German resistance to Nazism
Many individuals and groups in Germany that were opposed to the Nazi regime engaged in resistance, including assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler or by overthrowing his regime.
Memorial plaque for resistance members and wreath at the Bendlerblock, Berlin
The Memorial to Polish Soldiers and German Anti-Fascists 1939–1945 in Berlin
"The Third Reich", 1934 painting by the anti-Nazi exile German painter Heinrich Vogeler.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer at Sigurdshof, 1939.
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, is a term used to describe the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after only 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.
Adolf Hitler became Germany's head of state, with the title of Führer und Reichskanzler, in 1934.
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
German soldiers march near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 14 June 1940.
Death and destruction during the Battle of Stalingrad, October 1942