Early timeline of Nazism

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The early timeline of Nazism begins with its origins and continues until Hitler's rise to power.

Contents

19th century influences

World War I

1914

1916

1917

1918

1919

Weimar Republic

1919

1920

Kapp Putsch. Note the swastikas Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-091-20, Kapp-Putsch, Marine-Brigade Erhardt.jpg
Kapp Putsch. Note the swastikas

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

Nazi Germany

Chart: The political system of Germany in 1935, two years into the Nazi dictatorship Chart political system of the national socialist dictatorship in Germany EN.svg
Chart: The political system of Germany in 1935, two years into the Nazi dictatorship

1933

1934

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazi Party</span> Far-right political party active in Germany (1920–1945)

The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party, existed from 1919 to 1920. The Nazi Party emerged from the extremist German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, which fought against communist uprisings in post–World War I Germany. The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti–big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric; it was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders. By the 1930s, the party's main focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes. The party had little popular support until the Great Depression, when worsening living standards and widespread unemployment drove Germans into political extremism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weimar Republic</span> German state from 1918 to 1933

The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic. The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" not commonly used until the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night of the Long Knives</span> Purge in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934

The Night of the Long Knives, also called the Röhm purge or Operation Hummingbird, was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazis' paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Röhm – the so-called Röhm Putsch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Röhm</span> Nazi & German military officer (1887–1934)

Ernst Julius Günther Röhm was a German military officer and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Initially a close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler, Röhm was the co-founder and leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing, which played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power. He served as chief of the SA from 1931 until his murder in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Frick</span> German Nazi Party politician (1877–1946)

Wilhelm Frick was a convicted war criminal and prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Hugenberg</span> German businessman and politician (1865–1951)

Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. An important figure in nationalist politics in Germany during the first three decades of the twentieth century, Hugenberg became the country's leading media proprietor during the 1920s. As leader of the German National People's Party, he played a part in helping Adolf Hitler become chancellor of Germany and served in his first cabinet in 1933, hoping to control Hitler and use him as his tool. The plan failed, and by the end of 1933 Hugenberg had been pushed to the sidelines. Although he continued to serve as a guest member of the Reichstag until 1945, he wielded no political influence. Following World War II, he was interned by the British in 1946 and classified as "exonerated" in 1951 after undergoing denazification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz von Papen</span> German politician (1879–1969)

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk was a German national conservative, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as the vice-chancellor under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt von Schleicher</span> German politician and Chancellor of the Weimar Republic (1882–1934)

Kurt Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann von Schleicher was a German general and the penultimate chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic. A rival for power with Adolf Hitler, Schleicher was murdered by Hitler's SS during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German National People's Party</span> Political party in Germany

The German National People's Party was a national-conservative and monarchist political party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major nationalist party in Weimar Germany. It was an alliance of conservative, nationalist, monarchist, völkisch, and antisemitic elements supported by the Pan-German League. Ideologically, the party was described as subscribing to authoritarian conservatism, German nationalism, monarchism, and from 1931 onwards also to corporatism in economic policy. It held anti-communist, anti-Catholic, and antisemitic views. On the left–right political spectrum, it belonged on the right-wing, and is classified as far-right in its early years and then again from the late 1920s when it moved back rightward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregor Strasser</span> German politician (1892–1934)

Gregor Strasser was a German politician and early leader of the Nazi Party. Along with his younger brother Otto, he was a leading member of the party's left-wing faction, which brought them into conflict with the dominant faction led by Adolf Hitler, resulting in his murder in 1934. The brothers' strand of the Nazi ideology is known as Strasserism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1932 German presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Germany on 13 March 1932, with a runoff on 10 April. Independent incumbent Paul von Hindenburg won a second seven-year term against Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Communist Party (KPD) leader Ernst Thälmann also ran and received more than ten percent of the vote in the runoff. Theodor Duesterberg, the deputy leader of the World War I veterans' organization Der Stahlhelm, ran in the first round but dropped out of the runoff. This was the second and final direct election to the office of President of the Reich, Germany's head of state under the Weimar Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1932 Prussian coup d'état</span> Takeover by German chancellor von Papen

The 1932 Prussian coup d'état or Preußenschlag took place on 20 July 1932, when Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, at the request of Franz von Papen, then Reich Chancellor of Germany, replaced the legal government of the Free State of Prussia with von Papen as Reich Commissioner. A second decree the same day transferred executive power in Prussia to the Reich Minister of the Armed Forces Kurt von Schleicher and restricted fundamental rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March 1933 German federal election</span>

Federal elections were held in Germany on 5 March 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933 and just six days after the Reichstag fire. The election saw Nazi stormtroopers unleash a widespread campaign of violence against the Communist Party (KPD), left-wingers, trade unionists, the Social Democratic Party, and the Centre Party. They were the last multi-party elections in a united Germany until 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Gürtner</span> German Minister of Justice

Franz Gürtner was a German Minister of Justice in the governments of Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher and Adolf Hitler. Gürtner was responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in Nazi Germany and provided official sanction and legal grounds for a series of repressive actions under the Nazi regime from 1933 until his death in 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harzburg Front</span> German far-right political alliance, 1931-1933

The Harzburg Front was a short-lived radical right-wing, anti-democratic political alliance in Weimar Germany, formed in 1931 as an attempt to present a unified opposition to the government of Chancellor Heinrich Brüning. It was a coalition of the national conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) under millionaire press-baron Alfred Hugenberg with Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), the leadership of Der Stahlhelm paramilitary veterans' association, the Agricultural League and the Pan-German League organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Hitler's rise to power</span> Events leading to Hitlers dictatorship of Germany

Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Being one of its most popular speakers, he was made the party leader after he threatened to otherwise leave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Heines</span> German Nazi politician

Edmund Heines was a German Nazi politician and Deputy to Ernst Röhm, the Stabschef of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Heines was one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party and a leading member of the SA in Munich, participating in the Beer Hall Putsch and becoming a notorious enforcer of the party. He held several high-ranking positions in the Nazi administration until he was executed during the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stennes revolt</span> 1930–31 revolt within the Nazi Party

The Stennes revolt was a revolt within the Nazi Party in 1930 through 1931 led by Walter Stennes, the Berlin commandant of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi's "brownshirt" storm troops. The revolt arose from internal tensions and conflicts within the Nazi Party of Germany, particularly between the party organization headquartered in Munich and Adolf Hitler on the one hand, and the SA and its leadership on the other hand. There is some evidence suggesting that Stennes may have been paid by the government of German chancellor Heinrich Brüning, with the intention of causing conflict within and destabilizing the Nazi movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papen cabinet</span> 1932 cabinet of Weimar Germany

The Papen cabinet, headed by the independent Franz von Papen, was the nineteenth government of the Weimar Republic. It took office on 1 June 1932 when it replaced the second Brüning cabinet, which had resigned the same day after it lost the confidence of President Paul von Hindenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidential cabinets of the Weimar Republic</span> Series of government of the Weimar Republic

The presidential cabinets were a succession of governments of the Weimar Republic whose legitimacy derived exclusively from presidential emergency decrees. From April 1930 to January 1933, three chancellors, Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, and Kurt von Schleicher were appointed by President Paul von Hindenburg, and governed without the consent of the Reichstag, Germany's lower house of parliament. After Schleicher's tenure, the leader of the Nazis Adolf Hitler succeeded to the chancellorship and regained the consent of the Reichstag by obtaining a majority in the March 1933 German federal election with DNVP.

References

Notes

  1. Woodruff Smith, The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 30–31, 36, 78–79.
  2. Joachim Fest, Hitler (Orlando, FL.: Harcourt, 2002), pp. 210–211.
  3. Childers, Thomas (2001). "The First World War and Its Legacy". A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition. Episode 2. The Great Courses. Event occurs at 06:37-11:02. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  4. Anton Weiss-Wendt and Rory Yeomans, eds., Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938–1945 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), p. 6.
  5. 1 2 Kershaw 2008, p. 82.
  6. Stackelberg 2007, p. 9.
  7. Mitcham 1996, p. 67.
  8. Kershaw 2008, pp. 75, 76.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Kershaw 2008, p. 89.
  10. Kershaw 2008, p. 87.
  11. Zentner & Bedurftig 1997, p. 629.
  12. Shirer 1981, p. 37.
  13. Kershaw 2008, p. 93.
  14. Beno Müller Hull, "Human Genetics in Nazi Germany", in Medicine, Ethics and the Third Reich, edited by John J. Michalczyk (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1994), pp. 27–33.
  15. Kershaw 2008, p. 83.
  16. Gretchen E. Schafft, From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004), p. 47.
  17. Green, David B. (21 April 2016). "1933: Nazi Germany Outlaws Kosher Slaughter". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  18. Norman Ohler (2017). Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 22. ISBN   978-1328664099.
  19. Majer, Diemut (2003). Non-Germans under the Third Reich: The Nazi judicial and administrative system in Germany and occupied Eastern Europe with special regard to occupied Poland, 1939–1945. JHU Press. pp. 188–189. ISBN   0801864933.
  20. Kershaw 2008, pp. 309–316.
  21. Shirer 1981, pp. 226–227.
  22. Martin Broszat, Hans Buchheim, Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, and Helmut Krausnick, Anatomie des SS-Staates, vol 1. (München: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1967), p. 18.
  23. Kershaw 2008, p. 318.

General sources