Third Reich

Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800/962–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after only 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.

German Reich (1933–1943) Deutsches Reich Greater German Reich (1943–1945) Großdeutsches Reich
1933–1945
Flag (1935–1945) Emblem (1935–1945)
Anthems:  "Das Lied der Deutschen" ("The Song of the Germans") "Horst-Wessel-Lied"  ("The Horst Wessel Song")
Germany's territorial control at its greatest extent during World War II (late 1942):   German Reich   Civilian-administered occupied territories   Military-administered occupied territories Show map of Europe Nazi Party administrative divisions of the Greater German Reich (red line is border), 1944 Show administrative divisions
Capital and largest city	Berlin 52°30′40″N 13°22′47″E / 52.51111°N 13.37972°E / 52.51111; 13.37972
Common languages	German
Religion	54% Protestant 40% Catholic 3.5% Gottgläubige 1.5% irreligious 1% other
Demonym(s)	German
Government	Unitary Nazi one-party fascist state under a totalitarian dictatorship
Head of state
• 1933–1934	Paul von Hindenburg
• 1934–1945	Adolf Hitler
• 1945	Karl Dönitz
Chancellor
• 1933–1945	Adolf Hitler
• 1945	Joseph Goebbels
• 1945	Lutz von Krosigk
Legislature	Reichstag
• Upper house	Reichsrat (dissolved 1934)
Historical era	Interwar • World War II
• Seizure of power	30 January 1933
• Enabling Act	23 March 1933
• Nuremberg Laws	15 September 1935
• Anschluss	12/13 March 1938
• Invasion of Poland	1 September 1939
• Death of Hitler	30 April 1945
• Fall of Berlin	2 May 1945
• Surrender	8 May 1945
• Flensburg Government arrested	23 May 1945
• Berlin Declaration	5 June 1945
Area
1939	633,786 km2 (244,706 sq mi)
1940	823,505 km2 (317,957 sq mi)
Population
• 1939	79,375,281
• 1940	109,518,183
Currency	Reichsmark (ℛℳ)
Preceded by Succeeded by Weimar Republic Federal State of Austria Allied-occupied Germany Allied-occupied Austria

After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator by merging the powers of the chancellery and presidency. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending. Financed by deficit spending, the regime undertook extensive public works projects, including the Autobahnen (motorways) and a massive secret rearmament program, forming the Wehrmacht (armed forces). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. Germany seized Austria in the Anschluss of 1938, and demanded and received the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and other Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and threatened Great Britain.

Racism, Nazi eugenics, anti-Slavism, and especially antisemitism were central ideological features of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the "master race", the purest branch of the Aryan race. Jews, Romani people, Slavs, homosexuals, liberals, socialists, communists, other political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, those who refused to work, and other "undesirables" were imprisoned, deported, or murdered. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed and leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Nazi Propaganda Ministry disseminated films, antisemitic canards, and organized mass rallies; fostering a pervasive cult of personality around Adolf Hitler to influence public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Genocide, mass murder, and large-scale forced labour became hallmarks of the regime; the implementation of the regime's racial policies culminated in the Holocaust.

After the initial success of German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Nazi Germany attempted to implement the Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan, as part of its war of extermination in Eastern Europe. The Soviet resurgence and entry of the US into the war meant Germany lost the initiative in 1943 and by late 1944 had been pushed back to the 1939 border. Large-scale aerial bombing of Germany escalated and the Axis powers were driven back in Eastern and Southern Europe. Germany was conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allies from the west, and capitulated on 8 May 1945. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and additional war-related deaths in the closing months of the war. The Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put many of the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg trials.