Berlin, Germany · February 28, 1933 On this date in 1933, with the Reichstag (German parliament building) still smoldering following the fire set by 24-year-old Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe the day before, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler persuaded 87-year-old President Paul von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Edict. The emergency decree suspended key…
Berlin, Germany · October 14, 1933 On this date in 1933 German chancellor Adolf Hitler announced that his country was pulling out of the League of Nations, where it had been a member since 1926. Hitler, who had been in office less that nine months, had recently asked the League for “equality of status”—meaning he…
Berlin, Germany · September 14, 1930 On this date in 1930 German voters went to the polls to elect a new Reichstag, and the results were shocking. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or NSDAP) was the ninth and smallest of Germany’s political parties, with but twelve members in the national parliament….
Berlin, Germany · June 29, 1934 Late on this date in 1934 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler unleashed an extraordinary murder spree known as the Night of the Long Knives (Nacht der Langen Messer). President Paul von Hindenburg’s doctors had leaked the news that the 86-year-old German war hero had only months to live. Hitler feared…
Berlin, Germany · April 11, 1934 On this date in 1934 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler secretly met with German War Minister Gen. Werner von Blomberg, the unofficial representative of the officer corps of the Reichswehr (German armed forces), and reached an agreement that sealed the fate of the post-World War I Weimar Republic. Behind titular President…