Adolf Hitler Events

1889 Apr 20 Adolf Hitler born in Austria
At 6:30 p.m. on the evening of April 20, 1889, he was born in the small Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn just across the border from German Bavaria. Adolf Hitler would one day lead a...
1903 Jan 3 Adolf Hitler's father, Alois, dies
In the town of Leonding, Austria, on the bitterly cold morning of Saturday, January 3, 1903, Alois Hitler, 65, went out for a walk, stopping at a favorite inn where he sat down and asked ...
1905 Adolf Hitler Moves to Vienna, where He Acquires His Anti-Semitic Beliefs
From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1907–1908), citing "unfi...
1907 Jan 14 Adolf Hitler's mother, Klara, dies
On January 14, 1907, Adolf Hitler's mother went to see the family doctor about a pain in her chest, so bad it kept her awake at night. The doctor, Edward Bloch, who was Jewish, examined h...
1909
to 1913
Adolf Hitler lives in Vienna
The beautiful old world city of Vienna, capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its magnificent culture that had seen the likes of Beethoven and Mozart, now had a new resident, a pal...
1914
to 1918
Adolf Hitler serves in World War I
Hitler, by all accounts, was an unusual soldier with a sloppy manner and unmilitary bearing. But he was also eager for action and always ready to volunteer for dangerous assignments even ...
1914 Oct 19
to 1914 Nov 22
 First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the Battle of Flanders, was the last major battle of the first year of World War I (1914); actually a series of battles, starting on 19 October and ...
1915 Apr 22
to 1915 May 13
 Second Battle of Ypres
Canadian Forces, 30,000 First Brigade, Gen. Mercer Second Brigade, Gen. Currie Third Brigade, Gen. Turner Artillery, Gen. Burstall British Cavalry, Gen. Allenby, Gen. Rivington Brit...
1916 Jul 1
to 1916 Nov 18
 Battle of the Somme
Allied Forces, 1,500,000 General Ferdinand Foch, Commander-in-Chief British Army, 700,000 General Sir Douglas Haig, Commander General Sir Henry Rawlinson General Home General Sir Her...
1917 Apr 9
to 1917 May 16
 Battle of Arras
The Battle of Arras was a British offensive during World War I. From 9 April to 16 May, 1917, British, Canadian, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arr...
1919 Adolf Hitler joins German Workers' Party
Corporal Adolf Hitler was ordered in September 1919 to investigate a small group in Munich known as the German Workers' Party. The use of the term 'workers' attracted the attention of ...
1920 Nazi Party formed
Adolf Hitler never held a regular job and aside from his time in World War One, led a lazy lifestyle, from his brooding teenage days in Linz through years spent in idleness and poverty in...
1920 Feb 24 Adolf Hitler Delivers 'Twenty-Five Theses' Speech at the Munich Hofbräuhaus
Given responsibility for publicity and propaganda, Hitler first succeeded in attracting over a hundred people to a meeting in held October at which he delivered his first speech to a larg...
1920 Mar Hitler is Discharged from the Army and Begins Participating Full-Time in the German Workers' Party (DAP)
Hitler was discharged from the army in March 1920 and with his former superiors' continued encouragement began participating full time in the party's activities. By early 1921, Hitler was...
1921 Jul Adolf Hitler named leader of the Nazi Party
By early 1921, Adolf Hitler was becoming highly effective at speaking in front of ever larger crowds. In February, Hitler spoke before a crowd of nearly six thousand in Munich. To publici...
1923 Nov 8 The Beer Hall Putsch
A series of financial events unfolded in the years 1921 though 1923 that would propel the Nazis to new heights of daring and would even prompt Hitler into attempting to take over Germany....
1924 Feb 26 Adolf Hitler goes on trial for treason
The trial of Adolf Hitler for high treason after the Beer Hall Putsch was not the end of Hitler's political career as many had expected. In many ways marked the true beginning. Overnig...
1924 Apr 1 Adolf Hitler is Sentenced to Five Years' Imprisonment at Landsberg Prison for Treason
Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and contemplated suicide. He was soon arrested for high treason. Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the party. During Hitler's trial,...
1925 "Mein Kampf" published
Although it is thought of as having been 'written' by Hitler, Mein Kampf is not a book in the usual sense. Hitler never actually sat down and pecked at a typewriter or wrote longhand, but...
1925 Feb 26 "A New Beginning": Hitler released from prison
A few days before Christmas, 1924, Adolf Hitler emerged a free man after nine months in prison, having learned from his mistakes. In addition to creating the book, Mein Kampf, Hitler had ...
1929
to 1930
Adolf Hitler, Nazis come to power through the Great Depression
When the stock market collapsed on Wall Street on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it sent financial markets worldwide into a tailspin with disastrous effects. The German economy was especia...
1929 Oct Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun Meet
Born in Munich, Eva Braun was the second daughter of school teacher Friedrich "Fritz" Braun and Franziska "Fanny" Kronberger, who both came from respectable Bavarian Catholic families. He...
1932 Adolf Hitler runs for president of Germany
In February 1932, President Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to run again and announced his candidacy for re-election. Hitler decided to oppose him and run for the presidency himself. "Fr...
1932 Feb 25 Adolf Hitler is Granted German Citizenship
In 1932, Hitler intended to run against the aging President Paul von Hindenburg in the scheduled presidential elections. His 27 January 1932 speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf won ...
1933
to 1938
Rise of Hitler to Power
"At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the Nazi movement will go on for 1,000 years!… Don’t forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I ..." —Adolf Hitler
1933
to 1945
The Jewish Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponso...
1933 Jan 30 Hindenburg Appoints Hitler Chancellor of Germany
On the morning of 30 January 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and simple ceremony. His first spe...
1933 Feb 3 Adolf Hitler First Reveals his Foreign Policy Goal of Conquering the Lebensraum
In a meeting with his leading generals and admirals on 3 February 1933 Hitler spoke of "conquest of Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy o...
1933 Feb 27 Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree is the common name of the Order of the Reich's President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg in direct response...
1933 Mar Nazi Concentration Camp at Dachau is Opened
Dachau concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Dachau or KZ-Dachau) was the first Nazi concentration camp opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions facto...
1933 Mar 23 Enabling Act passed by Reichstag
The Enabling Act was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through wh...
1933 Apr 26 Hermann Göring Forms the Gestapo
As part of the deal in which Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Hermann Göring was named as Interior Minister of Prussia. This gave him command of the largest police force in Germ...
1934 Apr 20 Heinrich Himmler Becomes Head of the Gestapo
On April 20,1934 Göring and Himmler agreed to put aside their differences (largely because of mutual hatred and growing dread of the Sturmabteilung) and Göring transferred full authority ...
1934 Jun 14
to 1934 Jun 16
 Adolf Hitler Visits Benito Mussolini in Venice
In February 1934, Hitler met with the British Lord Privy Seal, Sir Anthony Eden, and hinted strongly that Germany already possessed an Air Force, which had been forbidden by the Treaty of...
1934 Jun 30
to 1934 Jul 2
 Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives or "Operation Hummingbird", was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of politic...
1934 Aug Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany
After President Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, Hitler replaced the offices of chancellor and president with a single dictatorial position by declaring himself Führer ("Leader") of a n...
1934 Aug 2 Death of Paul von Hindenburg
Hindenburg remained in office until his death at the age of 86 from lung cancer at his home in Neudeck, East Prussia on 2 August 1934 (exactly two months short of his 87th birthday). O...
1935 Sep 15 Hitler Announces Nuremberg Laws
The following month two measures were announced at the annual Party Rally in Nuremberg, becoming known as the Nuremberg Laws. Both measures were hastily improvised (there was even a short...
1936 Nazi Germany Establishes Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sachsenhausen (German pronunciation: [zaksənˈhaʊzən]) or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 ...
1936 Sep Hermann Göring Becomes Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan for German Rearmament
In September 1936, Goering took over most of Schacht's duties in preparing the war economy and instituted the Four-Year Plan, which was intended to make Germany self-sufficient in four ye...
1936 Nov 25
to 1937 Nov 6
 Axis Powers formed through Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other countries) on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist Inte...
1937 Jul Nazi Germany Establishes Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Buchenwald concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager or 'KZ' Buchenwald) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain) near Weimar, Thuringia, Germany...
1938 Sep 30 Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was an agreement regarding the Sudetenland, which were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a con...
1938 Nov 7 Jewish Youth Herschel Grynszpan Shoots German Diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, Triggering Kristallnacht
Among the expelled was the family of Sendel and Rivka Grynszpan, Polish Jews who had emigrated to Germany in 1911 and settled in Hanover. Their seventeen-year-old son, Herschel was living...
1938 Nov 9
to 1938 Nov 10
 Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (German pronunciation: [kʁɪsˈtalˌnaxt]; literally "Crystal night") or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 193...
1938 Dec SS Establishes Neuengamme Concentration Camp
The SS established Neuengamme in December 1938 as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It was located on the grounds of an abandoned brickworks on the banks of the Dove-Elbe, a ...
1939
to 1945
German/Russian occupation of Poland
This article deals with the occupation of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War (1939–1945). In the beginning of the war (September, 1939) the territory of Po...
1939 Jan 27 Adolf Hitler orders "Plan Z"
Plan Z was the name given to the planned re-equipment and expansion of the Nazi German Navy (Kriegsmarine) ordered by Adolf Hitler on January 27, 1939. The plan called for a Kriegsmarine ...
1939 Mar 15 Germany establishes the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is tod...
1939 Apr 28 Hitler renounces German-Polish Non-Agression Pact
The German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact was an international treaty between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic signed on January 26, 1934. In it, both countries pledged to resolve ...