Hitler's Path to Power (1918-1939)

Emperor Wilhelm II with hunting dogs on the steps of his estate in Doorn in the late 1930s.

A general at a military review.

Revolutionary soldiers in the back of a truck during the November Revolution in Germany in 1918. Uniforms being issued to soldiers.

Soldiers checking passes at the entrance to a building.

Photographs of Hitler during rallies and meetings in the early 1920s.

A column of Nazi storm troopers marches down a street in Berlin in the first half of the 1920s.

NSDAP propaganda poster.

Hitler in a window opening during a rally.

A column of storm troopers marches down a street in Berlin.

Hitler and Nazi Party leaders on the street before a rally in 1924. Hitler stands on the sidewalk among his comrades.

A photographer takes pictures.

Streicher J. before the rally.

Hitler during a Nazi event in the 1920s.

Goering leaves a building during another NSDAP Party Day in the mid-1920s.

Hess R. in the back seat of a car.

Buglers give the signal for the rally to begin.

Swastika standards at the rally.

Women dance in the street with stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers eat from soldiers' mess tins.

Panorama of an NSDAP rally, marching stormtroopers.

Hitler, Goering and NSDAP leaders during an event in Munich dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of the Nazi Martyrs on September 9, 1934.

Hitler, Goering and NSDAP leaders walk to the Temple of Honour in Munich on Nazi Martyrs' Remembrance Day, November 9, 1939. The column of NSDAP members walks past a bowl with a burning flame (top).

The ceremony of laying a funeral wreath from Hitler on the graves of fallen NSDAP members in the Temple of Honour.

Hitler stands in the square during the ceremony.

Faces of NSDAP members standing in formation.

View of the square in front of the Temple of Honour during the funeral ceremony (top).

Soldiers at the barbed wire fence on the street of Munich on February 26, 1924 check the documents of people going to the trial of participants in the Beer Hall Putsch.

Checking documents at the entrance to the building of the Infantry Officers' School in Munich, where the trial is taking place.

Participants in the trial at the entrance to the building.

Ludendorff, accompanied by officers, comes out into the street during a break in the court session.

Hitler and Hess in a photograph with other participants in the Beer Hall Putsch.

Photograph of Hitler standing by a car.

Traffic on the streets of Berlin.

View of the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Panorama of one of the industrial enterprises of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

Production process in a workshop of one of the metallurgical plants.

Stormtroopers go to a rally in the park.

Hitler speaks at an NSDAP rally in the mid-1920s.

Striking workers leave the plant.

People collect potato peelings from the garbage dump.

An elderly woman wipes away tears.

Hitler speaks from the rostrum at another rally.

Stormtroopers with banners.

Events in Berlin organized by communists and Nazis in the 1920s.

The face of a participant in one of the NSDAP rallies.

Hitler speaks from the rostrum.

Rally participants applaud.

Faces of elderly women.

Hitler delivers a speech into a microphone, Hess stands behind him.

Views of one of the Nazi rallies in the early 1930s, rally participants salute Hitler.

The funeral procession with the coffin of Horst Wessel moves along the streets of Berlin in February 1930. Stormtroopers, raising their arms in the Nazi salute, perform the anthem (panorama).

Participants in a pre-election meeting enter the building for the rally, at the entrance, activists hold posters in support of Hitler.

Hitler gives a speech.

Panorama of a rally in support of the NSDAP. Hitler's face.

Hitler during meetings, trips and rallies.

Hitler and Goering walk past the line of stormtroopers on the square, rally participants salute them.

Celebration of another Party Day.

People sway to the music, holding each other's elbows.

Members of the S set up a cordon on the streets.

Women in nurses' uniforms go out into the street.

Medical personnel in formation.

The face of an SS officer.

Hitler talking to a young mother holding a baby in her arms.

Baby photos of Hitler.

Photos of Hitler's father and mother.

Hitler speaking from the rostrum at one of the NSDAP rallies in the early 1930s.

Stormtroopers in formation.

Faces of a major Ruhr industrialist Emil Kirdorf and his relatives listening to Hitler.

Kirdorf's face.

Kirdorf in the same formation with stormtroopers.

Hitler meeting with E. Kirdorf in 1937 (freeze frame).

Coal mining in the Ruhr mines.

Loading and hauling of mined coal.

Hitler shakes Kirdorf's hand.

Hitler delivers a speech into a microphone at one of the rallies, views of the rally, Goebbels among the rally participants.

View of the hall where the rally is taking place.

Preparing an airplane for flight.

Passengers board the plane.

Hitler speaks from the rostrum.

Unveiling of a monument to the heroes of World War I. Bowed banners.

One of the veterans speaks.

Veterans stand with funeral wreaths.

German veterans of World War I during the events.

Dispensing election leaflets from a truck.

Members of the German Communist Party in the back of trucks on the streets of Berlin during the election campaign.

NSDAP election poster.

Stormtroopers during the election campaign.

Hitler speaking from the podium, stormtroopers with banners at an election rally.

NSDAP election poster.

Panorama of a tram depot during the strike (top).

Photograph of striking conductors and tram drivers.

Photograph of dismantled tram tracks during the strike.

Photographs of striking factory workers, metro workers with posters on their chests.

Tram cars that did not go out on the line, at the depot (top, panorama).

Buses in a park during the strike, alternating newsreel and photographs.

Thälmann speaking at a rally, panorama of the rally.

Participants in communist rallies with posters.

Hindenburg arriving at the polling station.

Hindenburg leaves the booth and votes.

Hindenburg presents officials with canes as gifts.

Hindenburg sits at a table and reads documents.

Hitler leaves buildings and gets into a car, people around him greet Hitler after he was elected Reich Chancellor in 1933. The building of the Infantry Officers' School in Munich, where the trial of the participants in the Beer Hall Putsch took place.

View of the street blocked by barbed wire (above).

Checking the documents of people entering the courthouse.

Soldiers and police officers standing at the barbed wire fence on the street check the passes of people going to the trial.

Lawyer Goetz gets out of the car and pays the driver.

One of the arriving lawyers pays the driver.

The arrival of assessors and judges for the trial.

The lawyers who have arrived for the trial get out of the car.

Soldiers on the street at the barbed wire fence, checking passes.

Lawyers and members of the court enter the building, showing passes.

A car stops at the sidewalk, lawyers get out of the car.

People enter the building.

People stand at the entrance before the trial.

An infantry platoon walks down the street past the building where the trial is taking place.

A cyclist rides down the street, it is snowing.