Weimar Timeline
This Weimar Timeline charts the chronology of the Weimar Republic, including the pre-history before the adoption of the actual Weimar constitution. This timeline stops when Hitler assumes dictatorial power.
The timeline is color-coded. The regular events of the Weimar republic and its pre-history are in black. Events solely pertaining to Adolf Hitler are in red. Events regarding the German Workers' Party and the Nazi Party are in brown. All other events pertaining to the rise of Nazism in Germany are bolded.
For a chronology focusing on the rise of Nazism see Early Nazi Timeline.
Fall of the Second Reich
- Mar 7, 1918 Anton Dexler organized a branch of the German Workers’ Peace Party in Munich.
- Oct 4, 1918 Prince Maximilian of Baden replaces Count Georg von Hertling as Chancellor of Germany
- Oct 7 – Nov 3 Naval mutinies
- Nov 4, 1918 Sailors and worker's councils declare general strikes.
- Nov 5, 1918 3rd Squadron revolts.
- Nov 7, 1918 100,000 workers march on the Royal House of Wittelsbach. The Kaiser flees.
- Nov 8, 1918 All 22 of Germany’s lesser kings, princes, grand dukes, and rulling dukes had been deposed.
- " " Matthias Erzberger arrives at Allied HQ at Compiegne.
- " " Kaiser Wilhelm told to abdiicate
- Nov 9, 1918 Emil Eichhorn, radical leftist of the Independent Socialists, led an armed mob; seized the HQ of Berlin
- " " Kaiser Wilhelm consents to abdicate.
- " " Social Democrats demand government from Prince Max.
- " " Friedrich Ebert assumes the chancellery.
- " " First German Republic established.
- Nov 11, 1918 First World War ended.
- Mid Dec, 1918 First Freikorps unit formed; Maercker Volunteer Rifles.
- Dec 23, 1918 Lt. Dorrenbach with the Volksmarine Division declare gov. under arrest, surround the chancellory and occupy phone exchange.
- Dec 24, 1918 Battle of the Schloss
- Dec 30, 1918 Spartakusbund splits from the Independent Socialists (later becomes the Communist Party.
- Jan 1919 Independent Socialists & Spartacusbund stage large protests. Large sections of Berlin seized.
- " " German Workers’ Peace Party renamed German Workers Party.
- Jan 10, 1919 Battle of Berlin begins; Counter-revolution
- Jan 13, 1919 Battle of Berlin finished.
- Jan 1919 Bremen seized.
- " " German Gov. moved to the city of Weimar.
- Feb 6, 1919 Fritz Ebert opens the Reichstag in Weimar, Germany.
- Feb 11, 1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD) leaves office.
- " " Philipp Scheidemann appointed chancellor.
- Feb 21, 1919 Kurt Eisner assassinated.
- " " Attempted assassination of Erhard Auer.
- Mar 3, 1919 2nd Battle for Berlin; Communists seize Berlin;
- " " Gustav Noske appointed dictator of Germany.
- Mar 7, 1919 Communist Strike Committee withdraws proclamation and makes peace overtures to government.
- Mar 10, 1919 Gustav Noske orders Peoples’ Naval Division disbanded. Battle for Berlin over.
- Mar 1919 Adolf Hitler finishes job of guarding Russian prisoners.
- Apr 6/7, 1919 Bavaria declared a Raterpolitich.
- Apr 14, 1919 Freikorps suppress Communists in Dresden.
- Apr 18, 1919 Freikorps suppress Communists in Brunswick.
- " " Battle of the Bavarian governments at Dachau. Communists defeat republican forces.
- Apr 27, 1919 Battle for Munich between Communists and Freikorps units.
- Apr 29, 1919 German representatives arrive in Paris.
- May 1, 1919 Communist defences at Munich breached.
- May 2, 1919 City of Munich taken; not declared secure until May 6th; aprox. 1200 Communists killed.
- May 10, 1919 Freikorps suppress communists in Leipzig.
- Jun 21, 1919 Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) leaves office
- Jun 22, 1919 German Reichstag ratify the Versailles Treaty.
- Jun 28, 1919 Versailles Treaty signed in the Hall of Mirrors.
Weimar Republic
- Aug 11, 1919 The Weimar Constitution is announced.
- Sep 11, 1919 Adolf Hitler sent as Vertrauensmann to infiltrate the German Worker’s Party (DAP).
- Jan 1920 The DAP grew to 190 members.
- Feb 4, 1920 Allies demand 900 Germans be handed over for war crimes.
- Feb 20, 1920 DAP changes name to National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
- Feb 1920 Kapp Putsch
- Mar 14, 1920 Communists seize demilitarized Ruhr; Dortmund, Remschied, Hagen, Mulheim, Dusseldorf; 300 people killed (mostly policemen).
- Mar 17, 1920 Kapp Putsch ends.
- Mar 27, 1920 Gustav Bauer (SPD) leaves office
- Mar 31, 1920 Adolf Hitler mustered out of the military.
- Apr 3, 1920 21 different Freikorps units, under the command of General Baron Oskar von Watter, annihilate the Ruhr Communist uprising in five days; thousands killed.
- Apr 1920 Government stops paying Freikorps units.
- May 10, 1920 Dr. Joseph Wirth and Walter Rathenau announce their "Policy of Fullfillment"; not received well by nationalist groups.
- Jun 21, 1920 Hermann Mueller (SPD) leaves office
- Aug 11, 1920 National Disarmament Law takes effect; disbanded civil guards
- Dec 17, 1920 NSDAP buys its first paper, the Voelkischer Beobachter.
- Dec 1920 NSDAP total party membership comes to 2000.
- Mar 21, 1921 Plebiscite in Upper Silesia. They vote to remain part of Germany.
- Mar, 1921 Allied Plebiscite Commission rejects vote, draws boundary anyway; takes section of mines, mills and furnaces and 350,000 Germans and puts them under Polish rule.
- Apr 27, 1921 Allied Reparations Committee levels 33 billion war reparations debt onto Germany; commands the handing over of 26% of all exports for 42 years and puts the Germans immediately into 12 billion in arrears.
- May 3, 1921 Polish forces under Wojciech Korfantry invade Upper Silesia.
- May 5, 1921 London Ultimatum which set the total sum of the war indemnity at 132 billion marks.
- May 10, 1921 Konstantin Fehrenbach (Center) leaves office
- May 23, 1921 German Freikorps smash Polish forces at St. Annaberg.
- May 24, 1921 Under Allied pressure, all Freikorps units outlawed.
- Jul 11, 1921 Adolf Hitler resigns from the party to force the hand of Anton Drexler not to unite with the DSP.
- Jul 25, 1921 Adolf Hitler rejoins the party.
- July 29, 1921 Adolf Hitler assumes leadership of the NSDAP. He becomes "Der Fuehrer".
- Aug 26, 1921 Matthias Erzberger, (finance minister of 1920) gunned down by OC killers
- Sep 14, 1921 Hitler and SA disrupt speech by Otto Ballestedt of the Bayernbund; beaten badly; Hitler with others arrested.
- Oct 26, 1921 Dr. Joseph Wirth (Center) forms 2nd cabinet
- Jan 12, 1922 Adolf Hitler sentenced to three months.
- Jun 24, 1922 Hitler Incarcerated.
- " " Walter Rathenau assassinated.
- " " Reichsmark (RM) was 272 to 1 American dollar
- Jul 27, 1922 Hitler released.
- Jul 1922 670 RM = 1 USD
- Aug 1922 2,000 RM = 1 USD
- Oct 27, 1922 Benito Mussolini establishes his Fascist dictatorship in Italy.
- Oct 1922 45,000 RM = 1 USD
- Nov 22, 1922 Dr. Wirth leaves office
- Nov 1922 10,000 RM = 1 USD
- Dec 27, 1922 France occupies the Ruhr.
- Dec 30, 1922 500,000 RM = 1 USD
- Feb 1923 Reichsbank buys back RM; stabilizes RM at 20,000 to 1 USD
- May 4, 1923 RM 40,000 = 1 USD
- May 27, 1923 Albert Leo Schlageter, a German freebooter and saboteur, was executed by a French firing squad in the Ruhr. Hitler declared him a hero that the German people was not worthy to possess.
- Jun 1, 1923 RM 70,000-1 USD
- Jun 30, 1923 RM 150,000-1USD
- Aug 1-7, 1923 RM 3,500,000-1USD
- Aug 13, 1923 Dr. Wilhelm Cuno (No party affliation) Leaves office
- Aug 15, 1923 RM 4,000,000-1USD
- Sep 1, 1923 RM 10,000,000-1USD
- Sep 24, 1923 Chancellor Stresemann ends the passive resistance in the Ruhr; infuriates the nationalists.
- Sep 30, 1923 Major Fedor von Bock crushes a coup attempt by the Black Reichswehr.
- " " RM 60,000,000-1USD
- Oct 6, 1923 Dr. Gustav Stresemann (People’s) forms 2nd cabinet
- Oct 20, 1923 General Alfred Mueller marched on Saxony to prevent a communist takeover.
- " " General Otto von Lossow in Bavaria is relieved of command by Berlin; he refuses.
- Oct 23, 1923 Communist takeover of Hamburg
- Oct 25, 1923 Hamburg uprising supressed
- Nov 8, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch
- Nov 9, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch quelled.
- Nov 12, 1923 Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was named ‘’Reichswaehrungskommissar’’.
- Nov 15, 1923 Rentenmark issued; pegged to the Gold Standard; 4.2-1
- Old RM 4,200,000,000-1USD
- Nov 30, 1923 Dr. Stresemann leaves office.
- Feb 26, 1924 Wilhelm Marx (Center) forms 2nd cabinet
- Aug 29, 1924 Dawes Plan agreed by Reichstag.
- Dec 20, 1924 Hitler released from the Landsberg Prison.
- Jan 4. 1925 Hitler begins his political comeback by meeting with new ministers and President of Bavaria.
- Jan 15, 1925 Dr. Marx leaves office.
- Feb 27, 1925 Nazi party refounded.
- " " Hitler gives his first speech since release from prison.
- Feb 28, 1925 Reichspresident Friedrich Ebert dies.
- Jul 1925 French and Belgian troops evacuate the Ruhr completely.
- Nov 22, 1925 Strasser wing of Nazi party goes into rebellion.
- Dec 1, 1925 Locarno Treaty signed
- Jan 20, 1926 Dr. Hans Luther (No party affliation) forms 2nd cabinet
- Feb 14, 1926 Bamberg conference begins.
- Apr 24, 1926 Germany and Soviet Union sign Berlin Treaty.
- May 12, 1926 Dr. Luther leaves office over flag dispute
- May 16, 1926 Marx cabinet of the Center, BVP, DDP, DVP.
- June 20, 1926 Referendum on expropriation of princely families.
- Sep 10, 1926 Germany enters League of Nations
- Jan 29, 1927 Marx’s 3rd cabinet leaves office
- May 1927 Hitler speaking ban lifted in Bavaria.
- Jul 16, 1927 Unemployment Insurance Law passed.
- Jun 29, 1928 Marx’s 4th cabinet leaves office
- Oct 20, 1928 Alfred Hugenberg becomes head of DNVP
- Dec 8, 1928 Prelate Kaas becomes head of Center party.
- Jun 7, 1929 Young Plan settles reparations problem.
- Oct 3, 1929 Foreign minister Gustav Stresemann dies.
- Oct 29, 1929 Black Friday Collapse of stock exchange in New York City; start of world economic collapse.
- Dec 22, 1929 Referendum to reject Young Plan fails.
- Mar 30, 1930 Hermann Mueller’s (SPD) 2nd cabinet leaves office
- Jun 30, 1930 French troops leave the Rhineland ahead of schedule.
- Jul 16, 1930 Reichstag dissolved; first emergency decree by Reichspresident.
- Aug 1930 SA commander in Berlin Walter Stennes calls for SA general strike against Nazi Party.
- Sep 14, 1930 Reichstag elections; gains by Nazi Party.
- Sep 1930 Hitler at trial of 3 SA Lieutenants disavows the SA goals of replacing the army and hence appeases the army.
- May 11, 1931 Austrian Kreditanstalt collapses
- May 1931 Four million unemployed in Germany.
- Jun 20, 1931 Herbert Hoover puts moratorium on reparations.
- Jul 13, 1931 German bank crisis.
- Oct 11, 1931 Harzburg Front formed of coalition between DNVP, Stahlhelm, and Nazi Party
- Apr 10, 1932 Paul von Hindenburg reelected Reichspresident.
- May 30, 1932 Henrich Bruening (Center) leaves office.
- Jun 1, 1932 Franz von Papen cabinet
- Jun 16-Jul 9 Lausanne conference
- Jul 20, 1932 Von Papen dissolves Prussian government.
- Jul 31, 1932 Reichstag elections where Nazi party becomes the largest party.
- Nov 6, 1932 Reichstag elections; Nazis lose votes.
- Nov 17, 1932 Franz von Papen (Center) leaves office
- Dec 3, 1932 Kurt von Schleicher cabinet
- Jan 28, 1933 Kurt von Schleicher (no party affliation) leaves office
- Jan 30, 1933 Hitler cabinet (Von Papen vice-chancellor).
- Mar 23, 1933 Adolf Hitler establishes Nazi dictatorship.
See also
References
- Why Hitler, The Genesis of the Nazi Reich, Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. Praeger, Westport, CT, 1996. pg 28.
- The Logic of Evil, The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933, William Brustein, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 1996. pp 191-193.
