Timeline of the Weimar Republic

This Weimar Timeline charts the chronology of the Weimar Republic, dating the pre-history before the adoption of the actual Weimar constitution. This timeline stops when Hitler establishes the Third Reich.

The timeline is color-coded:
*Black: Regular events of the Weimar republic and its pre-history.
*Red: Events pertaining to Adolf Hitler.
*Brown: Events regarding the German Workers' Party and the Nazi Party.
*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.

End of the Kaiserreich

*August 1, 1914 World War I breaks out.
*April 14, 1917 Government announces reduction in bread rations.
*April 15, 1917 200,000 Socialists and Communists stage major strikes in Germany
*July 13, 1917 Dr. Georg Michaelis replaces Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg as Chancellor of Germany.
*October 31, 1917 Michaelis resigns, replaced by Count Georg von Hertling

1918

*October 4, 1918 Prince Maximilian of Baden replaces Count Georg von Hertling as Chancellor of Germany
*October 7 – November 3, 1918 Naval mutinies (see German Revolution)
*November 4, 1918 Sailors and worker's councils declare general strikes.
*November 5, 1918 3rd Squadron revolts.
*November 7, 1918 100,000 workers march on the Royal House of Wittelsbach. The King of Bavaria flees.
*November 8, 1918 All 22 of Germany’s lesser kings, princes, grand dukes, and ruling dukes had been deposed.
*November 9, 1918 Proclamation of the Republic by Philipp Scheidemann, some hours later: proclamation of the Socialist Republic by Karl Liebknecht; also:
**Matthias Erzberger arrives at Allied HQ at Compiegne.
**Kaiser Wilhelm told to abdicate, before he can decide Prince Max formally announces the abdication of Wilhelm.
**Social Democrats demand government from Prince Max.
**Friedrich Ebert assumes the chancellery.
**First German Republic established.
*November 11, 1918 First World War ended.
*Mid December, 1918 First Freikorps unit formed; Maercker Volunteer Rifles.
*December 23, 1918 Lt. Dorrenbach with the Volksmarine Division declare gov. under arrest, surround the chancellory and occupy phone exchange.
*December 24, 1918 Battle of the Schloss
*December 30, 1918 Spartakusbund splits from the Independent Socialists (later becomes the Communist Party).

1919

*January 1919 Independent Socialists & Spartacusbund stage large protests. Large sections of Berlin seized. Also:
** "Free Workers' Committee for a fair Peace" renamed German Workers Party.
*January 10, 1919 Battle of Berlin begins; Counter-revolution
*January 13, 1919 Battle of Berlin finished.
*January 1919 Bremen seized. Also:
**German Gov. moved to the city of Weimar.
*February 6, 1919 Fritz Ebert opens the Reichstag in Weimar, Germany.
*February 11, 1919 Friedrich Ebert (SPD) leaves office. Also:
**Philipp Scheidemann appointed chancellor.
*February 21, 1919 Kurt Eisner assassinated. Also:
**Attempted assassination of Erhard Auer.
*March 3, 1919 2nd Battle for Berlin; Communists seize Berlin; Weimar government appoints Gustav Noske as German defense minister.
*March 7, 1919 Communist Strike Committee withdraws proclamation and makes peace overtures to government.
*March 10, 1919 Gustav Noske orders Peoples’ Naval Division disbanded. Battle for Berlin over.
*March 1919 Adolf Hitler finishes job of guarding Russian prisoners.
*April 6 and April 7, 1919 Bavaria declared a Soviet Republic.
*April 14, 1919 Freikorps suppress Communists in Dresden.
*April 18, 1919 Freikorps suppress Communists in Brunswick. Also:
**Battle of the Bavarian governments at Dachau. Communists defeat republican forces.
*April 27, 1919 Battle for Munich between Communists and Freikorps units.
*April 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.
*June 21, 1919 Philipp Scheidemann (SPD) leaves office
*June 22, 1919 German Reichstag ratify the Versailles Treaty.
*June 28, 1919 Versailles Treaty signed in the Hall of Mirrors.

Weimar Republic

*August 11, 1919 The Weimar Constitution is announced.
*September 11, 1919 Adolf Hitler sent as "Vertrauensmann" to infiltrate the German Worker’s Party (DAP).

1920

*January 1920 The DAP grew to 190 members.
*February 4, 1920 Allies demand 900 Germans be handed over for war crimes.
*February 20, 1920 DAP changes name to National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
*February 1920 Inter-Allied Control Commission order 2/3 of Freikorps disbanded.
*February 24, 1920 First public meeting of the NSDAP.
*March 13, 1920 Kapp Putsch
*March 14, 1920 Communists seize demilitarized Ruhr; Dortmund, Remschied, Hagen, Mulheim, Dusseldorf; 300 people killed (mostly policemen).
*March 17, 1920 Kapp Putsch ends.
*March 27, 1920 Gustav Bauer (SPD) leaves office
*March 31, 1920 Adolf Hitler mustered out of the military.
*April 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.
*April 1920 Government stops paying Freikorps units.
*May 10, 1920 Dr. Joseph Wirth and Walter Rathenau announce their "Policy of Fulfillment"; not received well by nationalist groups.
*June 21, 1920 Hermann Mueller (SPD) leaves office
*August 11, 1920 National Disarmament Law takes effect; disbanded civil guards
*December 17, 1920 NSDAP buys its first paper, the "Voelkischer Beobachter".
*December 1920 NSDAP total party membership comes to 2000.

1921

*March 21, 1921 Plebiscite in Upper Silesia. They vote to remain part of Germany.
*March, 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.
*April 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.
*July 11, 1921 Adolf Hitler resigns from the party to force the hand of Anton Drexler not to unite with the DSP.
*July 25, 1921 Adolf Hitler rejoins the party.
*July 29, 1921 Adolf Hitler assumes leadership of the NSDAP. He becomes "Der Fuehrer".
*August 26, 1921 Matthias Erzberger, (finance minister of 1920) gunned down by OC killers
*September 14, 1921 Hitler and SA disrupt speech by Otto Ballestedt of the Bayernbund; beaten badly; Hitler with others arrested.
*October 26, 1921 Dr. Joseph Wirth (Center) forms 2nd cabinet

1922

*January 12, 1922 Adolf Hitler sentenced to three months.
*June 24, 1922 Hitler Incarcerated. Also:
**Walter Rathenau assassinated.
**Reichsmark (RM) was 272 to 1 American dollar
*July 27, 1922 Hitler released.
*July 1922 670 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
*August 1922 2,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
*October 27, 1922 Benito Mussolini establishes his Fascist dictatorship in Italy.
*October 1922 45,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
*November 22, 1922 Dr. Wirth leaves office
*November 1922 10,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
*December 27, 1922 France occupies the Ruhr.
*December 30, 1922 500,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar

1923

*February 1923 Reichsbank buys back RM (or reichsmark); stabilizes RM at 20,000 to 1 US dollar
*May 4, 1923 RM 40,000 = 1 US dollar
*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 nation was not worthy to possess.
*June 1, 1923 RM 70,000 =1 US dollar
*June 30, 1923 RM 150,000 = 1 US dollar
*August 1-August 7, 1923 RM 3,500,000 = 1 US Dollar
*August 13, 1923 Dr. Wilhelm Cuno (No party affiliation) Leaves office
*August 15, 1923 RM 4,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
*September 1, 1923 RM 10,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
*Around September 10 to September 25, 1923 Prices reportedly rise hourly in several German cities.
*September 24, 1923 Chancellor Stresemann ends the passive resistance in the Ruhr; infuriates the nationalists.
*September 30, 1923 Major Fedor von Bock crushes a coup attempt by the Black Reichswehr. Also:
**RM 60,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
*October 6, 1923 Dr. Gustav Stresemann (People’s) forms 2nd cabinet
*October 20, 1923 General Alfred Mueller marches on Saxony to prevent a communist takeover. Also:
**General Otto von Lossow in Bavaria is relieved of command by Berlin; he refuses.
*October 23, 1923 Communist takeover of Hamburg
*October 25, 1923 Hamburg uprising suppressed
*November 8, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch
*November 9, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch quelled.
*November 12, 1923 Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was named ‘’Reichswaehrungskommissar’’.
*November 15, 1923 "Rentenmark" issued; pegged to the Gold Standard; Rentenmark 4.2 = 1 US dollar; at this time:
**Old Reichsmark 4,200,000,000 = 1 US dollar
*November 30, 1923 Dr. Stresemann leaves office.

1924

*February 26, 1924 Hitlerputsch trial begins.
*June 3, 1924 Dr. Wilhelm Marx (Center) forms 2nd cabinet
*August 29, 1924 Dawes Plan agreed by Reichstag.
*December 20, 1924 Hitler released from Landsberg Prison.

1925

*January 4. 1925 Hitler begins his political comeback by meeting with new ministers and President of Bavaria.
*January 15, 1925 Dr. Marx leaves office.
*February 27, 1925 Nazi party refounded.; Hitler gives his first speech since release from prison.
*February 28, 1925 Reichspresident Friedrich Ebert dies.
*July 1925 French and Belgian troops evacuate the Ruhr completely.
*November 22, 1925 Strasser wing of Nazi party goes into rebellion.
*October 16, 1925 Locarno Treaty signed

1926

*January 20, 1926 Dr. Hans Luther (No party affiliation) forms 2nd cabinet
*February 14, 1926 Bamberg conference begins.
*April 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.
*September 10, 1926 Germany enters League of Nations

1927

*January 29, 1927 Marx’s 3rd cabinet leaves office
*May 1927 Hitler speaking ban lifted in Bavaria.
*July 16, 1927 Unemployment Insurance Law passed.

1928

*June 29, 1928 Marx’s 4th cabinet leaves office
*October 20, 1928 Alfred Hugenberg becomes head of DNVP
*December 8, 1928 Prelate Kaas becomes head of Center party.

1929

*June 7, 1929 Young Plan resets reparations amount, and allows it to be paid in installations over a period of 58.5 years.
*October 3, 1929 Foreign minister Gustav Stresemann dies.
*October 24, 1929 Black Thursday stock market crash, start of world economic collapse.
*December 22, 1929 Liberty Law referendum to reject Young Plan fails.

1930

*March 30, 1930 Hermann Mueller’s (SPD) 2nd cabinet leaves office
*June 30, 1930 French troops leave the Rhineland ahead of schedule.
*July 16, 1930 Reichstag dissolved; first emergency decree by Reichspresident.
*August 1930 SA commander in Berlin Walter Stennes calls for SA general strike against Nazi Party.
*September 14, 1930 Reichstag elections; gains by Nazi Party.
*September 1930 Hitler at trial of 3 SA Lieutenants disavows the SA goals of replacing the army and hence appeases the army.

1931

*May 11, 1931 Austrian Kreditanstalt collapses
*May 1931 Four million unemployed in Germany.
*June 20, 1931 Herbert Hoover puts moratorium on reparations.
*July 13, 1931 German bank crisis.
*October 11, 1931 Harzburg Front formed of coalition between DNVP, Stahlhelm, and Nazi Party

1932

*April 10, 1932 Paul von Hindenburg reelected Reichspresident.
*May 30, 1932 Henrich Bruening (Center) leaves office.
*June 1, 1932 Franz von Papen cabinet
*June 16-July 9, 1932 Lausanne conference
*July 20, 1932 Von Papen dissolves Prussian government.
*July 31, 1932 Reichstag elections where Nazi party becomes the largest party.
*November 6, 1932 Reichstag elections; Nazis lose votes.
*November 17, 1932 Franz von Papen (Center) leaves office
*December 3, 1932 Kurt von Schleicher cabinet

1933

*January 28, 1933 Kurt von Schleicher (no party affiliation) leaves office
*January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
*March 23, 1933 Adolf Hitler establishes the Third Reich (Enabling Act of 1933).

ee also

*Weimar culture
*Weimar political parties
*Glossary of the Weimar Republic

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.

Related media

* Audio: Educational rapsong about The Weimar Republic by Johnathan Pagel, [http://wikinl.sol3.info/weimar_republic_rap_by_pagel.ogg OGG format] (2,14Mb) [http://www.pagel.clara.co.uk/mp3/weimar.mp3 MP3] (4.33Mb)