Weimar Timeline

1918

• October 4, 1918 Prince Maximilian of Baden replaces Count Georg von Hertling as Chancellor of Germany
• October 7 – November 3, 1918 Naval mutinies
• 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 Kaiser flees.
• November 8, 1918 All 22 of Germany’s lesser kings, princes, grand dukes, and rulling 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, and the Kaiser therefore abdicates.
• *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;Gustav Noske appointed dictator of Germany.
• 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 affliation) 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 the 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.
• December 1, 1925 Locarno Treaty signed
  

  1926

• January 20, 1926 Dr. Hans Luther (No party affliation) 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 settles reparations problem.
• October 3, 1929 Foreign minister Gustav Stresemann dies.
• October 24, 1929 Black Thursday Collapse of stock exchange in New York City; 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 affliation) leaves office
• January 30, 1933 Hitler cabinet (Von Papen vice-chancellor).
• March 23, 1933 Adolf Hitler establishes Nazi dictatorship.

  See also

• 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, OGG format (2,14Mb) MP3 (4.33Mb)