Timeline: The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party
The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims
to a big lie than to a small one. ~ Hitler
1907 / · Hitler’s mom dies of cancer. Hitler blames a Jewish doctor who treated her
1909 / · Hitler moves to Vienna and is rejected twice at the Academy of Art in Vienna
· Hitler develops his prejudices about Jews, his interest in politics, and debating skills.
1914 / · WWI breaks out; Hitler living in Munich submits a petition to enlist in the Bavarian army
· Hitler fights bravely and is promoted to corporal; wins two Iron Cross for bravery
1918 / · Hitler was in hospital recovering from mustard gas attack when armistice is signed
1919 / · Hitler joins the Free Corps, an organization of war veterans in opposition to those who “lost the war”: profiteers, politicians and Jews were blamed as those who “stabbed the army in the back.”
· Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles
· Hitler was asked by the army to investigate the German Workers Party which had tried to join workers and nationalists. He joined the group as party member seven.
1920 / · Hitler transformed the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party (National Sozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei- SMDAP)
· Nazi Twenty-five Point Program announced: revoking the Versailles Treaty, confiscating war profits, revoking civil rights for Jews, blaming the Jews for inflation, political instability, unemployment, and the defeat of Germany in WWI
1921 / · Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
· Hitler criticizes the German democratic government (Weimar Republic) and supports the theory that all Germans were part of an Aryan superhuman race and all others (Jews, gypsies, Slavs) were to be eliminated
1923 / · NOV. 8 / 9- Beer Hall Putsch: Nazi attempt to overthrow the Munich government fails, and Hitler sentenced to prison for 5 years where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
-Hitler if freed after 9 months
1925 / · Mein Kampf is published; the book sold 9473 copies that year.
· Mein Kampf outlines: Hitler’s plan for attaining power; blames Jews for all the problems and evils of the world and for defeat of Germany in WWI; proclaims Germans or Aryans as the “master race” of highest racial purity and Jews as the “anti-race”; calls for Germany to stop the Jews from conquering the world only by eliminating them and find “Lebensraum” (living space) for all pure Germans; eliminating democracy and calling upon a "Fuhrer" to rebuild the German Reich.
1926 / · Nazi Party membership reaches 17 000 members
1928 / · vast increase in Nazi power in German parliament (Reichstag)
· Nazi Party membership reaches 60 000 members
1930 / · Germans 1930 elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany
1932 / · Hitler ran for President and won 30% of the vote, forcing the eventual victor, Paul von Hindenburg, into a runoff election.
· A political deal was made to make Hitler chancellor in exchange for his political support.
1933 / · JANUARY 30 - Hitler appointed Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany by President Hindenburg
· FEBRUARY 27 - a week before the election, the Reichstag burns. Hitler blames it on the Communists. Hitler granted emergency powers
· Nazi party only had a small majority in the Reichstag (parliament), but arrests his opponents, has another vote to and gains the power to re-write Germany’s constitution
· MARCH 23 - Hitler passes the Enabling Act (power to make own laws, abolish political parties, and open concentration camps), establishing himself as dictator
· APRIL 1 – Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops; first concentration camps open
· JULY 14 – Nazi party declared only party in Germany
· OCTOBER 14 – Germany resigns from League of Nations
1934 / · JUNE 30-“Night of the Long Knives”
· AUGUST 2- President Hindenberg dies
· AUGUST 19 - Hitler names himself Furher (dictator) of Germany
1935 / · MARCH 16 – Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription
· SEPTEMBER 15- German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws
1936 / · FEBRUARY 10 – German Gestapo (SS) is placed above the law
· MARCH 7 - Germany marches into Rhineland (violation of Treaty of Versailles) and League of Nations takes no action
· Non-aggression treaty signed between Italy, Germany and Japan = AXIS powers
· Olympics hosted in Berlin, Germany
1938 / · MARCH 12 / 13 - Germany invades Austria (Anschluss = union)
· SEPTEMBER 30 – British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich
· OCTOBER 15 - Sudetenland (northwest part of Czechoslovakia) occupied by Germany
· NOVEMBER 9 / 10 – “Night of the Broken Glass” (also called Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass) -Nazis fine Jews one billion marks for damages
1939 / · MARCH 15/16. – Germany takes rest of Czechoslovakia (violation of Munich Agreement)
· MAY 22- formal treaty “Pact of Steel” signed between Italy and Germany (Rome-Berlin Axis)
· AUGUST 23- Soviet Union signs Non-Aggression Pact with Germany
· SEPTEMBER 1- Nazis invades Poland
· SEPTEMBER 3 – Britain, France / Austria / New Zealand declare war on Germany
· SEPTEMBER 10 – Canada declares war on Germany; Battle on Atlantic begins
· Mein Kampf -sold over 5 million copies
1942 / · “Final Solution” (complete extermination of Jews)is co-ordinated at Wannsee Conference
1945 / · APRIL 30-Hitler’s long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined him in suicide
· MAY 7 –Germany surrenders unconditionally = VE DAY
· However, one of Hitler’s chief objectives was achieved-- the annihilation of two-thirds of European Jews (6 000 000 Jews, 11 000 000 total deaths in Holocaust)
How fortunate for leaders that men do not think. ~ Adolf Hitler
The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. ~ Adolf Hitler