable offences.

June 17^th: Von Papen, Vice-Chancellor, denounced what the Nazi Party had introduced into Germany.

June 20^th: The SS is made independent from the SA and put in the hands of Himmler who is appointed Reichsfűhrer of the SS.

June 25^th: Austrian Nazis murdered Austrian President Engelbert Dollfuss in the hope that the Austrian Nazi Party can take control of the country.

June 26^th: Von Papen was appointed German envoy to Austria.

June 30^th: Night of the Long Knives occurred when the leadership of the SA was wiped out along with some of Hitler’s political enemies. 

August 2^nd: President Hindenburg died. Hitler declared himself both Chancellor and President. The armed forces in response to the Night of the Long Knives swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Hjalmar Schacht was appointed Minister of Economics.

August 19^th: A plebiscite was held in Nazi Germany asking the public if they approved of Hitler’s powers. 90% said ‘yes’.

October 8^th: A Winter Relief scheme was established.

October 26^th: A special party/government department was set up to deal with abortions and homosexuality. Homosexuals were arrested across Nazi Germany.

1935

March 17^th: Compulsory military service was introduced.

June 26^th: A law introducing compulsory labour service was introduced. 

September 15^th: The Reich Citizenship Act (the Nuremberg Laws) forbade Jews to marry German nationals.

1936

April 4^th: Goering was appointed Commissioner of Raw Materials.

August 1^st: Start of the Berlin Olympic Games.

August 16^th: End of the Berlin Olympics.

August 28^th: The mass arrest of Jehovah Witnesses began.

September 9^th: A second Four Year Plan was introduced to make Germany self-sufficient.

October 19^th: Goering was put in charge of the Four Year Plan.

December 1^st: The Hitler Youth movement became a state organisation. All non-Nazi youth movements were banned.

December 13^th: ‘Spring of Life’ (Lebensborn) was set up.

1937

February 10^th: The national bank and the railway system were both put under the control of the state.

March 9^th: The mass arrest of “habitual criminals” started.

1938

January 19^th: The ‘Faith and Beauty’ organisation was set up for women aged between 17 and 21. 

April 22^nd: The employment of Jews in businesses was banned.

November 9^th: Kristallnacht – Night of the Broken Glass.

December 3^rd: The start of the closure of all Jewish businesses occurred along with their compulsory sale to ‘Aryans’.

1939:

January 21^st: Schacht was dismissed as President of the Reichsbank.

August 27^th: Food rationing was introduced.

September 4^th: War Decrees were introduced.

October 14^th: Clothing coupons were introduced.

Nazi Germany Timeline