Germany - Nazi timeline

30 January 1933

President Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor.

27 February 1933

Reichstag fire.

Rumoured to have been lit by Nazis, a young Dutch Communist is instead arrested, prompting justification for crackdown on Communists as 'traitors".

28 February 1933

Hitler given emergency powers by presidential decree.

5 March 1933

Reichstag elections. Nazis return 288 out of 647 deputies.

21 March 1933

Communist deputies forbidden to take seats in the new Reichstag.

24 March 1933

Adoption of the Enabling Act.

This meant that Hitler could create laws without needing to have them passed by the Reichstag.

1 April 1933

National boycott of Jewish businesses and professional people. Significant SA violence on the day.

26 April 1933

Formation of the Gestapo.

2 May 1933

Dissolution of the labour unions.

10 May 1933

Burning of books in Berlin and throughout Germany.

14 October 1933

German withdrawal from the League of Nations.

12 November 1933

Reichstag elections. Nazis receive 93% of vote.

30 June 1934

Rohm and other leaders are purged in Night of the Long Knives.

2 August 1934

Death of President Hindenburg. Hitler declares himself Fuhrer of Germany. Army takes personal oath of loyalty to Hiter.

19 August 1934

Plebiscite on Hitler's new powers: 89.93% vote yes.

16 March 1935

Introduction of military conscription.

15 September 1935

Nuremberg Laws disenfranchising Jews decreed.

7 March 1936

German troops sent into the demilitarised Rhineland.

7 September 1937

Hitler declares the end of the Versailles Treaty.

12 March 1938

German troops cross Austrian border.

30 September 1938

Munich Agreement approving acquisition of the Sudentenland (in Czecheslovakia).

9 November 1938

Kristalnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in which mobs attack Jewish synagogues and stores throughout Germany.

12 November 1938

German Jews fined 1 billion marks.

15 November 1938

Expulsion of all Jewish children from German schools.

3 December 1938

Compulsory Aryanisation of all Jewish enterprises and shops.

4 July 1939

German Jews denied the right to hold government jobs.

23 August 1939

Soviet-German non-aggression pact with secret protocol on Poland.

1 September 1939

German invasion of Poland.

3 September 1939

Declaration of war on Germany by Great Britain and France.

9 April 1940

Invasion of Denmark and Norway by Germany.

10 May 1940

German invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

10 June 1940

Declaration of war by Italy on Great Britain and France.

14 June 1940

Occupation of Paris by Germans.

28 October 1940

Italian invasion of Greece.

22 June 1941

German invasion of the Soviet Union.

7 December 1941

Pearl Harbor attacked by Japanese.

31 January 1943

Von Paulus seeks surrender of German forces at Stalingrad.

5 July 1943

Start of the Battle of Kursk against the Soviets ending in the retreat of the German Army.

6 June 1944

D Day: Allied landings in Normandy.

14 January 1945

Invasion of East Prussia by Soviet troops.

7 March 1945

Crossing of the Rhine at Remagen by the Americans.

30 April 1945

Hitler suicides in Berlin.

8 May 1945

V - E Day. End of WW2 in Europe.