1939 in Germany

← 1938 1937 1936 1939 in Germany → 1940 1941 1942
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
See also:	Other events of 1939 List of years in Germany

Events in the year 1939 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

Head of State

• Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party)

Chancellor

• Adolf Hitler (Nazi Party)

Events

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed under which the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany each pledged to remain neutral in the event that either nation were attacked by a third party.

• 23 January — "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch airfields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
• 27 January — Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.
• 30 January — Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees Hitler's "prophecy" where he warns that if "Jewish financers" start a war against Germany, the "...result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".
• 6 February — In a response to Georges Bonnet's speech of 26 January, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, referring to Bonnet's alleged statement of 6 December 1938 accepting Eastern Europe as being in Germany's exclusive sphere of influence, protests that all French security commitments in that region are "now off limits".
• 22 March — After an ultimatum of March 20, Nazi Germany takes Memelland from Lithuania.
• 25 March — German troops occupy the remaining parts of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
• 3 April — Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiss, the codename for the invasion of Poland.
• 28 April — In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
• May - Hitler agrees to a request from the father of a three-year-old boy born blind and with missing limbs for his son to be euthanised.
• 22 May — Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• 6 July — The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
• 23 August — Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Basarabia (today Moldavia), north-east province of Romania to the USSR; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).
• 26 August — The Kriegsmarine orders all German-flagged merchant ships to head to German ports immediately in anticipation of the invasion of Poland.
• September -
• 1 September — At 04.45 Central European Time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opens bombardment on the Westerplatte, a Polish military base outside Danzig, firing what are, according to many sources, the first shots of the war. At the same time, regular Wehrmacht troops begin crossing the border into Poland.
• 2 September — Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
• 3 September — The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
• 3 September – British liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by U-30 in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 117 are killed (98 passengers and 19 crew members).
• 4 September — Nepal declares war on Germany.
• 6 September — South Africa declares war on Germany.
• 10 September — Canada declares war on Germany.
• 15 September — Diverse elements of the German Wehrmacht surround Warsaw and demand its surrender. The Poles refuse and the siege begins in earnest.
• 28 September — Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion.
• 28 September — Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders a day later; the last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock 8 days later.
• October - Action T4 programme begins, meaning that the state will now euthanise people deemed "unworthy" of life due to physical disabilities or mental illness, and keeping them alive would not be seen as good use of taxpayers money by the state or its supporters.^[1]
• 8 October — Germany annexes Western Poland.
• 14 October — The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
• 6 November — Sonderaktion Krakau: Germans take action against scientists from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of World War II.
• 9 November — Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
• 13 December — Battle of the River Plate: The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is trapped by cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles, and HMS Exeter after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo harbour on December 17.
• 29 December - Police issue a warrant for the arrest of the tycoon Fritz Thyssen who once funded but now opposes the Nazis. He is believed to be in Portugal

Births

• 13 February — Beate Klarsfeld, German-born Nazi hunter
• 21 February — Gert Neuhaus, German artist
• 31 March — Volker Schlöndorff, German film director
• 18 May - Peter Grünberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
• 23 May — Reinhard Hauff, German film director
• 24 May – Ferdinand Schladen, shot putter
• 8 September — Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
• 19 September - Günther Fielmann, German entrepreneur
• 24 September - Dieter Schwarz, German entrepreneur
• 9 November - Björn Engholm, German politician

Deaths

Philipp Scheidemann

• 4 March — Oswald Freisler, German lawyer (suicide) (born 1895)
• 22 May — Ernst Toller, German playwright (born 1893)
• 11 August — Jean Bugatti, German automobile designer (born 1909)
• 30 August — Wilhelm Bölsche, German journalist and science writer (born 1861)
• 16 September — Otto Wels, politician (born 1873)
• 24 September — Carl Laemmle, German film producer (born 1867)
• 29 November — Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (born 1865)
• 31 December - Georg Wertheim, German entrepreneur (born 1857)
• Full date unknown — Otto Berg, chemist (born 1873)

References

Years in Germany (1870–present)
1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029