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1918

October

28
- The German Revolution beginsOn 28 October 1918 Germany became a parliamentary monarchy while its admirals readied the fleet for a last battle. A sailors' revolt set off a revolution.

November

11
- Key eventThe Armistice of 11 November 1918Early on 11 November 1918, in Foch’s carriage in the Forest of Compiègne, Germany signed an armistice with the Entente. At 11 a.m. the guns fell silent.

December

27
- The Greater Poland Uprising beginsOn 27 December 1918, a day after Paderewski arrived, shots rang out by the Hotel Bazar in Poznań. By night Poles held the station, post office and some forts.

1919

January

04
- The Spartacist uprisingOn 4 January 1919 Ebert sacked Berlin's police chief. The Freikorps crushed the ensuing rising in a week; Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed on 15 January.

March

12
- Austria demands union with GermanyOn 12 March 1919 Vienna's freely elected Constituent Assembly confirmed that German-Austria was part of the German Reich. The victors forbade the union.

June

September

12
- Key eventHitler at a German Workers' Party meetingOn 12 September 1919 Gefreiter Adolf Hitler, sent by Reichswehr propagandists, attended a meeting of Munich's tiny DAP. He soon joined it.

1920

February

24
- The founding of the NSDAPOn 24 February 1920 in Munich's Hofbräuhaus Hitler read out the 25-point programme, and the DAP took the name National Socialist German Workers' Party.

March

1921

August

25
- The US separate peace treaties with Germany and AustriaOn 24 and 25 August 1921 the US made separate peace with Austria and Germany, taking the victor's rights from the Paris treaties without the League of Nations.

October

05
- The founding of the SAOn 5 October 1921 the NSDAP's “gymnastics and sports section” took the name Sturmabteilung (SA). A squad guarding meetings grew into the brownshirt army.

1922

March

01
- Secret German–Soviet military cooperation beginsIn spring 1922 the first Reichswehr officers travelled to Soviet Russia, opening a partnership in which Germany evaded the Versailles bans deep inside Russia.

April

16
- The Treaty of RapalloOn 16 April 1922 Germany and Soviet Russia, outcasts of post-war Europe, established relations at Rapallo and waived all claims, alarming the West and Poland.

1923

January

11
- The occupation of the RuhrOn 11 January 1923 French and Belgian troops marched into the Ruhr to force Germany to pay reparations. Berlin responded with passive resistance.

June

14
- Hyperinflation in GermanyOn 14 June 1923 the dollar in Berlin passed 100,000 marks for the first time. By autumn it cost trillions, and German savings had been wiped out.

October

23
- The Hamburg uprisingOn 23 October 1923 communists in Hamburg attacked police stations. It was meant to be the “German October”; it ended in defeat after two days.

November

08
- Key eventThe Beer Hall PutschOn 8 November 1923 Hitler proclaimed a “national revolution” in the Bürgerbräukeller. Next day Bavarian police broke up the putschists' march.

1924

April

01
- Hitler sentencedOn 1 April 1924 a Munich court gave Hitler five years’ fortress confinement for the putsch, the minimum. Ludendorff was acquitted; Hitler was out by December.

August

1925

April

04
- The founding of the SSOn 4 April 1925 an eight-man guard for Hitler was formed in Munich. That autumn it became the Schutzstaffel (SS); under Himmler, an apparatus of terror.

May

12
- Hindenburg becomes presidentOn 12 May 1925 Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, elected in the run-off of 26 April, swore in the Reichstag to uphold a republican constitution he disdained.

July

18
- The publication of Mein KampfOn 18 July 1925 the first volume of Mein Kampf, written by Hitler in prison, appeared. In it he announced a war for living space and a fight against the Jews.

December

01
- Key eventThe Locarno TreatiesOn 1 December 1925 the Locarno agreements were signed in London. Germany recognised its borders with France and Belgium, but not with Poland or Czechoslovakia.

1926

January

31
- The Allied withdrawal from CologneOn 31 January 1926 the last British soldiers, and with them Belgian and French troops, left Cologne. The first Rhineland occupation zone returned to Germany.

April

24
- The Treaty of Berlin (1926)On 24 April 1926 Germany and the USSR signed a treaty of friendship and neutrality. After Locarno, Berlin assured Moscow it was keeping to the Rapallo policy.

September

08
- Germany joins the League of NationsOn 8 September 1926 the League of Nations Assembly admitted Germany with a permanent seat on the Council – the crowning of Stresemann’s Locarno policy.

1929

August

31
- The Young PlanOn 31 August 1929 the Young Plan was adopted at The Hague. Reparations ran until 1988, and the Allies promised to leave the Rhineland by 30 June 1930.

October

29
- Key eventThe Wall Street CrashOn 29 October 1929, Black Tuesday, the New York stock market had the worst day of the crash. The Great Depression began, and it helped Hitler come to power.

1930

June

30
- The end of the occupation of the RhinelandOn 30 June 1930 the last French troops left the Mainz zone. The occupation of the Rhineland ended five years before the date set at Versailles.

September

14
- Key eventThe Reichstag election of 1930On 14 September 1930 the NSDAP won 18.3 per cent and 107 seats. Hitler’s party leapt from the fringe to second place, and the republic lost its majority.

1931

May

19
- The launch of the DeutschlandOn 19 May 1931 the Deutschland, Germany's first large warship since Versailles, was launched at Kiel – 10,000 tons on paper, with unexpectedly heavy guns.

1932

April

10
- Hindenburg re-electedOn 10 April 1932 Paul von Hindenburg won the run-off with 53 per cent of the vote. Hitler took almost 37 per cent; the president owed his victory to the left.

May

30
- The fall of BrüningOn 30 May 1932 Brüning resigned when Hindenburg refused him further decrees. Papen became chancellor at Schleicher's wish, and the Nazis got new elections.

August

30
- Göring becomes President of the ReichstagOn 30 August 1932 the new Reichstag elected Hermann Göring its president. The NSDAP, the largest party, took the third office of state with Centre Party votes.

November

21
- The Hindenburg–Hitler talksOn 21 November 1932 Hindenburg told Hitler to build a Reichstag majority. Hitler demanded a presidential chancellor's powers and was refused on 24 November.

December

03
- Schleicher becomes chancellorOn 3 December 1932 Hindenburg made General Kurt von Schleicher chancellor. He hoped to split the NSDAP and win the unions, but lasted under two months.

1933

January

30
- Key eventHitler becomes chancellorOn 30 January 1933 Hindenburg made Hitler Reich Chancellor. Papen's conservatives believed they could “fence him in”. Within months he built a dictatorship.

February

March

April

26
- The founding of the GestapoOn 26 April 1933 Göring set up the Prussian political police as a separate Secret State Police Office. Under Himmler and Heydrich it became a byword for terror.

May

June

21
- The banning of parties in GermanyIn June 1933 the SA began the Köpenick week of blood, the SPD was banned on 22 June, and by 5 July every other party had dissolved. Only the NSDAP remained.

July

14
- The NSDAP becomes the only partyOn 14 July 1933 Hitler’s government passed a law declaring the NSDAP the only party in Germany. The same day it adopted a law on compulsory sterilisation.

October

19
- Germany leaves the League of NationsOn 19 October 1933 Berlin formally gave notice of leaving the League of Nations. Hitler had announced it on 14 October, also quitting disarmament talks.

November

24
- The persecution of “asocials”On 24 November 1933 Germany passed the Habitual Criminals Act. Indefinite detention, workhouses and castration struck beggars, vagrants and the poor.

1934

January

26
- The German–Polish declaration of non-aggressionOn 26 January 1934 in Berlin Poland and Germany pledged not to settle disputes by force for ten years. Hitler repudiated the declaration in April 1939.

April

20
- Himmler takes over the political policeBy spring 1934 Himmler headed the political police of almost every German state except Prussia. He took over the Gestapo on 20 April, all police only in 1936.

June

30
- Key eventThe Night of the Long KnivesOn 30 June 1934 Hitler had the SA leadership under Röhm murdered, along with old opponents such as Schleicher. At least 85–90 people were killed.

July

20
- The SS independent of the SAOn 20 July 1934 Hitler rewarded the SS for the Night of the Long Knives by freeing it from the SA. It became an independent NSDAP body answerable only to him.

August

02
- Hitler becomes FührerPresident Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Under a law of 1 August Hitler took over his powers and became head of state as “Führer and Reich Chancellor”.
- The Wehrmacht's oath of loyalty to HitlerOn 2 August 1934, the day Hindenburg died, Reichswehr soldiers swore unconditional obedience not to the constitution but to Adolf Hitler in person.

1936

June

03
- The death of Walther WeverOn 3 June 1936 General Walther Wever, the Luftwaffe’s first chief of staff and an advocate of long-range bombers, was killed in an air crash near Dresden.

October

18
- Göring in charge of the Four-Year PlanOn 18 October 1936 Hitler gave Göring power over the German economy. Within four years the army was to be ready for action and the economy fit for war.

November

1937

April

26
- The bombing of GuernicaOn 26 April 1937 aircraft of the Condor Legion and the Italian air force bombed the Basque town of Guernica. Most researchers put the dead at 150–300.

May

07
- Condor Legion fighters in SpainIn the spring of 1937 the Condor Legion’s fighter group brought the Messerschmitt Bf 109 into combat in Spain, and its pilots developed new air-combat tactics.

November

06
- Italy joins the Anti-Comintern PactOn 6 November 1937 in Rome, Ciano, Ribbentrop and Japan's ambassador signed Italy's accession to the pact, creating the Berlin–Rome–Tokyo triangle.

1939

January

25
- Uranium fission at Columbia UniversityOn 25 January 1939 physicists at Columbia University in New York carried out the first experiment in America confirming the fission of the uranium nucleus.

1945

June

05
- Key eventThe Berlin DeclarationOn 5 June 1945 Eisenhower, Zhukov, Montgomery and de Lattre signed in Berlin a declaration by which the four powers assumed supreme authority in Germany.

July

17
- Key eventThe Potsdam Conference beginsOn 17 July 1945 Truman, Churchill and Stalin opened the last Big Three conference at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, devoted to Germany and Poland.

August

02
- Key eventThe end of the Potsdam ConferenceOn the night of 1–2 August 1945 Truman, Stalin and Attlee signed at Potsdam a protocol and communiqué on Germany, reparations and the Oder–Neisse frontier.