1923-1938:
The Nazis grow and take power
1923
The legacy of damage from World War I and the burden of compensation cause the value of the German Deutschmark to plummet. By November, the exchange rate is 4,000 million marks to one US dollar.
8–9 November: The Beer Hall Putsch: Adolf Hitler and armed Stormtroopers raid a meeting of the government of Bavaria, with the aim of taking over Munich and, ultimately, Germany. Hitler is arrested and uses his trial as a political platform. He is convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years in prison, where he dictates Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess, who has been imprisoned with him. Hitler is released after serving only nine months.
1924
The Nazis win 3% of the votes in the Reichstag elections.
1925
Publication of Mein Kampf, which explains Hitler's nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-Communism and his conviction that Aryans are the master race and that Jews, Slavs and Gypsies are untermenschen ('sub-humans').
Laws are passed requiring unemployed Roma (Gypsies) to be sent to work camps 'for reasons of public security', and for all Roma to be registered with the police.
1926
16 July: Bavaria passes Law for Combatting Gypsies, Vagabonds and Idlers.
5–6 October: The Locarno Conference results in treaties guaranteeing Germany's borders with France and Belgium.
1927
All Roma, including children, have to carry ID cards, bearing fingerprints and photographs.
1928
In Bavaria, an ordinance places Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) under permanent police surveillance.
1929
January: Heinrich Himmler becomes head of the SS.
3 April: The 'Central Office for the Fight against the Gypsies in Germany' is established. It works with the police and Interpol to restrict travel by Roma without documents, and impose up to two years' detention in 'rehabilitation camps' on Roma over 16.
25 October: New York Stock Exchange collapses, with economic repercussions across the world. The US recalls loans from Europe, causing a rapid rise in unemployment, especially in Germany.
1930
6 November: The Nazis take 18.3% of the vote in the Reichstag elections.
1932
July: The Nazis take 37.3% of the vote and become the largest party in the Reichstag. However, President Paul von Hindenburg refuses to appoint Hitler chancellor.
November: The German government collapses and new elections are called. The Nazis win 33.1% of the vote, but again, Hitler is not appointed chancellor.
1933
28 January: The German government falls.
30 January: Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor in a coalition government.
22 February: 40,000 Stormtroopers and SS men are sworn in as auxiliary police
27 February: Burning of the Reichstag, probably by the Nazis, to create a sense of panic. A scapegoat – a young Dutch Communist – is arrested and charged with setting the fire. Hitler is granted emergency powers to suspend all civil rights.
20 March: First concentration camp opens at Dachau, near Munich in south-east Germany, for political opponents of the Nazis.
24 March: The Enabling Act is passed, conferring dictatorial powers on Hitler.
April: The Jehovah's Witnesses, who number 20,000 in Germany, are banned as an organisation.
1 April: Hitler orders a boycott of Jewish shops, banks, offices and department stores. This is followed by a series of laws depriving Jews of many rights.
7 April: Laws are passed that exclude 'non-Aryans' from government employment. Jewish civil servants, including university professors and schoolteachers, lose their jobs.
2 May: The Nazis arrest trade union leaders, confiscate union property and ban strikes.
6 May: Students led by Stormtroopers break into the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin and confiscate its unique library. Four days later, many of its 12,000 books and 35,000 pictures are burnt along with thousands of other 'degenerate' works of literature. This heralds the closure of gay bars, clubs and publications.
10 May: Nazi gangs raid the main library in Berlin and burn many of its books.
14 July: Nazi party is declared to be the only political party in Germany. The 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring' (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) is passed to rid Germany of 'lives not deserving of life'. It orders sterilisation for certain categories of people including 'Gypsies and most of the Germans of black colour' and also affects Jews, people with disabilities and others described as 'asocial'.
20 July: The Vatican signs a Concordat agreeing to support Hitler in exchange for freedom for the Roman Catholic Church in Germany.
18–25 September: Minister for the Interior calls for the arrest of Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), according to the Law Against Habitual Criminals. Many Roma are sent to concentration camps as a result, where they are compelled to do penal labour.
14 October: Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.
1934
The Gestapo instructs police forces to keep lists of all gay men. These 'pink lists' are used to hunt down individual homosexuals during police actions.
29/30 June: Stormtroopers are purged of their leader Ernst Röhm and other political enemies in what is later known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'.
13 July: SS Chief Heinrich Himmler assumes control of all concentration camps.
October: First major wave of arrests of homosexuals throughout Germany.
1935
The swastika is adopted as the national symbol of Germany
April: Jehovah's Witnesses are banned from all civil service jobs and are arrested throughout Germany.
28 June: The law is extended to provide a legal basis for Nazi persecution of homosexuals.
6 September: The public sale of Jewish newspapers is banned.
15 September: The Nuremberg Laws are passed, which relegate Jews and Roma to the status of second-class citizens, and forbid intermarriage between Germans and 'non-Aryans', specifically Jews, Roma and people of African descent.
1936
Himmler becomes chief of all German police.
March: SS Death's-head (Totenkopf) division is established to guard concentration camps.
7 March: Nazis occupy the Rhineland, violating the treaties of Versailles and Locarno.
12 July: Many German Gypsies are arrested and deported to Dachau concentration camp.
1–16 August: Berlin Olympic Games. Anti-Jewish signs are taken down for their duration. After African-American Jesse Owens wins four gold medals, Hitler leaves the stadium to avoid offering congratulations.
26 October: Reich Central Office for Combating Abortion and Homosexuality is set up. The Nazis link homosexuality with abortion to promote a higher birth rate among the 'Aryan' population.
1937
Heinrich Himmler issues a decree entitled 'The Struggle against the Gypsy Plague'.
January: Jews are banned from many professions such as teaching Germans and accountancy and dentistry.
August: A huge concentration camp is opened at Buchenwald, near Weimar in central Germany.
20 October: The British government restricts Jewish immigration to Palestine.
1938
4 February: Adolf Hitler declares himself supreme commander of Germany's armed forces.
12–14 March: Hitler annexes Austria to Germany in an Anschluss ('political union'). Later that month, Mauthausen concentration camp is established in upper Austria.
4 April: A Gestapo directive states that men convicted of homosexuality can be incarcerated in concentration camps.
26 April: Jews are ordered to register all their property.
12–18 June: 'Gypsy Clean-UpWeek' takes place throughout Germany.
6–15 July: League of Nations conference held at Evian in France to discuss how to help Jews fleeing Hitler, but only the Dominican Republic agrees to accept any.
17 August: Jewish women must add 'Sarah' and Jewish men must add 'Israel' to their names on all legal documents, including passports.
5 October: The passports of Jews are marked with a 'J'.
15 October: The Nazis occupy the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
28 October: Nazis arrest 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany and expel them to Poland, which refuses them entry. They are forced to live in a no-man's-land near the Polish border for several months.
7 November: Herschel Grynszpan, son of one of the deported Polish Jews, kills Ernst vom Rath, a German embassy official in Paris.
Kristallnacht, 9/10 November 1938: 'Night of broken glass' – Nazi terror attacks on Jewish synagogues, shops and businesses.
LP Pics
9/10 November: Nazi gangs respond to the killing of Ernst vom Rath by smashing Jewish shops, homes and synagogues. The extended riot came to be called Kristallnacht – the 'night of broken glass'. The Jews are collectively fined 1 billion Reichsmarks for the murder of vom Rath; six million marks due to them as insurance payments for destroyed property are paid instead to the government as 'damages to the German nation'. Some 30,000 Jewish men are imprisoned.
15 November: Jewish pupils are expelled from all public schools, and segregated schools are created.
3 December: The law for compulsory 'aryanisation' of all Jewish businesses is enacted.
8 December: The first reference to the 'Final Solution of the Gypsy Question' appears, in a document signed by Himmler.
14 December: Hermann Göring is placed in charge of resolving the 'Jewish Question'.