-
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, to Alois and Klara(née Pölzl) in the town of Braunau am Inn in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Austria). Hitler was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. His father Alois(1837–1903)was a mid-level customs official. Klara(1860–1907)was Alois’s third wife. The couple had six children, four of whom died in infancy or childhood. Adolf Hitler’s younger sister Paula was born in 1896. Hitler also had two older half-siblings from his father’s second marriage.
-
-
In the autumn of 1907, Hitler took the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His application was rejected.
-
Hitler moves to Vienna. His impoverishment and residence in homeless shelters began the following year after he had squandered a generous inheritance. Hitler lives in Vienna until May 1913.
-
-
Despite being a foreign citizen, Hitler joined the Bavarian army in August 1914. During World War I, the Bavarian army was part of the German army. Hitler served in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. After limited, accelerated military training, the unit deployed to Belgium in fall 1914. Hitler and his unit fought at the First Battle of Ypres (October–November 1914). This was Hitler’s only frontline battle experience.
-
-
Hitler is partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. News of the November 11, 1918, armistice reaches him as he is convalescing in a military hospital. World War I has a profound impact on Hitler and many other Germans. The impact of the conflict and its divisive peace has repercussions for decades to come, giving rise to a second world war and genocide committed under its cover.
-
-
-
Hitler is convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment, although he serves only one year. While in prison, he writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This infamous memoir proves significant in promoting key components of Nazism and its racial ideology. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it would sell one million copies in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.
-
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party lead a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria and initiate a “national revolution.” This so-called Beer Hall Putsch fails. Hitler and others are arrested for treason. 8-9 of November
-
Hitler establishes the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons). During the Nazi regime, the SS will become responsible not only for the German police force and the concentration camp system, but also for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence.
-
Hitler loses a run-off election for the German presidency to the elderly incumbent, General Paul von Hindenburg.
-
-
Following the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, by unknown arsonists, the German parliament passes the Law for Rectification of the Distress of Nation and Reich, commonly known as the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz). This law allows Hitler, as Chancellor, to initiate and sign legislation into law without obtaining parliamentary consent. The act effectively establishes a dictatorship, under Hitler, in Germany.
-
Consolidates power and becomes Führer after the death of President Hindenburg.
-
On Hitler’s order, Nazi leaders eliminate the leadership of the SA and kill other political enemies. The murderous purge cements an agreement between the Nazi regime and the German army that consolidates Nazi power and enables Hitler to proclaim himself Führer (leader) of Germany and to claim absolute power.
-
Hitler opens the Berlin Olympics. 1936 represents a rare instance in which one nation, Germany, hosted both the winter and summer Olympic Games. Nazi Germany uses the 1936 Olympics for propaganda purposes. The Nazis promote an image of a new, strong, and united Germany while masking the regime’s targeting of Jews and Roma (Gypsies) as well as Germany’s growing militarism.
-
The area containedabout three millionpeople of Germanorigin and in May 1938 itbecame known that Hitler and hisgeneralsplanned to occupy the country.
The Czechoslovak government hoped thatBritain and Francewould come to itsassistance in the event of an invasion,butBritish Prime Minister Chamberlain wasintent onaverting war. -
German troops march into Austria. Native son Adolf Hitler crosses the Austro-German border at midday at his hometown, Braunau on the Inn. On the following day, the annexation of Austria to the German Reich is announced. On March 15, Hitler enters the Austrian capital Vienna before a cheering crowd of 200,000.
-
Hitler meets with the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy at a conference in Munich, Germany, on September 29–30, 1938, in which they agree to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace from Germany. Six months later, Hitler moves against the Czechoslovak state.
-
On30 September 1938, Germany, Britain,France and Italyreached a settlement thatpermitted Germanannexation(incorporaton of one territory into another) oftheSudetenland in western Czechoslovakia.
-
Adolf Hitler signs a secret authorization for a “euthanasia’” program, the systematic killing of patients with mental and physical disabilities who are living in institutional settings in Germany and German-annexed territories. It is the only instance in which Hitler signs an authorization for a program of systematic mass murder.
-
In a speech to the German parliament in January 1939, Hitler states that another world war will result in the elimination of Jews from Europe.
-
German and Soviet foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov, respectively, sign a German-Soviet Pact. The main tenet of this agreement is a ten-year non-aggression pact in which each signatory promises not to attack the other.
-
At 4.45 am on1 September 1939Germany, launched a surprise attack on the Polishgarrison of the Westerplatte Fort,Danzig (modern-day Gdansk)
Hitler was confident that Britainand France would continue theirpolicy ofappeasement. But inrealitythis was the last straw forworld leaders. -
Prime Minister Churchill (who succeeded from Chamberlain in May of the same year)made it clear that Britain would not negotiate with Hitler.
This launched devastating air attacks on Britain, followed by the landings of German troops.
15,000 British civilians and over 500 airmen died in the Battle of Britain.
Regardless of the lives lost, Britain wassuccessful in preventing Nazi control of the airand British soil. -
Germany overruns Europe. Takes: Poland, Demark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and France. All in one year!
-
At this point in time: US and USSR remain neutral and many allied were now Nazi occupied.
-
In 1941, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and other leading German authorities reach the decision to physically annihilate the Jews of Europe.
-
The German army invades the Soviet Union in "Operation Barbarossa." As opposed to their conquests in western Europe, Hitler and other Nazi leaders see war against the Soviet Union in racial and ideological terms.
-
In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany and its ally Italy declare war on the United States, despite the fact that the US had declared war only against the Empire of Japan. In less than a year, American ground troops will fight German forces in North Africa.
-
Hitler orders retaliatory measures against the Czech population following the death of Reinhard Heydrich, second-in-command of the SS. The towns of Lidice and Lezaky are destroyed and the inhabitants massacred or deported.
-
January 31–February 2, 1943
After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces (numbering now only about 91,000 surviving soldiers) surrender at Stalingrad in a major turning point of World War II and a disaster for Hitler’s long-held goal of defeating the Soviet Union. -
Allied troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans and Hitler's regime.
-
Hitler survives an assassination attempt coordinated by military and civilian officials. The failure of the attempt and the intended coup which was to follow led to the arrest of some 7,000 and the execution of nearly 5,000 individuals.
-
The International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg decides not to try Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels in absentia. All three had committed suicide before the end of the war. In doing so, the IMT wished to avoid creating the impression that they might still be alive.
-