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Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor
The National Socialist German Workers' Party, more commonly known as the Nazi Party, assumes control of the German state when German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a coalition government. -
Röhm Affair
Hitler orders a violent purge of the top leadership of the Nazi Party. At Hitler’s request, the German parliament declares the killings legal after the fact, based on a false accusation that Rohm and his commanders had planned to overthrow the government. The assassination's of June 30–July 2, 1934, later became known as “the Rohm Affair” or the “the Night of the Long Knives.” -
Ban on Jehovah’s Witness Organizations
The German government bans Jehovah’s Witness organizations. The ban is due to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ refusal to swear allegiance to the state. From 1935 onward, Jehovah’s Witnesses faced a Nazi campaign of persecution. Also in 1935, Germany reintroduced compulsory military service. -
Olympic Games Open in Berlin
The Olympic Games were a propaganda success for the Nazi government, as German officials made every effort to portray Germany as a respectable member of the international community. They removed anti-Jewish signs from public display and restrained anti-Jewish activities. -
Buchenwald Concentration Camp Opens
SS authorities open the Buchenwald concentration camp for male prisoners in east-central Germany. Together with its many satellite camps, Buchenwald was one of the largest concentration camps established within German borders. However, in 1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, German SS and police sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where the camp authorities subjected them to extraordinarily cruel treatment and many died. -
German Annexation of Austria
On March 11–13, 1938, German troops invade Austria and incorporate Austria into the German Reich in what is known as the Anschluss. A wave of street violence against Jewish persons and property followed in Vienna and other cities throughout the so-called Greater German Reich during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1938. -
Munich Agreement
Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement, by which Czechoslovakia must surrender its border regions and defenses. Hitler had threatened to unleash a European war unless the Sudetenland, a border area of Czechoslovakia containing an ethnic German majority, was surrendered to Germany. -
American Student Reflects
“So, here I am on the outskirts of Frankfurt, sitting on a train and bound for Würzburg, where I know not what awaits me.” Robert Harlan, studying a semester abroad at the University of Marburg, witnessed Kristallnacht. Traveling by train to help the parents of a Jewish friend whose house had been ransacked.