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The Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic was Germany’s government from 1919 to 1933, the period after World War I until the rise of Nazi Germany. It was named after the town of Weimar where Germany’s new government was formed by a national assembly after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. From its uncertain beginnings to a brief season of success and then a devastating depression, the Weimar Republic experienced enough chaos to position Germany for the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. -
The Enabling Act
The Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich of March 24, 1933, is also known as the Enabling Act. It became the cornerstone of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship by allowing him to enact laws, including ones that violated the Weimar Constitution, without the approval of either parliament or Reich President von Hindenburg. -
Hitler becomes Chancellor
The year 1932 had seen Hitler’s rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people’s frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. The election was held on July 1932, the Nazi party won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists. -
Night of the Long Knives
Was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his hold on power in Germany. -
Hitler becomes Fuhrer
With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich. -
Nuremberg Laws
At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights. -
Conscription (defying the Treaty of Versailles)
The first way Hitler broke the Treaty was over Germany’s armed forces. HItler destroyed the League of Nations Disarmament Conference by demanding equality of arms with France and Britain – this broke the Treaty because it had set up the League with the stated aim of achieving disarmament. At first, Hitler broke the Treaty’s terms by building up his army in secret, drilling volunteers with spades instead of rifles. Then, in 1935, he openly held a huge rearmament rally. -
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
The Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from placing its military in the Rhineland. The Rhineland was to be demilitarised. The Rhineland stayed this way until March 1936. It was at this point which Hitler felt he had the best chance of success. The rearmament process was well underway. It was, however, a risky move. If Hitler had been defeated here he would have lost the support of the German army. -
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German/Italian Alliance
The alliance was initially drafted as a tripartite military alliance between Japan, Italy and Germany. While Japan wanted the focus of the pact to be aimed at the Soviet Union, Italy and Germany wanted it aimed at the British Empire and France. Due to this disagreement, the pact was signed without Japan and became an agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, signed on 22 May 1939 by foreign ministers Galeazzo Ciano of Italy and Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany. -
The Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement, settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland, in western Czechoslovakia. After his success in absorbing Austria into Germany proper in March 1938, Adolf Hitler looked covetously at Czechoslovakia, where about three million people in the Sudeten area were of German origin. -
Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland by Germany, known in Poland as the September campaign or the 1939 defensive war, and in Germany as the Poland campaign, marked the beginning of World War II. -
Kristallnacht (Crystal Night)
The Crystal Night was an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, also called the “Night of Broken Glass,” some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. -
Anschluss- Unification with Austria
Adolf Hitler demanded the right to Anschluss between Austria and Germany. This was initially blocked by the Italian Fascist government under Benito Mussolini, who cooperated with his Austrian counterparts Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, fearing retrospective territorial demands from Hitler on Südtirol. Mussolini successfully forced Hitler to renounce all claims to Austria on 11 July 1936. -
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The Sudetenland and Invasion of Czechoslovakia
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's border regions known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. ... The occupation ended with the surrender of Germany following World War II.
