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The Weimar Republic is Established
On the 9th of November 1918, The Weimar Republic was founded as Prince Max von Baden, the Imperial Chancellor, announced the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm and the Crown Prince. The new democratic government was announced by Philipp Scheidemann at the Reichstag building before the war officially ended.
Since the Weimar Republic was a democracy, a lot of extreme political parties struggled to take control. The country could also not handle the lawlessness of the people and the fallen economy. -
World War I Ends
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, World War I officially ended with 37 million casualties and 9 million deaths. Germany had been defeated and was given a great amount of blame for starting the war (as stated in the Treaty of Versailles). This meant Germany had lost its pride and the political leaders of the country felt "stabbed in the back". -
Hitler Joins the German Workers Party
In September 1919, Adolf Hitler embarks on his political career and becomes part of the small German Workers Party that started with a gang of unemployed soldiers.
No one could predict the future correctly for this Party as no one thought a group of unemployed soldiers would become the legal government of Germany and no one thought Hitler would become the leader of the German Workers Party as he had no leadership qualifications. -
Hitler Becomes the Leader of the Nazi Party
By the end of July 1921, Hitler was announced as the Führer (official leader) of the newly named National Socialist German Workers' Party (or Nazi Party for short) which now had over 3,000 members. He rose to leadership with his motivating speeches, encouragement of national pride, militarism and commitment to the Volk and creating a racially 'pure' Germany. -
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Beer Hall Putsch
On the 8th November 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch (also known as the Munich Putsch) began. Hitler thought that he could overthrow the weak Weimar Republic by starting out in Munich and later use it as a base for a march against the Weimar Republic.
However, due to poor planning and misjudgement, the Beer Hall Putsch resulted in Hitler and several of his associates being put in jail on the 11th of November. -
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Adolf Hitler's Imprisonment
Because of his actions, Hitler was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment effective 1st April 1924. He was able to be release on the 20th December of the same year due to being pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court.
During his time in jail, wrote volume one of his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) about his ideas of German nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism.
This book later became the ideological base of the Nazi Party's racist ideas. -
Hitler Rebuilds the Nazi Party
After his release from jail, Hitler began rebuilding and reorganising the Nazi Party. Members grew from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1929. -
The Nazi Party Does Badly in 1928 Elections
From 1925 to 1927 the Nazi Party was not able to make impact on the German cities and the Party did poorly in the May 1928 Reichstag Elections, only winning about 2.6%. This caused the Nazi Party to change their strategy to rural and small towns. -
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The Great Depression and the End of the Weimar Republic
The Great Depression started on the 29th October 1929 and brought economic, social and psychological consequences to the world. The Weimar Republic was unable to cope with the unemployment doubling from three million to six million people and inevitably the Republic collapsed in officially in 1933.
