Adolf Hitler Timeline

(April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945)

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who led the Nazi Party and became dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. His aggressive expansionist policies triggered World War II in Europe, and his regime perpetrated the Holocaust, the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of other victims. More Less

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Early Life

Born in Braunau am Inn, Austria

Apr 20, 1889

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl. His early years were marked by a strict father, academic struggles, and dreams of becoming an artist.

Image source: Adolf Hitler

Father Alois Hitler dies

Jan 3, 1903

Hitler's father, Alois, a stern customs official, died suddenly when Adolf was 13. The death removed a major disciplinary influence from his life, and his school performance continued to decline in the following years.

Image source: Alois Hitler

Rejected by Vienna Academy of Fine Arts

Oct 1907

Hitler was twice rejected admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, in 1907 and 1908. Devastated, he remained in Vienna living in poverty, selling postcard paintings and absorbing the city's antisemitic and nationalist politics.

Image source: Paintings by Adolf Hitler

Mother Klara Hitler dies

Dec 21, 1907

Klara Hitler died of breast cancer at age 47. Her Jewish doctor later recalled that no one had ever seen her son so grief-stricken. Hitler moved permanently to Vienna shortly afterward.

Image source: Klara Hitler

Moves to Munich

May 1913

Hitler left Vienna for Munich, partly to avoid Austrian military service. He continued to live as a struggling painter until World War I broke out, when he volunteered for the German army.

Serves in World War I as a dispatch runner

Aug 1914 - Nov 11, 1918

Hitler served as a message runner on the Western Front with the Bavarian army, earning the Iron Cross First Class. He was wounded in 1916 and temporarily blinded by a British gas attack in October 1918. Germany's defeat deeply embittered him.

Image source: Military career of Adolf Hitler

Rise to Power

Joins the German Workers' Party

Sep 1919

Assigned by the army to spy on the small German Workers' Party (DAP) in Munich, Hitler instead joined it as member number 555. His talent for fiery oratory quickly made him the party's most prominent figure.

Image source: German Workers' Party

Becomes leader of the renamed Nazi Party

Jul 29, 1921

The DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party. Hitler forced out rivals and assumed leadership, adopting the swastika emblem and building a cult of personality around himself.

Image source: Nazi Party

Beer Hall Putsch fails in Munich

Nov 8, 1923 - Nov 9, 1923

Hitler attempted to seize power in Bavaria with a coup launched from a Munich beer hall. The march on the war ministry was broken up by police; sixteen Nazis died. The failed putsch made Hitler a national figure.

Image source: Beer Hall Putsch

Imprisoned and writes Mein Kampf

Apr 1, 1924 - Dec 20, 1924

Sentenced to five years for treason, Hitler served only about nine months in comfortable confinement at Landsberg Prison. There he dictated Mein Kampf, laying out his ideology of extreme nationalism, antisemitism, and Lebensraum.

Image source: Mein Kampf

Nazi Party wins breakthrough in Reichstag elections

Sep 14, 1930

Exploiting the Great Depression's economic misery, the Nazi Party surged from 12 to 107 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the second-largest party and transforming Hitler into a serious contender for national power.

Image source: 1930 German federal election

Runs for president against Hindenburg

Mar 13, 1932 - Apr 10, 1932

Hitler challenged Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency, winning about 37% in the runoff. Though defeated, the campaign demonstrated the mass appeal of Nazism across Germany.

Image source: 1932 German presidential election

Appointed Chancellor of Germany

Jan 30, 1933

Conservative elites persuaded President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor, believing they could control him. Within months he had dismantled democracy and established a one-party dictatorship.

Image source: Adolf Hitler's rise to power

Reichstag Fire used to suspend civil liberties

Feb 27, 1933

The Reichstag building burned days before elections. Blaming communists, Hitler pushed through the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending freedom of speech, press, and assembly, enabling mass arrests of political opponents.

Image source: Reichstag fire

Reichstag Fire used to suspend civil liberties

Enabling Act grants Hitler dictatorial powers

Mar 23, 1933

The Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, allowing Hitler to enact laws without parliamentary consent. Combined with suppression of opposition parties, it gave him legal cover for total dictatorship.

Image source: Enabling Act of 1933

Night of the Long Knives purge

Jun 30, 1934 - Jul 2, 1934

Hitler ordered the murder of SA leader Ernst Röhm and dozens of other perceived rivals, consolidating support from the army and conservative elites while eliminating dissent within his own movement.

Image source: Night of the Long Knives

Becomes Führer after Hindenburg's death

Aug 2, 1934

When President Hindenburg died, Hitler merged the offices of chancellor and president, taking the title Führer und Reichskanzler. The army swore a personal oath of loyalty to him, cementing his absolute rule.

Image source: Führer

The Holocaust

Nuremberg Laws strip Jews of citizenship

Sep 15, 1935

At the Nuremberg rally, Hitler announced laws excluding Jews from citizenship and forbidding marriage between Jews and Germans. These laws institutionalized racial persecution and laid groundwork for the Holocaust.

Image source: Nuremberg Laws

Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews

Nov 9, 1938 - Nov 10, 1938

Following the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris, Nazis unleashed a nationwide pogrom: synagogues burned, thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed, some 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps, and nearly 100 were killed.

Image source: Kristallnacht

Wannsee Conference coordinates the Final Solution

Jan 20, 1942

Senior Nazi officials met near Berlin to coordinate the systematic deportation and murder of Europe's Jews. The conference formalized the industrialized genocide already underway at killing centers like Auschwitz.

Image source: Wannsee Conference

Liberation of Auschwitz reveals Holocaust horrors

Jan 27, 1945

Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, exposing the scale of Nazi genocide to the world. By war's end, roughly six million Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust ordered under Hitler's regime.

Image source: Auschwitz concentration camp

World War II

Remilitarizes the Rhineland

Mar 7, 1936

German troops marched into the demilitarized Rhineland in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The unopposed move emboldened Hitler's expansionism, as France and Britain chose not to respond militarily.

Image source: Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Annexation of Austria (Anschluss)

Mar 12, 1938

German troops entered Austria, which was absorbed into the Third Reich amid widespread Nazi celebrations. The Anschluss violated the Versailles Treaty but drew only diplomatic protests from Western powers.

Image source: Anschluss

Munich Agreement cedes Sudetenland to Germany

Sep 30, 1938

Britain and France appeased Hitler by allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Hitler promised peace in return, but occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia within six months.

Image source: Munich Agreement

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed with Soviet Union

Aug 23, 1939

Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. It freed Hitler to attack Poland without fear of a two-front war.

Image source: Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Invasion of Poland begins World War II

Sep 1, 1939 - Oct 6, 1939

Germany invaded Poland using blitzkrieg tactics. Britain and France declared war two days later, beginning World War II. Poland fell within weeks, partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Image source: Invasion of Poland

Fall of France

May 10, 1940 - Jun 25, 1940

German forces swept through the Low Countries and France in six weeks, forcing France's armistice. Hitler toured Paris in June 1940 at the height of his power, having conquered most of continental Europe.

Image source: Battle of France

Battle of Britain ends invasion plans

Jul 10, 1940 - Oct 31, 1940

The Luftwaffe's attempt to destroy the Royal Air Force and prepare for invasion of Britain failed. Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely, suffering his first major strategic setback.

Image source: Battle of Britain

Launches Operation Barbarossa against USSR

Jun 22, 1941

Ignoring his pact with Stalin, Hitler launched the largest invasion in history against the Soviet Union. Initial advances stalled before Moscow, opening a brutal eastern front that would ultimately destroy the Third Reich.

Image source: Operation Barbarossa

Declares war on the United States

Dec 11, 1941

Days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States, bringing America fully into the European conflict. The decision proved catastrophic as American industrial might turned the tide against Germany.

Image source: German declaration of war against the United States

Surrender at Stalingrad marks turning point

Feb 2, 1943

Hitler refused to allow the trapped Sixth Army to retreat; its destruction at Stalingrad destroyed Germany's aura of invincibility and began the long Soviet advance westward toward Berlin.

Image source: Battle of Stalingrad

Survives assassination attempt at Wolf's Lair

Jul 20, 1944

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb at Hitler's East Prussian headquarters. Hitler survived with minor injuries and responded with brutal reprisals, executing thousands suspected of involvement.

Image source: 20 July plot

Death and Legacy

Marries Eva Braun in Berlin bunker

Apr 29, 1945

As Soviet forces fought through Berlin, Hitler married his longtime companion Eva Braun in a brief ceremony in the Führerbunker beneath the Chancellery garden.

Image source: Eva Braun

Suicide in the Führerbunker

Apr 30, 1945

With Berlin surrounded, Hitler shot himself while Eva Braun took poison. Their bodies were burned in the bunker courtyard. Admiral Dönitz succeeded him, and Germany surrendered unconditionally a week later.

Image source: Death of Adolf Hitler

Nuremberg trials prosecute Nazi war criminals

Nov 20, 1945 - Oct 1, 1946

The Allies tried surviving Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity, establishing precedents for international law. Hitler, dead by trial's start, became the enduring symbol of totalitarian evil and genocide.

Image source: Nuremberg trials

Key Facts

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, and later became a naturalized German citizen in 1932.
He became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, and quickly consolidated power into a totalitarian dictatorship after the Enabling Act of March 1933.
Hitler's expansionist foreign policy, beginning with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, sparked World War II in Europe.
Under his regime, the Holocaust resulted in the systematic genocide of approximately six million Jews along with millions of Roma, disabled individuals, political prisoners, and others.
Hitler died by suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, as Soviet forces closed in during the final days of World War II in Europe.

Source

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