1940 in Germany

Events in the year 1940 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

Head of State and Chancellor

Adolf Hitler

Events

January

4 January – World War II: : Luftwaffe General Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Germany.
10 January – World War II: Mechelen Incident: A German plane carrying secret plans for the invasion of western Europe makes a forced landing in Belgium, leading to mobilization of defense forces in the Low Countries.

February

16 February – World War II: Altmark Incident: The British destroyer pursues the German tanker Altmark into Jøssingfjord in southwestern Norway.

March

18 March – World War II: Axis powers: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
31 March – World War II: Commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Atlantis, leaves the Wadden Sea for what will become the longest warship cruise of the war..

April

9 April
*World War II: Germany carries out Operation Weserübung, and invades Denmark and Norway. German forces land in several Norwegian ports and take Oslo; The Norwegian Campaign lasts two months. The Allied campaign in Norway is simultaneously commenced.
*German invasion of Norway: German heavy cruiser Blücher is sunk by gunfire and torpedoes from the Norwegian coastal fortress Oscarsborg in the Oslofjord. Of the 2,202 German crew and troops on board, some 830 died. Most either drowned or burnt to death in the flaming oil slick surrounding the wreck.
20 April – On his 51st birthday, Hitler orders the formation of a new SS regiment, containing Norwegians and Danes as well as Germans.

May

10 May – World War II: Battle of France begins – German forces invade Low Countries.
13 May – World War II: German armies open a wide breach in the Maginot Line at Sedan, France.
13–14 May – Rotterdam is subjected to savage terror bombing by the Luftwaffe; 980 are killed, and 20,000 buildings destroyed.
17 May – Brussels falls to German forces.
20 May
*World War II: German forces, under General Rudolf Veiel, reach Noyelles on the English Channel.
*Holocaust: The Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the German concentration camps, opens in occupied Poland near the town of Oświęcim. Between May 1940 and January 1945, around 1.1 million people were killed there.

June

3 June
*The Holocaust: Nazi leader Franz Rademacher proposes the Madagascar Plan, under which the Jewish population of Europe would be relocated to the island of Madagascar.
*World War II: Paris is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the first time.
10 June – World War II: Norway surrenders to German forces.
14 June – World War II: Fall of Paris to German occupation.
15 June – World War II: Verdun falls to German forces.
17 June – A Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bomber sinks the British ship RMS Lancastria, which was evacuating troops from near Saint-Nazaire, France, killing some 5,800 men.
21 June – World War II: Vichy France and Germany sign an armistice at Compiegne, in the same wagon-lit railroad car used by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to accept the surrender of Germany in 1918.
23 June – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.
30 June – World War II: German forces land in Guernsey, marking the start of the 5-year Occupation of the Channel Islands.

July

14 July – World War II: Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, proclaims the intention of Great Britain to fight alone against Germany whatever the outcome.
19 July – World War II: Adolf Hitler promotes 12 generals to field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony following the swift victory over France, and makes a peace appeal to Britain in an address to the Reichstag. Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on 22 July.

August

8 August – World War II: Wilhelm Keitel signs the "Aufbau Ost" directive, which eventually leads to the invasion of the Soviet Union.
30 August – Second Vienna Award: Germany and Italy compel Romania to cede half of Transylvania to Hungary.

September

5 September – World War II: Commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Komet enters the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait after crossing the Arctic Ocean from the North Sea with the help of Soviet icebreakers Lenin, Stalin, and Kaganovich.
7 September – World War II: The Blitz – Germany begins to rain bombs on London.
22 September – The first flight of Heinkel He 280 occurs.
27 September – World War II: Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.

October

18–19 October – World War II: Thirty-two ships are sunk from Convoy SC 7 and Convoy HX 79 by the most effective wolfpack of the war including Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke.

November

11 November – World War II: The German Hilfskreuzer Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.
14 November – World War II: The city of Coventry, England is destroyed by 500 German Luftwaffe bombers.
16 November – World War II: In response to Germany levelling Coventry 2 days before, the Royal Air Force begins to bomb Hamburg.
18 November – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.

December

12 December & 15 December — World War II: "Sheffield Blitz" – The City of Sheffield is badly damaged by German air-raids.
16 December – World War II: Operation Abigail Rachel – RAF bombing of Mannheim.
29 December – World War II: Luftwaffe carries out a massive incendiary bombing raid on London, UK, starting 1,500 fires. Many famous buildings, including the Guildhall and Trinity House, are either damaged or destroyed.

Date unknown

In 1940, German optometrist Heinrich Wöhlk invented plastic Contact lenses.
Hülsta, a German furniture manufacturer is founded in Stadtlohn.

Births

4 January — Helmut Jahn, German architect
14 January — Siegmund Nimsgern, German bass-baritone
16 January — Franz Müntefering, German politician
22 January - Eberhard Weber, German double bassist and composer
23 January - Armin Maiwald, German author, television director and producer
24 January — Joachim Gauck, President of Germany
28 January - Bernd Klingner, German sport shooter
31 January - Werner Franke, German biologist
9 February — Hubert Burda, German publisher
17 February
* Willi Holdorf, German athlete
* Winfried Hassemer, German judge
20 February - Christoph Eschenbach, German conductor
29 February - Margit Carstensen, German actress
2 March — Lothar de Maizière, German politician
4 March — Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, German judge
7 March — Rudi Dutschke, German radical student leader
16 March — Claus Offe, German sociologist
17 March — Gottfried Münzenberg, German chemist
21 March — Paul Friedrichs German motocross racer
26 March — Victor von Halem, German operatic bass
4 April — Michael Ruetz, German photographer
19 April — Reinhard Bonnke, German Pentecostal evangelist
22 April — Berndt Seite, German politician
3 May — Conny Plank, German musician
18 May – Anita Kupsch, German actress
11 June — Volkmar Sigusch, German sexologist, physician and sociologist
15 June — Franz Wegner, German physicist
20 June — Eugen Drewermann, German theologian
21 June
* Brigitte Boehme, German lawyer and church administrator in Bremen
* Notker Wolf, German monk
25 June — Peer Augustinski, German actor and comedian
7 July
*Wolfgang Clement, German politician
*Rosel Zech, German actress
27 July — Pina Bausch, German choreographer
7 August — Martin Heisenberg, German neurobiologist
9 August — Marie-Luise Marjan, German actress
13 August — Dirk Sager, German journalist
15 August — Dietmar Schwager, German football player
18 August — Sigrid Metz-Göckel, German sociologist
25 August — Wilhelm von Homburg, German boxer, actor and wrestler
25 September — Werner Münch, German politician
27 September — Rudolph Moshammer, German fashion designer
1 October — Gertrude Degenhardt, German artist
2 October — Werner Dörflinger, German politician
18 October — Ruth Wagner, German politician
26 October — Tilo Prückner, German actor
29 October — Heinrich Mussinghoff, German bishop of Roman Catholic Church
2 November — Carolin Reiber, German television presenter
15 November — Klaus Ampler, German cyclist
22 November — Frank Duval, German composer, conductor, songwriter and singer
24 November — Hermann Otto Solms, German politician
7 December — Klaus Tschira, German entrepreneur
12 December — Ulla Wiesner, German singer
18 December — Klaus Wennemann, German actor
22 December — Eberhard Schöler, German table tennis player
29 December — Brigitte Kronauer, German writer
30 December — Renate Jaeger, German judge

Deaths

2 January — Albert Richter, German cyclist
2 February — Carl Grünberg, German philosopher
9 February — William Dodd, United States Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937, historian and author
27 February — Peter Behrens, German architect
29 February — Josef Swickard, German actor
3 March — Karl Muck, German conductor
15 March — Robert Leffler, German actor and singer
20 March — Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist
25 April
*Otto Hintze, German historian
*Wilhelm Dörpfeld, German architect and archaeologist
26 April — Carl Bosch, German chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
26 May — Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
6 June — Arthur Zimmermann, German diplomat
22 June — Walter Hasenclever, German poet and playwright
5 July — Friedrich Robert von Beringe, German army officer
19 July — Max Bodenheimer, lawyer
21 July — Elisabeth von Eicken, painter
1 August — Paul Hirsch, German politician
24 August — Paul Nipkow, German technician and inventor
26 September — Walter Benjamin, German philosopher and cultural critic
11 October – Adolf von Trotha, German admiral
28 November — Helmut Wick, wing commander in the Luftwaffe
1 December — Johann Viktor Bredt, German jurist and politician
3 December — Wolff von Stutterheim, Wehrmacht general and Knight's Cross recipient
11 December — Fritz Erler, German painter