Weimar and Nazi Germany

The Weimar Republic 1918-1929

  • October 1918 Kiel Mutiny (German Navy mutinied and refused to fight the British)

  • 9th November 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated

  • 10th November 1918 Friedrich Ebert became Chancellor and signed armistice

  • 5th January 1919 Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht led Spartacist Uprising after forming the German Communist Party, stopped by the Freikorps

  • 19th January 1919 National Assembly elections (all people over 20 could vote)

  • 28th June 1919 Treaty of Versailles signed (Land given away, army reduced to 100 000, $6.6bn in reparations, article 231)

  • 13th March 1920 Kapp Putsch led by Wolfgang Kapp and the Freikorps

  • 11th January 1923 French invasion of the Ruhr

  • August 1923 Gustav Stresemann becomes Chancellor

  • November 1923 Stresemann introduces the Rentenmark

  • 1924 Dawes Plan (reorganisation of reparation payments)

  • 1925 The Locarno Pact (Germany agreed to keep its borders)

  • 1926 Germany joined League of Nations

  • April 1925 Hindenburg made President of Germany

  • 1927 Unemployment Insurance Law

  • 1928 Kellog-Briand Pact (with 64 other countries)

  • 1929 Young Plan (reparations reduced from 6bn to 1.85bn)

Hitler’s Rise to Power 1919-1933

  • September 1919 Hitler attended a DAP meeting and joined the party

  • 1920 DAP became NSDAP/Nazi party

  • February 1920 Hitler becomes recruitment/propaganda leader, 25 point programme published

  • August 1921 SA created

  • 1922 Hitler the undisputed leader of the NSDAP

  • 8th November 1923 Hitler and SA stormed beer hall in Munich and forced von Kahr, von Lossow and Striesser to support his putsch

  • 9th November 1923 Hitler, Ludendorff and 3000 supporters marched Munich, 16 marchers killed, 3 policemen

  • 11th November 1923 Hitler arrested and taken to custody

  • February 1924 Hitler’s trial, sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg Prison

  • December 1924 Hitler released from prison after only 9 months

  • February 1925 Ban on Nazi party lifted

  • 1926 Bamberg conference, SS created

  • 1928 Nazis only gained 12 seats in the Reichstag

  • October 1929 Wall Street Crash

  • 1930 Nazi seats increased from 12 to 107

  • 1932 Nazis had most seats in Reichstag at 230 seats

  • April 1932 Hitler comes second to HIndenburg

  • May 1932 Bruning resigns, von Papen now chancellor

  • July 1932 Nazis win 230 seats (majority), Hindenburg blocks Hitler from becoming Chancellor

  • November 1932 Nazis down to 196 seats but still largest

  • December 1932 Von Papen resigns, Von Schleicher takes over

  • 31st January 1933 Hitler becomes chancellor, von Papen as vice

Nazi control and dictatorship 1933-1939

  • 27th February 1933 Reichstag fire (van der Lubbe blamed, 4000 communists imprisoned)

  • 28th February 1933 Hitler passes Decree for the Protection of the People and the State

  • 5th March 1933 Elections (Nazis still didn’t get majority)

  • 24th March 1933 Enabling Act passed

  • April 1933 Gestapo created, Dachau camp made

  • May 1933 Trade Unions banned (German Labour Front created), bonfire book burnings

  • July 1933 Concordat signed

  • 30th June 1934 Night of the Long Knives

  • 2nd August 1934 Hindenburg dies

  • 1936 Gestapo under Himmler/SS, Berlin Olympics

  • 1935 The Nuremburg Laws (Reich Citizenship and Protection of German Blood)

  • March 1936 Rhineland remilitarized

  • 9th November 1938 Kristallnacht