24 February 1920
The German Workers party (DAP) becomes the Nazi party (NSDAP). Adolf Hitler becomes its leader in 1921.
18 July 1925
Volume one of Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, is published, outlining his ideology. The SS is created in the same year.
20 August 1927
The Nazi party’s first Nuremberg rally is staged, later becoming an annual event.
31 July 1932
The Nazi party becomes, for the first time, the largest party in the German parliament following federal elections.
October 1932
Oswald Mosley creates the British Union of Fascists, inspired by a visit that year to see Benito Mussolini in Italy, a meeting that confirmed his conversion to fascism.
30 January 1933
Hitler made chancellor of Germany and declares Aryan “master race”.
February 1933
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) appoints a director of propaganda as it steps up campaigning.
1933 or 1934
Film shows the Queen, then aged six or seven, and her sister Margaret, around three, joining their mother and their uncle, Edward, the Prince of Wales, performing a Nazi salute.
30 June 1934
Nazi regime carries out political murders of prominent members of its own party and others who had angered Hitler. The Night of the Long Knives allowed the SS, led by Heinrich Himmler, to consolidate power.
2 August 1934
With the death of Germany’s president, Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Führer, or Leader.
20 January 1936
King George V dies and is succeeded by his eldest son, Prince Edward. Shortly after Edward’s accession, the German embassy in London sent a cable personally to Hitler. It read: “An alliance between Germany and Britain is for him [the King] an urgent necessity.”
16 November 1936
Only 326 days into his reign, Edward VIII abdicates over his decision to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. He is given the title Duke of Windsor, and his younger brother Albert, the Duke of York, becomes George VI.
August 1936
At the Berlin Olympics, German athletes give Nazi salutes on the podium. The African-American Jesse Owens defies the Aryan ideal by winning four track and field gold medals.
4 October 1936
Battle of Cable Street takes place in London’s East End, with clashes between members of the British Union of Fascists, led by Mosley, and various anti-fascist demonstrators. Two days later Mosley weds Diana Mitford at the home of Joseph Goebbels. Hitler is guest of honour.
October 1937
The former King Edward and his wife – now the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – pay a visit to Nazi Germany. There they meet Hitler and dine with his deputy, Rudolf Hess, and visit a concentration camp.
14 May 1938
England football team give Nazi salute to the crowd at Berlin’s Olympic stadium.
9-10 November 1938
Kristallnacht – a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms throughout Germany and elsewhere – sees Jewish shops and synagogues torched.
15 March 1939
Hitler seizes Czechoslovakia. Invades Poland in September, triggering the second world war.
Early 1940
Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret are sent to Windsor Castle while George VI and the Queen remain in London and escape injury as Buckingham Palace is bombed.
July 1941
Author PG Wodehouse gives five talks on radio in Berlin; many in the UK brand him a traitor and Nazi sympathiser.
8 May 1945
VE Day celebrates Germany’s defeat. Princess Elizabeth wears the uniform of the women’s branch of the British Army, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, as she joins her parents on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.
