arts in exile

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  Adolf Hitler at the window of the Reich Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1972-026-11, photographer: Sennecke, Robert

  30 January 1933

  The day of the takeover: Adolf Hitler is named Reich Chancellor
• 1 February 1933

  Paul von Hindenburg dissolves the Reichstag at Adolf Hitler's request, allowing Hitler to call new elections, which are scheduled for 5 March 1933.
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  Reich Legal Gazette with the Decree issued by the Reich President "for the Protection of the German People"

  Reichsgesetzesblatt, issue from 6 February 1933, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

  4 February 1933

  The decree "for the Protection of the German People" is issued
  The decree enables the Nazis to greatly restrict civil liberties such as the freedom of assembly or freedom of speech. At the same time, Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick has far-reaching powers bestowed upon him.
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  Photo montage Kleiner SA Heldenbilderbogen (Small Picture Sheet of SA Heroes) by John Heartfield for one of the last issues of AIZ to appear in Germany

  Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Kunstsammlung John Heartfield Nr. 5183, © The Heartfield Community of Heirs/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015

  February 1933

  The Communist Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (AIZ; 'The Workers Pictorial Newspaper'), published by Willi Münzenberg, is forced to shift production to Prague.
  From here, the newspaper continues its work and, until its publication is ceased following the annexation of Sudetenland in 1938, campaigns against the Nazi regime. 
• Spring 1933

  The Allert de Lange publishing house is established with the aim of publishing German exile literature within the existing Amsterdam publishing house Uitgeverij Allert de Lange.
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  The SPD and KPD are called on to present a united front against the NSDAP on the occasion of the Reichstag elections on 5 March 1933

  Bundesarchiv, Plak 002-037-024, graphic designer: not stated

  15 February 1933

  Call for "establishment of a united workers' front"
  The writer Heinrich Mann and the painter Käthe Kollwitz sign a declaration together with other intellectuals, in which they speak out in the election campaign against fascism and in favour of the "creation of a workers' front" by the joined forces of the social democrats (SPD) and communists (KPD). As a result of this declaration, both of them have to resign from the Prussian Academy of the Arts.
• 17 February 1933

  The Prussian Ministry of the Interior grants impunity for the execution of "enemies of the state" 
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  The burning Reichstag building

  Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R99859, photographer: not stated

  27 February 1933

  The Reichstag fire
  The Dutch communist Marinus von der Lubbe is arrested, convicted and later sentenced to death, despite the fact that, at the time of the fire, the law only provided for a limited term of imprisonment. The Nazis used the Reichstag fire as an excuse to justify them seizing political opponents of the regime and people they considered suspicious to hold them in improvised concentration camps.
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  Reich Legal Gazette with the Decree "For the Protection of People and State"

  Reichsgeseztesblatt, issue from 28 February 1933, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

  28 February 1933

  The "Decree for the Protection of People and State", also known as the "Reichstag Fire Decree", is issued
  The Nazi regime issues this decree which abrogates fundamental civil rights and justifies it as a “defence against subversive acts of violence by communists”; it attacks, among others, the right to personal freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom of assembly as well as the inviolability of the home. Penal provisions are tightened and the jurisdiction of the Reich government to interfere in the affairs of the federal states is increased leads to the continued “Gleichschaltung” (bringing into line with Nazi dictates) of the federal states.
• February/March 1933

  The first major wave of emigration begins