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Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor
The Nazi Party takes over control of the German state when Paul von Hinderburg, the president of Germany. -
Reichstag Fire Decree
The day after the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down due to arson, President Hindenburg issues the Decree for the Protection of People and the Reich (also known as the Reichstag Fire Decree). -
Establishment of Dachau Camp
Outside the town of Dachau, Germany, the SS (Schutzstaffel, Protection Squads) establishes its first concentration camp to incarcerate political opponents. Between 1933 and 1945, concentration camps (Konzentrationslager; KL or KZ) were an integral feature of the Nazi regime. The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau during these years exceeded 188,000. The number of prisoners who died in the camp and its subcamps between January 1940 and May 1945 was at least 28,000. -
Anti-Jewish Boycott
Less than 3 months after coming to power in Germany, the Nazi leadership stages an economic boycott targeting Jewish-owned businesses and the offices of Jewish professionals. The boycott was presented to the German people as both a reprisal and an act of revenge for the bad international press against Germany since the appointment of Hitler’s government in January 1933 -
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
The German government issues the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums), which excludes Jews and other political opponents of the Nazis from all civil service positions. The law initially exempts those who had worked in the civil service since August 1, 1914, those who were veterans of World War I, or those with a father or son killed in action in World War I. -
Law Limits Jews in Public Schools
The German government issued the Law against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities, which dramatically limits the number of Jewish students attending public schools. . This new law restricted the number of Jewish students in any one public school to no more than 5 percent of the total student population. -
Book Burning
On May 10, 1933, university students burn upwards of 25,000 “un-German” books in Berlin’s Opera Square. Some 40,000 people gather to hear Joseph Goebbels deliver a fiery address: “No to decadence and moral corruption!”. As part of an effort to align German arts and culture with Nazi ideas (Gleichschaltung), university students in college towns across Germany burned thousands of books they considered to be “un-German,” heralding an era of state censorship and cultural control. -
Law for the "Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases"
he German government passes the “Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses), mandating the forced sterilization of certain individuals with physical and mental disabilities. This new law provides a basis for the involuntary sterilization of people with physical and mental disabilities or mental illness, Roma (Gypsies), “asocial elements,” and Afro-Germans.