Hitler's Rise to Power

By luizabaginski

  • Hitler joins the German Army

  • Kaiser Willhem II abdicates

    Friedrich Ebert seizes power.

  • The WW1 armstice is signed

  • Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles

    "Dolchstoss Myth," "November criminals"

  • Establishment of the Weimar Republic

  • Hitler joins the German Workers' Party

    as a spy for the military

  • Hitler was put in charge of the German Workers' Party propaganda

    The party is renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi)

  • Foundation of the SA

  • Hitler becomes chairman of his party

    The party is renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)

  • Beer Hall Putsch

  • Hitler is sent to prison

  • Hitler is released from jail

    There, he has written the beginning of "Mein Kampf."

  • Hitler publishes "Mein Kampf"

  • Formation of the SS

    Hitler forms a personal bodyguard unit separate from the SA, known as the SS.

  • Elections to the Reichstag

    The NSDAP only gets 2.6% of the vote

  • Stock market crashes & German economy collapses

    The New York Stock Market begins to crash and the Great Depression begins. American banks were forced to recall their loans from Germany (granted in the Dawes Plan), and the German economy collapsed to levels even lower than they had been in the immediate post-war years;

  • The Nazis become the second largest party in Germany

    The Nazi Party increases its representatives in parliament from 14 to 107, becoming the second largest party in Germany

  • Hitler loses the presidential elections

    Hitler challenges Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency, but fails to win.

  • Hitler becomes a German citizen

    This enables him to stand in the Presidential election against Hindenburg.

  • Hindenburg defeats Hitler at the second attempt to become president.

  • Nazi Hermann Göring becomes president of the Reichstag

    He uses his new power to manipulate events.

  • Hitler becomes chancellor of a coalition government

  • Hindenburg declares a state of emergency using Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution.

  • The Enabling Act passed

    The SA intimidates all the remaining non-Nazi Reichstag members. As a result, the Reichstag votes to give Hitler the powers to make his own laws.

  • Socialists, Trade Unions and strikes banned

  • All political parties, except the Nazi Party, are banned.

  • Hitler ignores the Treaty of Versailles

    In the following months, he trebles the size of the German Army and ignores the arms restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

  • The Reichstag Fire

    The Reichstag building is burned down and the communists are blamed. Hitler expels the communists from Parliament and imprisoned many communist leaders, which stopped them campaigning prior to the March elections;

  • Night of the Long Knives

    Hitler crushes all opposition within his own party. One of the people killed was Rohm, along with many other SA leaders.

  • Hitler Becomes Führer

    After the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler becomes “Führer and Reich Chancellor” and abolishes the title of President.