| |
| 1939, Jan. 20 |
| |
| Dismissal of Schacht, whose place as president of the Reichsbank was taken by Walther Funk. Schacht had supposedly warned that the huge armament program would have to be curtailed if catastrophic inflation were to be averted. Germany's adverse trade balance in 1938 was 432 million marks, and by standards of bourgeois capitalism the country had been bankrupt since 1931. | 1 |
| |
| March 15 |
| |
| German occupation of rump Bohemia and Moravia, and extinction of the Czechoslovak state (See 1939, March 10–16). Bohemia-Moravia became a German protectorate; Slovakia remained nominally independent. | 2 |
| |
| March 21 |
| |
| German annexation of Memel. At the same time extensive demands were made on Poland with regard to Danzig and Pomorze. The firmness of the Poles and the alarm of Britain and France, which guaranteed Poland against attack (See 1939, March–April), induced the German government to hold back. | 3 |
| |
| April 28 |
| |
| Hitler's Reichstag speech in reply to President Roosevelt's appeal (See April 15). He denounced the Anglo-German naval convention of 1935 and the German-Polish agreement of 1934 because of the new policy of “encirclement” supposedly followed by Britain and Poland. At the same time he renewed his demands on Poland and offered any state assurance against aggression. Specific offers of bilateral nonaggression pacts were made to the Scandinavian and Baltic states, but only Denmark, Latvia, and Estonia accepted. | 4 |
| During the summer the dispute with Poland over Danzig and Pomorze rapidly came to a head. Despite repeated warnings from Britain and France, the Germans reiterated their demands and their determination to secure satisfaction at any cost. At the end of June German “volunteers” began to arrive in Danzig and a “free corps” was organized. Border incidents became frequent. | 5 |
| |
| Aug. 20, 21 |
| |
| The crisis finally broke when the German government succeeded in arranging a pact with Russia that marked a complete reversal of the anti-Communist policy that had underlain National Socialist theory. Throughout two weeks of tension (See Aug. 20–Sept. 1) the Berlin government refused to negotiate directly with Poland. | 6 |
| |
| Sept. 1 |
| |
| German forces invaded Poland, without formal declaration. | 7 |
| |
| Sept. 3 |
| |
| DECLARATION OF WAR BY GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE quickly followed. | 8 |
| |
| |
