Third Reich

The name was popularised by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck’s 1923 book Das Dritte Reich: the first Reich was the Holy Roman Empire, the second the German Empire of 1871–1918, and the third was to renew them. The Nazis also liked to speak of a ‘Thousand-Year Reich’. The state lasted twelve years: from Hitler’s appointment as chancellor in 1933 to the unconditional surrender of 8 May 1945 and the arrest of the Flensburg government on 23 May.

Within a year and a half the Third Reich had become a one-party dictatorship; it went on to unleash war and the Holocaust. For Poland it meant occupation: part of Polish territory was annexed directly to the Reich, and the General Government was created from the rest.