Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1933
Hitler is appointed chancellor; the Reichstag burns; construction starts on Sachsen-
hausen concentration camp; the National Socialist German Workers' Party rules Ger-
many.
1935
Germany's first public TV broadcast is made from Berlin on 22 March. It is shown
three times weekly for 90 minutes. Most people can only watch it in so-called
Fernsehstuben(TV parlours).
1936
The 11th modern Olympic Games, held in Berlin in August, are a PR triumph for Hitler
and a showcase of Nazi power. Anti-Jewish propaganda is suspended during the peri-
od.
1938
On 9 November Nazis set fire to nine of Berlin's 12 synagogues, vandalise Jewish busi-
nesses and terrorise Jewish citizens during a night of pogroms called 'Kristallnacht'.
1942
At the so-called Wannsee Conference, leading members of the SS decide on the sys-
tematic murder of European Jews, cynically called the 'Final Solution'.
1944
On 20 July, senior army officers led by Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg stage an
assassination attempt on Hitler. Their failure costs their own and countless other
lives.
1945
Soviet troops advance on Berlin in the final days of the war, devastating the city. Hitler
commits suicide on 30 April, fighting stops on 2 May and the armistice is signed on 8
May.
1948
