Third Reich Day by Day: September 1935

This year was a pivotal period for the Third Reich’s relations with the rest of the world. Adolf Hitler announced he was reintroducing universal conscription, which was a repudiation of the hated Treaty of Versailles, and was warmly welcomed at home. In addition, as German troops marched into the Saar, he was determined to reintegrate those ethnic Germans who were living outside Germany back into the Reich. On the domestic front, more laws were introduced against Jews, who were becoming second-class citizens in their own country.

10-16 September

Germany, Legal

Party Rally of Freedom takes place. It is at the seventh Party Congress that the new Reich Citizen’s Law, and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which were known thereafter as the Nuremberg laws, are proclaimed. The laws define two degrees of humanity: the Reichbürger, the Citizen of Pure German Blood, and the Staatsangehörige, the subject of the state, i.e. Jews. Intermarriage between the two groups is strictly forbidden. The lot of Jews living in Germany is getting progressively worse, and many are leaving the country.

The Nazi swastika banner is made the official national flag.

27 September

Armed Forces, Navy

Karl Dönitz, who had previously been the commander of the light cruiser Emden, commissions the 1st U-boat Flotilla, called Flotilla Weddigen.