History glossary
Nazi Germany
Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945.
- Category
- Dictatorship
- Region
- Germany and occupied Europe
- Date range
- 1933-1945
What it means
Nazi Germany was a dictatorship built on fascism, racism, antisemitism, militarism, propaganda, and total state power. It started the Second World War in Europe and carried out the Holocaust and other mass crimes.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Holocaust
From legal discrimination to genocide, the Holocaust traces twelve years of escalating persecution that killed six million Jews and millions of others across Nazi-occupied Europe.
Nazi Germany
From Weimar collapse to WWII, Nazi Germany imposed totalitarian rule, expansion, and genocide.
Operation Barbarossa
From Hitler's ideological war in the east to Soviet survival before Moscow, Barbarossa turned expected blitzkrieg into prolonged attritional catastrophe.
The Cold War
Rivalry between East and West shapes global politics - through proxy wars, propaganda, and nuclear tension.
The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia fractured through crisis, nationalism, and war, collapsing violently in the 1990s.
The Soviets
From revolution to superpower, the Soviet Union rose, struggled internally, and collapsed in 1991.
Weimar Republic
A fragile democracy marked by crisis and innovation, whose collapse paved the way for Nazi rule.
The First World War
World War I reshaped empires, borders, and societies, setting the stage for World War II.
