Adolf Hitler promulgates a law prohibiting any sexual relationship between Jews and 'Aryans'

The rest of Europe offers no effective objection when Adolf Hitler moves his troops into the demilitarized Rhineland

Membership of the Hitler Youth (for boys) or the League of German Maidens is made compulsory

Hitler gives Reinhard Heydrich control of the Gestapo

At the Berlin Olympics, attended by Hitler, the African-American athlete Jesse Owens sets three new Olympic records and equals a fourth

Hitler and Mussolini form an axis, or alliance, causing Germany and Italy to become known as the Axis powers

German planes bomb the Basque capital, Guernica, in support of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War

Buchenwald, near Weimar, is set up as a concentration camp providing forced labour for local arms manufacturers

Adolf Hitler, entertaining Mussolini in Germany, puts on spectacular demonstrations of German military and industrial might

Adolf Hitler appoints Joachim von Ribbentrop as Germany's foreign minister

Adolf Hitler uses threats of force to browbeat the Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, into granting special favours to Austrian Nazis

The Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, defies Hitler by announcing a referendum on his country's independence

The Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg resigns in the face of threats from Hitler, and broadcasts that he is doing so under duress

German tanks cross the border into Austria, on the official invitation of Austrian Nazis

Adolf Hitler, following his troops into Austria, announces the Anschluss (union of Germany and Austria)

The Sudeten German National Socialist Party demands secession from Czechoslovakia, in keeping with Hitler's plans for the Sudetenland

Voters in both Germany and Austria give massive approval for Hitler's annexation of Austria

Neville Chamberlain makes the first of three flights to Germany, this time to negotiate with Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden

Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier fly to Munich to discuss Hitler's designs on the Czech Sudetenland

Chamberlain and Daladier agree at Munich that Hitler may annexe the Czech Sudetenland, with its largely German population

The Sudetenland is transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany, in accordance with the Munich agreement

Adolf Hitler makes unacceptable demands upon Poland, including the transfer of the free port of Danzig to Germany

Adolf Hitler demands a strip of territory through the Polish corridor to reunite Germany with East Prussia

A Russian army invades Poland from the east, fulfilling the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

The new German technique of blitzkrieg ('lightning war') is demonstrated with devastating effect against Poland