| 1848 Liberal revolution attempted in Germany; fails 1871 Foundation of modern Germany 1885 Paul de Lagarde advocates German expansion to the East; Madagascar suggested as Jewish depository 1889 Hitler born 1914 WWI; Hitler serves at frontline in Bavaria, becomes corporal 1917 Russian Revolution 1918 Hitler blinded temporarily by gas attack; Germany defeated during his hospitalization 1919 Treaty of Versailles 1919 Germany becomes Weimar Republic 1920 German Worker's Party (later National Socialist party) "Twenty-five Point Program" 1923 Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch (no national revolution); writes "Mein Kampf" during ensuing 9-month imprisonment 1925 German Worker's Party reorganizes to produce legal upheavels rather than plots; develops proletarian wing outside Bavaria under Gregor Strasser 1928 Provincials vote Nazi; party abandons Strasser's urban plan in order to agitate rural people; infiltrates schools, social organizations; party champions veterans and widows of WWI, as well as farmers during agricultural depression (preceding later industrial depression) 1932 Last free election; Nazis gain 37.3% of vote (from the young, farmers, disaffected middle class, former nationalists, former democrats, former People's Party members, the upper/upper middle class, the unorganized/non-socialist working class, and women) 1933 June 30 1934 In the "Night of Long Knives," Captain Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA, and his followers, assassinated Aug 1934 Hindenberg dies; Hitler takes over as Fuhrer ("supreme leader") May 21 1935 Defense Law prevents Jewish army service Sept 15 1935 Nuremberg Laws, of which some basic principles are 1) No Jew is a citizen and 2) No marriage or sexual relations may occur between Jews and Aryans, instated May 1936 Germany's army re-enters demilitarized Rhineland 1937 formal policy "aryanization" of businesses 1938 1939 Spring 1940 First ghetto established in Lodz April 1940 Germany conquers Denmark and Norway May 1940 Germany conquers Holland and Belgium June 1940 Germany conquers France; the north is directly ruled by Germany, while S unoccupied area becomes "Vichy France" Fall 1940 Largest ghetto (550,000) established in Warsaw 1941 Jan 20 1942 Wannsee Conference to discuss Final Solution: deportation, labor, death for every Jew in Europe and the USSR Jan 1943 Soviet troops counterattack, retake Stalingrad; British army under General Montgomery defeats German army in deserts of N. Africa in battle of El Alamein Nov 1943 Allies take S. Italy June 6 1944 D-Day: US lands on beaches of Normandy to liberate France and Belgium; meanwhile Russians advance in East to Poland and Romania 1945 |
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