Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

All days

From Hitler’s appointment on 30 January 1933 to the book burnings on 10 May, one line per day.

January 1933

  1. Day 1 Monday 30 January Hindenburg appoints Hitler Reich Chancellor at the head of a coalition cabinet Turning point
  2. Day 2 Tuesday 31 January Talks with the Centre Party fail and the cabinet settles on new elections Notable day

February 1933

  1. Day 3 Wednesday 1 February Reichstag dissolved and Hitler asks the nation for four years in his first radio address Turning point
  2. Day 4 Thursday 2 February Göring bans Communist demonstrations as Hitler is reminded of his oath in the Reichsrat Notable day
  3. Day 5 Friday 3 February Hitler tells the army chiefs of “living space in the East” as the Vorwärts is banned Notable day
  4. Day 6 Saturday 4 February Hindenburg signs a decree allowing bans on newspapers and political meetings Turning point
  5. Day 7 Sunday 5 February A state funeral in Berlin Cathedral for an SA leader and a police officer Notable day
  6. Day 8 Monday 6 February Presidential decree removes Prussia’s elected government; Papen dissolves the Landtag Notable day
  7. Day 9 Tuesday 7 February Social Democrats fill the Lustgarten as the KPD leadership meets in secret at Ziegenhals Notable day
  8. Day 10 Wednesday 8 February Hitler tells the cabinet rearmament comes first: “everything for the armed forces” Notable day
  9. Day 11 Thursday 9 February Hitler wants the job-creation programme to serve as cover for rearmament Notable day
  10. Day 12 Friday 10 February Hitler’s Sportpalast speech goes out on every German radio station Notable day
  11. Day 13 Saturday 11 February Hitler opens the Berlin motor show, promising tax relief and a road-building plan Notable day
  12. Day 14 Sunday 12 February “Bloody Sunday” in Eisleben: SA and SS storm Communist premises, killing three Notable day
  13. Day 15 Monday 13 February Göring widens the purge of Prussia’s republican police chiefs
  14. Day 16 Tuesday 14 February Nazi deputies break up a Reichstag committee as farm foreclosures are halted Notable day
  15. Day 17 Wednesday 15 February Käthe Kollwitz and Heinrich Mann forced out of the Prussian Academy of Arts Notable day
  16. Day 18 Thursday 16 February The states protest in the Reichsrat as Göring vows no Social Democrat will stay in office
  17. Day 19 Friday 17 February Göring orders the Prussian police to shoot and promises to cover them Notable day
  18. Day 20 Saturday 18 February Kurt Weill’s Der Silbersee opens in three cities as the Centre’s Germania is banned
  19. Day 21 Sunday 19 February Police break up the “Free Word” congress at the Kroll Opera Notable day
  20. Day 22 Monday 20 February Hitler and Göring ask leading industrialists to pay for the election Notable day
  21. Day 23 Tuesday 21 February Rust suspends the head of the Karl-Marx-Schule; Frick bans Communist marches in Saxony
  22. Day 24 Wednesday 22 February Göring makes the SA, SS and Stahlhelm an auxiliary police in Prussia Turning point
  23. Day 25 Thursday 23 February Police search the Communist headquarters and break up the KPD’s Sportpalast rally Notable day
  24. Day 26 Friday 24 February The Karl-Liebknecht-Haus is closed and the auxiliary police decree made public Notable day
  25. Day 27 Saturday 25 February Police claim to find tunnels and treasonable leaflets under the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus
  26. Day 28 Sunday 26 February Uniformed police wear swastika armbands at a Nazi rally in the Lustgarten
  27. Day 29 Monday 27 February The Reichstag burns, and the Nazi leadership blames a Communist uprising Turning point
  28. Day 30 Tuesday 28 February The Reichstag Fire Decree suspends basic rights ‘until further notice’ Turning point

March 1933

  1. Day 31 Wednesday 1 March Göring promises to ‘exterminate’ Communism as the treason decree is published Notable day
  2. Day 32 Thursday 2 March Cabinet picks Potsdam’s Garrison Church for the opening of the new Reichstag Notable day
  3. Day 33 Friday 3 March Ernst Thälmann is arrested in Berlin; Göring vows ‘to destroy and exterminate’ Notable day
  4. Day 34 Saturday 4 March Election eve: Hitler speaks from Königsberg and Otto Braun leaves for Switzerland Notable day
  5. Day 35 Sunday 5 March Reichstag election under the emergency decree: 43.9 per cent for the NSDAP Turning point
  6. Day 36 Monday 6 March The morning after: Reich commissioners and swastikas in Bremen, Lübeck and Hesse Notable day
  7. Day 37 Tuesday 7 March Hitler tells the cabinet the election was a ‘revolution’ and calls for an Enabling Act Notable day
  8. Day 38 Wednesday 8 March Reich takes the police in Baden, Württemberg and Saxony; Hamburg gets a Nazi mayor Notable day
  9. Day 39 Thursday 9 March Bavaria falls: General von Epp made Reich commissioner over Held’s refusal Notable day
  10. Day 40 Friday 10 March Munich SA parade a Jewish lawyer barefoot; Göring will not protect ‘Jewish stores’ Notable day
  11. Day 41 Saturday 11 March Cabinet agrees a propaganda ministry; SA drive Jewish lawyers from Breslau’s courts Notable day
  12. Day 42 Sunday 12 March Hindenburg puts the swastika beside black-white-red; Hitler orders ‘blindest discipline’ Notable day
  13. Day 43 Monday 13 March Goebbels appointed Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda Turning point
  14. Day 44 Tuesday 14 March The Weltbühne banned for six months as Goebbels is sworn in Notable day
  15. Day 45 Wednesday 15 March Cabinet plans the Enabling Act; police and SA raid Berlin’s artists’ colony Notable day
  16. Day 46 Thursday 16 March Schacht returns to the Reichsbank; Bruno Walter’s Leipzig concert is banned Notable day
  17. Day 47 Friday 17 March Berlin’s state commissioner orders the dismissal of Jewish doctors from city hospitals Notable day
  18. Day 48 Saturday 18 March Emergency decrees speed up treason trials and withdraw the four-pfennig coin Notable day
  19. Day 49 Sunday 19 March Germany and France draw 3–3 before 45,000 in Berlin’s Grunewald stadium
  20. Day 50 Monday 20 March Himmler announces the first concentration camp, at Dachau; cabinet adopts the Enabling Act Turning point
  21. Day 51 Tuesday 21 March The Day of Potsdam: the new Reichstag opens in the Garrison Church Turning point
  22. Day 52 Wednesday 22 March First prisoners arrive at Dachau as the new Prussian Landtag meets Notable day
  23. Day 53 Thursday 23 March The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act; only the Social Democrats vote against Turning point
  24. Day 54 Friday 24 March Hindenburg signs the Enabling Act; it is published and takes effect the same day Notable day
  25. Day 55 Saturday 25 March Goebbels tells the radio chiefs that broadcasting now belongs to the government Notable day
  26. Day 56 Sunday 26 March Berlin’s newly elected city council is installed at the Rathaus with Nazi salutes Notable day
  27. Day 57 Monday 27 March New York rallies against Nazi antisemitism; Berlin gives the party a free hand Notable day
  28. Day 58 Tuesday 28 March Nazi party orders a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses from 1 April Notable day
  29. Day 59 Wednesday 29 March Retroactive death-penalty law signed; Ufa resolves to part with its Jewish staff Notable day
  30. Day 60 Thursday 30 March Streicher’s committee issues its boycott orders; SPD leader Wels quits the International
  31. Day 61 Friday 31 March First coordination law dissolves state parliaments; SA drives Jewish judges from courts Turning point

April 1933

  1. Day 62 Saturday 1 April Nazi boycott of Jewish shops, doctors and lawyers: SA pickets stand across Germany Turning point
  2. Day 63 Sunday 2 April Boycott ‘suspended’ until Wednesday as the coordination law appears in the gazette
  3. Day 64 Monday 3 April Max Reinhardt ousted from the Deutsches Theater; Germans now need exit visas Notable day
  4. Day 65 Tuesday 4 April Boycott called off; Hindenburg asks Hitler to spare Jewish war veterans Notable day
  5. Day 66 Wednesday 5 April Hitler Youth takes over the youth associations; the Rotter brothers ambushed in exile Notable day
  6. Day 67 Thursday 6 April Hitler tells doctors’ leaders he will purge ‘alien influence’ from Germany’s professions
  7. Day 68 Friday 7 April Civil Service law purges Jews and opponents; Reich governors take over the states Turning point
  8. Day 69 Saturday 8 April Hitler addresses the SA in the Sportpalast; the clairvoyant Hanussen is found shot dead Notable day
  9. Day 70 Sunday 9 April Göring tells 20,000 Nazi factory-cell members it is a ‘National Socialist revolution’
  10. Day 71 Monday 10 April Hitler signs the law turning 1 May into a state ‘Holiday of National Labour’ Notable day
  11. Day 72 Tuesday 11 April Police and SA search and seal the Bauhaus in Berlin-Steglitz Notable day
  12. Day 73 Wednesday 12 April SS guards murder Jewish prisoners at Dachau, the camp’s first killings Notable day
  13. Day 74 Thursday 13 April Students post the twelve theses ‘against the un-German spirit’; first professors suspended Notable day
  14. Day 75 Friday 14 April Good Friday: Berlin protests to London over the Commons debate on Germany
  15. Day 76 Saturday 15 April Germany’s protest over the Commons debate is handed in at an empty Foreign Office
  16. Day 77 Sunday 16 April Easter: Erwin Kahn dies of his Dachau wounds; Munich publishes its attack on Thomas Mann Notable day
  17. Day 78 Monday 17 April Nobel laureate James Franck resigns his Göttingen chair in protest Notable day
  18. Day 79 Tuesday 18 April Bavaria reports 5,400 people taken into ‘protective custody’ since 9 March
  19. Day 80 Wednesday 19 April Munich rally demands ‘Out with the Jews from the administration of justice’ Notable day
  20. Day 81 Thursday 20 April Hitler’s 44th birthday: flags across Berlin and the premiere of Johst’s ‘Schlageter’ Notable day
  21. Day 82 Friday 21 April Kosher slaughter banned across the Reich; Hess named Hitler’s deputy in the party Notable day
  22. Day 83 Saturday 22 April Decree ends ‘non-Aryan’ doctors’ insurance practice; student law adopts ‘German descent’ Notable day
  23. Day 84 Sunday 23 April Tennis federation bars ‘non-Aryans’ from national teams, shutting out Daniel Prenn Notable day
  24. Day 85 Monday 24 April Decree shutting Jewish doctors out of health-insurance practice is published Notable day
  25. Day 86 Tuesday 25 April Cabinet passes the “overcrowding” law capping Jewish pupils and students Notable day
  26. Day 87 Wednesday 26 April Göring’s Prussia creates the Secret State Police Office, the Gestapo Turning point
  27. Day 88 Thursday 27 April Seldte joins the Nazi Party; ex-deputy Albert Funk dies in police custody Notable day
  28. Day 89 Friday 28 April SA and SS given their own disciplinary law; Wolfgang Köhler’s protest appears in print Notable day
  29. Day 90 Saturday 29 April Hindenburg watches Göring christen the giant Junkers airliner at Tempelhof
  30. Day 91 Sunday 30 April Fritz Haber resigns rather than dismiss his Jewish staff Notable day

May 1933

  1. Day 92 Monday 1 May The “Day of National Labour”: Hitler addresses a vast crowd on the Tempelhofer Feld Notable day
  2. Day 93 Tuesday 2 May SA and SS occupy the trade union offices across Germany; union leaders arrested Turning point
  3. Day 94 Wednesday 3 May The remaining union federations submit to Hitler; Göring defines the Gestapo’s powers Notable day
  4. Day 95 Thursday 4 May Purge extended to public employees; SPD leaders decide to set up an office abroad Notable day
  5. Day 96 Friday 5 May Seven Nazi Reich governors appointed to rule the states for Berlin Notable day
  6. Day 97 Saturday 6 May Students ransack Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science Notable day
  7. Day 98 Sunday 7 May Max Liebermann quits the Academy: art “has nothing to do with politics or ancestry” Notable day
  8. Day 99 Monday 8 May Goebbels tells Germany’s theatre directors what the “revolution” expects of the stage
  9. Day 100 Tuesday 9 May Frick tells the states that schools must form “the political human being” Notable day
  10. Epilogue Wednesday 10 May Books burn on the Opernplatz as the German Labour Front is founded Turning point