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History Commons

Weimar and Nazi Germany

The only digital English-language, primary-source archive covering Germany between the world wars.

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Weimar and Nazi Germany assembles documents that were sent to the UK Foreign Office from embassies, covert contacts, and other sources. Every FO 371 file categorized “Germany” or “Rhineland” dated 1918-1939 is included—available online for the first time.

Materials include reports, correspondence, memoranda, communications, speeches, news clippings, international agreements, and analyses.

At a glance

600,000

Approximately 600,000 pages of declassified documents, digitized for the first time.

1918–1939

Details of war's aftermath and recovery, the Great Depression, and Hitler's rise.

Bibliography

To learn about Weimar and Nazi Germany, read our bibliography.

Key events covered, Weimar Republic and early 1920s

  • The German Revolution of 1918-1919

  • Allied occupation of the Rhineland

  • The peace treaties, including the Treaty of Versailles

  • The Spartacist uprising of January 1919

  • Reichstag elections & cabinet formation

  • Hyperinflation, 1923

  • The Beer-Hall Putsch and Hitler’s trial

  • The Dawes Plan

  • The Kellogg-Briand Pact

Key events covered, rise of the Nazi Party to 1939

  • The Reichstag fire

  • Hitler appointed Chancellor

  • The creation of concentration camps

  • The passing of anti-Semitic laws

  • The banning of political parties

  • Germany’s departure from the League of Nations

  • The Night of the Long Knives

  • The Berlin Olympics

  • The 1936 Italo-German Treaty and Mussolini

  • Anschluss with Austria

  • Bombing of Guernica and the Spanish Civil War

  • Invasion of Czechoslovakia

  • Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

  • Munich Agreement

  • Kristallnacht

  • Invasion of Poland

Sample reports

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Bier Keller Putsch

Following Hitler's 1923 failed coup, “The Government cannot escape their responsibility … allowed him to carry on … and train and arm bands of young men until the movement had gone so far they feared to stop it.”

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German Revolution, 1918

As the German empire descends into revolution at the end of World War I, the Foreign Office reports on the key event that marked the beginning of the end of the monarchy—the sailors’ mutiny at Wilhelmshaven.

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Stresemann is appointed Chancellor, 1923

Gustav Stresemann is appointed Chancellor at the height of the hyperinflation crisis. The report reveals that Stresemann foresaw a “Nationalist reaction” as the greatest threat.

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