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estimation. events. exchange.The Downfall
Hitler and the End of the Third Reich
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Short Biography:Adolf Hitler |
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Binding picture from "Mein Kampf",
1925
Parade of the NSDAP, 1925
In Prison, 1924
First elve of spade for the "Autobahn", the german highway, 1933
Drawing made by Hitler
1927
"Mein Kampf", first edition
1925
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1889
April 20: Adolf Hitler born in Braunau-am-Inn (Upper Austria), son of the customs officer Alois Hitler (Schicklgruber until 1877) and his wife Clara (née Pölzel).
Hitler attended the secondary school in Steyr.
1903
Death of his father.
1905
Hitler leaves the secondary school without graduation. Firstly not forced to get a gainful employment, he reads folkish scripts. At that time, he was highly affected by the Pangermanismus of Georg von Schönerer (1842-1921).
1907
After the death of his mother, he moved to Vienna. There he applied to the Academy of Arts, twice, but in vain. After having lived from his inheritance for some time, he eked out a living without having a fixed abode in a shelter for the homeless and took occasional jobs. The experiences he made in the capital of a multi-national state, and the reading of anti-Semitic magazines and books determined Hitler´s view of life and formed his racist hate against Jews and his radical enmity against Marxism and Liberalism.
1913
May 24: Not least to avoid to do military service in the Austrian-Hungarian army, Hitler emigrated to Munich.
1914
August 16: Hitler joined the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 16 (later List Regiment).
December: Awarded Iron Cross 2nd Class.
1916
October: Received severe injury of leg - at the West Front.
1917
March 5: Recovered again, he returned to his unit in the army.
1918
August: Awarded Iron Cross First Class
October 15: Due to a gas attack, Hitler suffered a severe toxication and went blind temporarily.This formative and for Hitler´s career central experience was also decisive for his intention to become a politician.
End of November: After his stay in the military hospital of Pasewalk until the end of the war, he returned to the Infantry Regiment 2 to Munich and acts as ´Verbindungsmann´ (Contact Man) and ´Aufklärungsredner´ (Intelligence Speaker) for the Reichswehr.
1919
June: His unit proposed Hitler to take part in a speakers´ training for selected Propaganda People at the University of Munich and Hitler turned out to be an excellent speaker.
August: Within his first written political notes he pointed out that his ultimate aim was the elimination of all Jewish people.
September 12: Hitler attends a meeting of the German Workers´ Party (Deutsche Arbeiter Partei = DAP) and few days later he joined that party. His membership number: 555. The party started counting beginning with 500, in order to pretend a larger membership.
October 16: Hitler delivers his first political speech to members of the DAP.
1920
February: Preparation of programme of the German Workers´ Party that is re-named in National Socialist German Workers´ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei = NSDAP) now.
March 31: Hitler left the Reichswehr and from then on gave his full attention to working for the NSDAP.
1921
July 29: As agitator, he meanwhile became indispensable, was well-known also outside of Munich and - at the occasion of an Extraordinary Party Members´ Meeting of the NSDAP - he became Party Chairman with dictatorial powers.
1923
November 9: The Hitler-Putsch in Munich was defeated when police opened fire. Interdiction of the NSDAP the following day. Hitler escaped but was arrested two days later in Uffing (Bavaria).
1924
February 26: Trial of Hitler - and other Putsch leaders: Ernst Röhm, General Erich Ludendorff etc. - for high treason begins in Munich. Hitler was finally sentenced to five years imprisonment. Hitler used this trial as forum for his anti-republican agitation.
December 20: Earlier than the stipulated date, Hitler was released from his imprisonment in Landsberg where he finished the first volume of his script: "Mein Kampf".
1925
February 27: Refoundation of the NSDAP.
April 30: On his application, Hitler was denationalized in Austria and was stateless from then on.
Hitler banned from speaking by the Bavarian Government and the Prussian Provincial Government.
1927
March 9: First public speech of Hitler in Bavaria following lifting of ban.
1928
November 16: Public speech of Hitler in Berlin (Berliner Sportpalast) following lifting of speaking ban in state of Prussia.
1931
October 10: Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg meets Hitler for the first time to talk things out.
October 11: Rally of the ´National Opposition´ (NSDAP, Deutschnationale Volkspartei = DNVP, Alldeutscher Verband, Stahlhelm) in Bad Harzburg, though serious divisions prevail within ´Harzburger Front´.
1932
January 27: Hitler speaks to the Industrie-Club in Dusseldorf.
February 26: Acquires German citizenship
March 13: Hitler gains about 30 per cent of all votes in the Reich presidential election.
April 10: Second presidential election, Hitler´s vote rises to about 37 per cent, but Hindenburg is re-elected.
August 13: After Reichstag (parliament) election on July 31, the NSDAP became the largest party in the Reichstag but Hitler´s demand to be appointed Reich Chancellor was rejected by Hindenburg.
November 6: Despite considerable losses - about two millions of votes - the NSDAP remains the strongest faction in the Reichstag (parliament).
December 8: Discord about a possible participation in governance with Gregor Strasser who thereupon resigns all his offices in the Nazi Party and retires from politics.
1933
January 4: Agreement between Hitler and Franz von Papen regarding co-operation in government at meeting in the house of a banker in Cologne.
January 30: Hitler appointed Reich Chancellor, only two other Nazis besides Hitler in the ´national-conservative government´: Hermann Göring and Wilhelm Frick.
March 5: Reichstag election. The Nazi Party gains 43,9 per cent of the votes and falls far behind the expectations to gain the majority.
March 21: Reich Chancellor Hitler visits - together with Reich President Hindenburg - the "Day of Potsdam". The reputation of the Hitler government shall be upgradet by connecting the "Old with the New".
March 24: All parties - excepted the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communistic Party of Germany (KPD, that de facto had been forbidden meanwhile) - voted to accept an Enabling Act, giving the Hitler government comprehensive legislative powers.
1934
June 30: Röhm Putsch. Hitler took action against the leaders of the SA (who wanted a second revolution). Ernst Röhm and several political opponents were executed.
July 20: Hitler became directly responsible for the SS now (that was outsourced of the party system).
August 2: Death of Reich President von Hindenburg. Hitler amalgamated the offices of President and Chancellor and became ´Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor´. The Reichswehr (that became the Wehrmacht in 1935) swears a personal oath of allegiance to Hitler.
1935
September 15: Nuremberg Rally: Promulgation of the ´Nuremberg Laws´ by the Reichstag.
1936
July 20: Hitler announces to support the Anti-Republican troops of General Francicso Franco in the Spanish Civil War via German Air Force (July 16, 1936 until March 28, 1939).
1936
March 7: Invasion of German troops into the demilitarised Rhineland.
October 25: Anti-Comintern pact between Germany and Japan, Italy lateron joins this pact.
1937
October 25: Hitler welcomed Benito Mussolini in Berlin and develops his external alliance system by announcing the ´Berlin-Rome-Axis´.
November 5: Hitler informs the leaders of the armed forces about his military and external aims and demands readiness for a war of aggression within the next two years.
1938
February 4: Hitler discharged military leaders and took over the supreme command over the Wehrmacht. Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath was substituted by Joachim von Ribbentrop who from now on favors a strict National Socialist course in foreign policy.
March 15: After the invasion of German troops into Austria, Hitler announces - before an enthusiastic crowd on the Wiener Heldenplatz - the annexation of Austria to the German Reich.
May 30: Hitler gives secret instruction to destroy Czechoslovakia.
September 29: Munich Conference determines that the Sudetenland belongs to Germany. Afterwards Hitler declares to have nor more territorial claims in Europe.
October 21: Hitler gives directive to prepare for the destruction of the remainder of the Czechoslovakian state.
November 9: Hitler and Goebbels initiate the Reichskristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Pogroms result in destruction of numerous synagogues and Jewish shops and in the incarceration and murder of Jews.
1939
January 30: In a speech to the Reichstag Hitler predicts the ´Annihilation of the Jewish Race´ in Europe, in case of another world war.
March 15: German troops (the Wehrmacht) occupy Czechoslovakia.
March 21: Hitler demands the return of Danzig (Gdansk) and the construction of an ex-territorial freeway through the Corridor.
May 23: Hitler explains to the Generals of the Wehrmacht (armed forces) his plans how to attack and claims ´Living Space in the East´.
August 23: Conclusion of the ´Hitler-Stalin-Pact´ with a secret clause regarding the spheres of interest in Eastern Europe.
September 1: Germany attacks Poland. Start of the Second World War.
October 9: Hitler´s instruction to attack in The West.
November 8: Assassination attempt (in the Munich Bürgerbräukeller) by joiner Johann Georg Elser on Hitler´s life failed.
1940
July 31: Hitler notifies the "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)" = military leaders - of his decision to attack the Soviet Union.
December 18: Hitler directive (Führerweisung) No. 21: "Operation Barbarossa" (attack of Soviet Union) signed.
1941
March 30: Before his military leaders Hitler expressively talks about a ´War of Annihilation´ in the East.
June 6: In his Kommissarbefehl (Commissar Order) Hitler gives instructions for the liquidation of Soviet Political Commissars of the ´Red Army´.
June 22: Attack of Soviet Union. Beginning of systematic murder by troops of the SS and the SD (Sicherheitsdienst = Security Department) in the USSR.
December 19: Disempowerment of military command. Hitler takes over the Supreme Command of the ´Wehrmacht´ (army).
December: Hitler ordered the Systematic Assassination of European Jews.
1942
January 20: Wannsee-Conference to coordinate measures for the ´Final Solution of the Jewish Question´.
April 26: Hitler obtains approval from Reichstag for supreme judicial powers to avoid application of formal law if necessary.
August 25: Hitler´s command for the coastal troops to build up the Atlantic Wall.
1943
January 31: Capitulation of the ´closed in´ German Sixth Army in Stalingrad who - according Hitler´s command - had to hold their positions until the end.
1944
July 20: Assassination attempt by Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg against Hitler failed.
September 25: Hitler ordered that all German men between sixteen and sixty years old had to do military service in the ´Volkssturm´ (German territorial army) and had to defend the borders of the Reich.
1945
January 30: Last broadcast announcement by Hitler. He called up for fanatic resistence against the advancing Allied troops and attested the ´Ultimate Victory´.
March: His ´Nero-Order´ (instructing to completely desolate the German areas before retraction) expressed his contempt against the German People who turned out to be too weak for the enforcement of his aims.
April 29: Marriage of Hitler with Eva Braun (his long-time girlfriend).
April 30: Together with Eva Braun, Hitler committed suicide in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Source: German Historical Museum, Berlin
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