Germany announced its withdrawal from the League of Nations and the Geneva Disarmament Conference, signaling a break with the post–World War I collective-security and arms-control framework and paving the way for more open rearmament.
Germany and Poland signed a 10-year non-aggression declaration, temporarily stabilizing Germany’s eastern frontier and giving Berlin greater freedom to pursue rearmament and revisionism elsewhere in Europe.
The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich abolished the German states’ parliaments and transferred sovereignty to the central Reich government, tightening Nazi control over administration and enabling more centralized military mobilization and planning.
Voters in the League-administered Saar Territory overwhelmingly chose to rejoin Germany, a propaganda and political win for Hitler that strengthened the regime’s domestic position as rearmament accelerated.
Hitler signed a secret decree authorizing the creation of the Reich Luftwaffe, establishing an air force in defiance of Versailles restrictions and expanding Germany’s modern military capabilities.
Germany proclaimed general military conscription, repudiating key military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and enabling rapid expansion of the army’s manpower base.
Britain and Germany signed a naval agreement allowing German naval expansion up to 35% of Royal Navy tonnage, effectively easing Versailles-era constraints on German naval rearmament and undermining a unified front among the western powers.
Hitler initiated the Four Year Plan and put Hermann Göring in charge, directing the economy toward rapid rearmament and greater autarky (self-sufficiency) in preparation for war.
German forces entered the demilitarized Rhineland, violating the Versailles and Locarno arrangements. The move strengthened Germany’s strategic position on its western frontier and emboldened further military and territorial expansion.
At a conference recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler discussed strategic aims and timing for expansion (notably toward Austria and Czechoslovakia), linking foreign-policy goals to military and economic readiness.
Hitler dissolved the Reich War Ministry and created the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), centralizing top-level armed-forces command under his authority and reshaping civil-military relations during rearmament.
German forces entered Austria and carried out the Anschluss, adding Austrian manpower, resources, and strategic depth to the Reich and marking a major step in territorial expansion backed by military power.
Germany, Britain, France, and Italy concluded the Munich Agreement, permitting German annexation of the Sudetenland—Czechoslovakia’s fortified border region—significantly improving Germany’s strategic position and access to defenses and industry.
German troops entered the remaining Czech lands and established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, bringing major industrial capacity under German control and further expanding the strategic and economic base supporting rearmament.
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact, reducing the risk of a two-front war and shaping the strategic conditions for Germany’s imminent military action in Eastern Europe.
German forces invaded Poland, culminating the 1933–1939 rearmament and expansion trajectory by putting the enlarged Wehrmacht into large-scale offensive war and precipitating World War II in Europe.
Wehrmacht Rearmament and Military Expansion (1933–1939)
