January 30
President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor (Prime Minister)

February 27
Reichstag building burns down

February 28
Hindenburg persuaded by Hitler to issue "Ordinances for the Protection of the German State and Nation" which set aside most of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Weimar Constitution

March 5
Elections result in Nazi Party gaining only 44% of the national vote

March 23
Enabling Act passed which gives sanction to Hitler's dictatorship and the transition to a totalitarian state. First concentration camp, Dachau, is established

April 1
Nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned shops

April 7
All non-Aryan civil servants, except World War I veterans and their families, are forcibly retired

April 11
Nazis issue a decree defining a non-Aryan as a person who had a Jewish parent or a Jewish grandparent

April 25
Entry of Jewish students to schools and universities in Germany restricted

April 26
Formation of the Gestapo

May 2
Dissolution of free trade unions and arrest of their leaders

May 10
Public burning of books written by Jews, democrats, Marxists, socialists, opponents of Nazism and others whose works were considered 'undesirable'

July 14
Nazi party made sole legal political party; other political parties banned

September 22
Jews in Germany excluded from the Arts after establishment of a Reich Chamber of Culture

October 14
Germany revokes its membership of the League of Nations

December 1
Hitler declares unity of the German State and Nazi Party


June 30
Murder of leaders of the SA (Sturmabteilung - Brown Shirts) in the "Night of the Long Knives". Concentration camps placed under the control of the SS (Schutzstaffel).

July 20
SS (Schutzstaffel) made independent of the SA (Sturmabteilung)

August 2
Death of Hindenburg. Hitler becomes Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. German Army swears allegiance to Hitler.

 

 

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