1939 in Germany

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Events in the year 1939 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

Head of State and Chancellor

  • Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party)

Events

  • 23 January – "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch airfields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
  • 27 January – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.
Hitler's prophecy speech in the Reichstag, 30 January 1939
Signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
  • 23 August – Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Basarabia (today Moldavia), north-east province of Romania to the USSR; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).
  • 26 August – The Kriegsmarine orders all German-flagged merchant ships to head to German ports immediately in anticipation of the invasion of Poland.
  • 1 September – At 04.45 Central European Time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opens bombardment on the Westerplatte, a Polish military base outside Danzig, firing what are, according to many sources, the first shots of the war. At the same time, regular Wehrmacht troops begin crossing the border into Poland, which marks the beginning of World War II.
  • 2 September – Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
  • 3 September – The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
  • 3 September – British liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by U-30 in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 117 are killed (98 passengers and 19 crew members).
  • 4 September – Nepal declares war on Germany.
  • 6 September – South Africa declares war on Germany.
  • 10 September – Canada declares war on Germany.
  • 15 September – Diverse elements of the German Wehrmacht surround Warsaw and demand its surrender. The Poles refuse and the siege begins in earnest.
  • 28 September – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion.
  • 28 September – Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders a day later; the last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock 8 days later.
  • October – Action T4 programme begins, meaning that the state will now euthanise people deemed "unworthy" of life due to physical disabilities or mental illness, as keeping them alive would not be seen as good use of taxpayers money by the state or its supporters.[1]
  • 8 October – Germany annexes Western Poland.
  • 14 October – The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
  • 6 November – Sonderaktion Krakau: Germans take action against scientists from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of World War II.
  • 9 November – Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
  • 13 December – Battle of the River Plate: The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is trapped by cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles, and HMS Exeter after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo harbour on December 17.
  • 29 December – Police issue a warrant for the arrest of the tycoon Fritz Thyssen who once funded but now opposes the Nazis. He is believed to be in Portugal

Births

Deaths

Philipp Scheidemann

References

  1. ^ "Letters of Note: Life unworthy of life". www.lettersofnote.com. Archived from the original on 15 November 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
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