Adolf Hitler

Where they went

16 related events

1. 1
   1923 – 1925Occupation of the Ruhr and German Hyperinflationrelated figure

   When Germany fell behind on reparations, France and Belgium occupied the industrial Ruhr. The German government answered with passive resistance financed by printing money, and the mark collapsed.

2. 2
   1933 – 1934Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Enabling Actleader

   Hitler, whose Nazi Party had become the largest in the Reichstag during the Depression, was made chancellor and used the Enabling Act, which handed lawmaking power to the government, to build a one-party dictatorship. The Weimar Republic collapsed.

3. 3
   1935Nuremberg Lawsleader

   Timed to the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Nazi Germany enacted racial laws that stripped Jews of citizenship and banned their marriage to Germans.

4. 4
   1936Remilitarization of the Rhinelandleader

   Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, which the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno had made a demilitarized zone. Britain and France confined themselves to protests.

5. 5
   1936 – 1939Spanish Civil Warrelated figure

   Army officers led by Franco rose against the Popular Front government, starting a civil war of almost three years. With Germany and Italy backing the rebels and the Soviet Union and the International Brigades aiding the Republic, it became a prelude to the Second World War.

6. 6
   1936 – 1937Formation of the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pactleader

   Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis, and Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact against communism. Italy joined the following year, binding the three powers together.

7. 7
   1938Anschluss (Annexation of Austria)leader

   Hitler sent troops into Austria and joined it to Germany — Nazi Germany’s first territorial expansion, justified as uniting the German people in one state.

8. 8
   1938Munich Agreementleader

   The leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany met in Munich and, without Czechoslovakia, agreed to hand the Sudetenland to Germany — the high point of appeasement.

9. 9
   1938Kristallnachtrelated figure

   Across Nazi Germany, Jewish synagogues, shops and homes were attacked and burned. It is called “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night) for the broken glass that covered the streets.

10. 10
    1939Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pactleader

    Ideological enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union promised not to attack each other and divided Eastern Europe in a secret protocol. Nine days later Germany invaded Poland.

11. 11
    1939German Invasion of Polandleader

    Germany invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany, beginning the Second World War. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east.

12. 12
    1940Fall of Franceleader

    German armour broke through the Ardennes and defeated France in six weeks; the British escaped by sea from Dunkirk and France signed an armistice.

13. 13
    1941 – 1945The Holocaustleader

    Nazi Germany systematically murdered about six million European Jews; Roma, disabled people, prisoners of war and others were also victims.

14. 14
    1941Operation Barbarossaleader

    Breaking the non-aggression pact, Germany launched a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. It drove to the gates of Moscow but was halted by winter and a Soviet counter-attack.

15. 15
    1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingradrelated figure

    German and Soviet forces fought for more than five months in the streets of Stalingrad on the Volga. The Soviets encircled and forced the surrender of the German Sixth Army, turning the tide of the war in the east.

16. 16
    1945Fall of Berlin and German Surrenderrelated figure

    Soviet forces took Berlin and Hitler killed himself. Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May, ending the war in Europe (VE Day).

Related works

People who appear alongside

• Joseph Stalin1878 – 1953

  General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party who ruled the USSR from the late 1920s until his death, led the war against Germany and drew Eastern Europe into the Soviet bloc

• Benito Mussolini1883 – 1945

  Founder of Italian Fascism who became prime minister (1922–1943) after the March on Rome; dictator who invaded Ethiopia and allied with Hitler

• Georgy Zhukov1896 – 1974

  Marshal of the Soviet Union who directed the defence of Moscow, the Stalingrad counter-offensive and Kursk, and took Berlin

• Joachim von Ribbentrop1893 – 1946

  Nazi Germany’s foreign minister (1938–1945) who concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact; executed after the Nuremberg trials

• Gustav Stresemann1878 – 1929

  Weimar chancellor (1923) and foreign minister (1923–1929) who ended the hyperinflation and brought Germany back into the international community through Locarno

• Francisco Franco1892 – 1975

  General who led the Nationalist rebels to victory in the Spanish Civil War and ruled Spain as dictator from 1939 until his death

• Neville Chamberlain1869 – 1940

  British prime minister (1937–1940) who pursued appeasement of Hitler and signed the Munich Agreement, then declared war after the invasion of Poland

• Édouard Daladier1884 – 1970

  French Radical politician who signed the Munich Agreement as prime minister (1938–1940)

Themes this person appears in

• The Great Depression and Totalitarianism1919 – 1939

  From the Washington Conference to the invasion of Poland — two decades in which the age of international cooperation collapsed in the Depression, fascism, Nazism and Stalinism rose, and the world slid into war again

• World War II1939 – 1945

  From the invasion of Poland to the surrender of Japan — the largest war in human history, across Europe, Asia and the Pacific