Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany
On 11 August 1919, President Friedrich Ebert signed the democratic Weimar Constitution.[68] Communists briefly seized power in Bavaria and a few larger cities, while conservative elements failed to overthrow the central government in the 1920 Kapp Putsch. The occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops and a period of hyperinflation followed. A plan to restructure Germany's war reparations and the creation of a new currency in 1924 helped stabilise the government and ushered in the Golden Twenties, an era of artistic innovation and liberal cultural life.[69][70][71]
The worldwide Great Depression hit Germany in 1929, and by 1932 the unemployment rate had risen to 24%.[72] The Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the largest party in the Reichstag after the election of July 1932, and President Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933.[73] After the Reichstag fire, a decree abrogated basic civil rights, and the first Nazi concentration camp opened.[74][75] On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act gave Hitler unrestricted legislative power, overriding the constitution,[76] and marked the beginning of Nazi Germany. His government established a centralised totalitarian state, withdrew from the League of Nations, and dramatically increased the country's rearmament.[77] A government-sponsored programme for economic renewal focused on public works, the most famous of which was the Autobahn.[78]
In 1935, the regime withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles and introduced the Nuremberg Laws which targeted Jews and other minorities.[79] Germany also reacquired control of the Saarland in 1935,[80] remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936, annexed Austria in 1938, annexed the Sudetenland in 1938 with the Munich Agreement, and in violation of the agreement occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939.[81] Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) saw the burning of synagogues, the destruction of Jewish businesses, and mass arrests of Jewish people.[82]
In August 1939, Hitler's government negotiated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.[83] On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II in Europe;[84] Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September.[85] In the spring of 1940, Germany conquered Denmark and Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, forcing the French government to sign an armistice. The British repelled German air attacks in the Battle of Britain in the same year. In 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia, Greece and the Soviet Union. By 1942, Germany and its allies controlled most of continental Europe and North Africa, but following the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, the Allied reconquest of North Africa and invasion of Italy in 1943, German forces suffered repeated military defeats. In 1944, the Soviets pushed into Eastern Europe; the Western allies landed in France and entered Germany despite a final German counteroffensive. Following Hitler's suicide during the Battle of Berlin, Germany signed the surrender document on 8 May 1945, ending World War II in Europe[84][86] and Nazi Germany. Following the end of the war, surviving Nazi officials were tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.[87][88]