Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1919 | Treaty of Versailles: Germany loses colonies and land to neighbors, pays large-scale reparations. |
| 1923 | Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party, leads an abortive coup in a Munich beer hall. |
| 1924 | Hitler writes Mein Kampf - "My Struggle" - in prison. |
| 1924 | The Night of the Long Knives. |
| 1929 | Global depression, mass unemployment. |
| | Third Reich |
| 1933 | Hitler becomes chancellor. Weimar Republic gives way to a one-party state. Systematic persecution of Germany's Jews escalates. Hitler proclaims the Third Reich in 1934. |
| 1935 | Germany begins to re-arm. Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship. |
| 1935 | Hitler creates new law ‘Nuremberg law’ that stated that all Jews born in Germany lose their rights and jobs. |
| 1936 | Hitler supported the Guernica Battle for testing weapons. & the same year creates an alliance with Mussolini. |
| 1938 | Annexation of Austria and Sudetenland. |
| 1938 | The night of the Broken Crystals. Objective: destroy everything Jews got. |
1939-1945 | Invasion of Poland triggers World War II. |
| 1941 | Hitler said that all jewish people had to wear a yellow star in public. Millions of people of all ages, mostly Jews but also large numbers of Gypsies, Slavs and other races, the disabled and homosexuals, die in the Holocaust as the Nazis implement an extermination policy in the death camps of eastern Europe. |
| 1945 | German army defeated. Allies divide Germany into occupation zones. |
| 1945-1946 | Nuremberg war crimes trials. |
 |
| Holocaust |
When talking about history, probably one of the countries which was involved in many problems or perhaps EVERY problem in Europe was Germany. During the twentieth century, Germany had a lot of troubles starting with World War One. As we commented in the blog before, Germany was one of the greatest powers during that war, and after it ended, the country was left completely destroyed, humiliated, with many deaths, poverty, and of course a big debt it had to pay to the countries affected by them.
The debt of Germany was approximately of $35,000 million dollars plus the money spent in the recovery of the country and after the stocks collapsed in US, 1929, disastrous effects were spread worldwide. The German economy was especially vulnerable since it was built over foreign capital, mostly loans from America and was very dependent on exportation and commerce. As production levels fell, German workers were laid off. Along with this, banks failed throughout Germany. Savings accounts, the result of years of hard work, were instantly wiped out. Inflation soon followed making it hard for families to purchase expensive necessities with devalued money. The Great Depression began and they were cast into poverty and deep misery and began looking for a solution, any solution.
During Totalitarian Regimes, Nazism emerged and was influenced by Benito Mussolini. Hitler was the ruler and he promised a new Germany that appealed to nationalism and militarism, Hitler became chancellor on 1933, he gave the enabling act where all the things he wished were granted and legal.
Hitler later on made a new kind of bodyguard army which was called The Schotzstaffel by short “SS”. Its purpose was to protect him from all of his enemies, but later on they were used to eliminate Jews. Then the Nuremberg law was made and proclaimed that all Jews had to wear the Star of David on top of their clothes. They were threaded badly, poorly, didn’t had rights, and they were sent to concentration camps, where horrible things happened to them.
The reason World War Two surged is simple: Hitler wanted to gain territories and conquer the world. WWII also is the most disastrous war in history of mankind, there were fifty million people lost their lives at battles. There are three major events or turning points that marked the start and the middle stage of the war were: the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Japanese attacks to China in 1931 & 1937, and the attacks to Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Since Germany was completely humiliated and forced to follow the Treaty of Versailles, their desire of vengeance and its superiority grew. Hitler secretly conspired against the Treaty of Versailles to accomplish his goals and wishes. He first built up an army and in 1936 sent them into the demilitarized zone of Rhineland, then persuaded Austrians and annexed them to Germany with an Alliance named Anschluss. After this nothing happened, because France and Great Britain, which signed the policy of appeasement, thought nothing would happen. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the allies agreed to give Sudetenland to Germany and Hitler took all Czechoslovaquia and invaded Poland.
When Hitler became chancellor in 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was created. The Nazis began arresting communists, socialists and labor leaders. Dachau became a training center for concentration.
Jewish people were threaded badly, they were being sent at concentration camps and didn’t have rights, they were humiliated and they felt very isolated by the German population. They had to live by the rights of the Nuremberg law in which they were separated by the Germans legally and also The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor." In which they were consisted under a race.
To conclude, we must say that Germany has been very brave and strong to begin both world wars and after each of them, with hard work and effort, recover and raise its economy. Its nationalism and spirit of prosperity both benefited them because its economy increased but also harmed them thanks to their desires and thoughts of having more power. Germany became very powerful when the Nazi party surged and was popular, but with the holocaust and Hitler's ambition of expansion and "purification of the Aryan race" all its respect and power fell down.
Bibliography
A teacher's guide to the Holocaust. 13 March 2011 <http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/timeline/nazifica.htm>.
BBC NEWS. March 2011 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1053880.stm>.
German Side in World War Two. 13 March 2011 <http://germanyinworldwar2.com/>.
The History Place. 13 March 2011 <http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/begins.htm>.
Gabriela Rivera A01175709
Valeria Lopez A01175851
Carolina Garza A01175854
