1932 in Germany

Incumbents

National level

• Paul von Hindenburg

• Heinrich Brüning to 30 May, then from 1 June Franz von Papen then 17 November, then from 3 December Kurt von Schleicher

  Events

• 15 January - About 6 million are unemployed in Germany.
• 25 February - Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship by naturalization, opening the opportunity for him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.
• 10 April - Paul von Hindenburg is elected president of Germany.
• 30 May - Chancellor Heinrich Brüning resigns. President Hindenburg asks Franz von Papen to form a new government.
• 14 June - Bans against the SS and SA are overturned.
• 17 July - Altona Bloody Sunday: In Altona, armed communists attack a National Socialist demonstration; 18 are killed. Many other political street fights follow.
• 31 July - Federal election: The Nazi Party gains a plurality and the Communists also gain seats. This creates a "negative majority" that prevents any majority coalition that does not include one of the two parties.
• 30 August - Hermann Göring is elected as chairman of the German Senate.
• 6 November - Federal election: The Nazis lose many seats, but retain the plurality as the Communists continue to gain.
• 21 November - President Hindenburg begins negotiations with Adolf Hitler about the formation of a new government.
• 3 December - President Hindenburg names Kurt von Schleicher as German chancellor.
• Date unknown - Prontosil, an antibacterial drug, was discovered in Wuppertal.

  Births

• January 6 - Max Streibl, German politician
• January 7 - Wolfgang Reichmann, German actor
• January 31 - Michael Degen, German actor
• February 7 - Anton Schlembach, German bishop of Roman-Catholic Church
• February 9 - Gerhard Richter, German visual artist
• February 14 - Alexander Kluge, German film director
• February 18 - Andreas Meyer-Hanno, German theater and opera director
• February 25 - Hans Apel, German politician
• March 25 - Wolfgang Helfrich, German physicist and inventor
• April 2 Siegfried Rauch, German actor
• May 8 - Arnulf Baring, German author, historian, political scientist and journalist
• May 21 - Gabriele Wohmann, German novelist
• May 26 - Frank Beyer, German film director
• June 2 - Bruno Schleinstein, German actor
• June 10 - Philipp Jenninger, German politician
• June 21 - Friedrich Ostermann, German roman-catholic auxiliary bishop from Münster
• July 3 - Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, German politician
• July 10 - Jürgen Becker, German poet
• July 14 - Princess Margarita of Baden, German noblewoman
• July 30 - Michael Bruno, German-born former governor of Israel's central bank and a Chief Economist of the World Bank
• September 19 - Stefanie Zweig, German writer
• September 24 - Walter Wallmann, German politician
• October 16 - Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, German politician
• October 28 - Gerhart Baum, German politician
• October 29 - Charlotte Knobloch, President of Central Council of Jews in Germany
• November 1 - Edgar Reitz, German film director
• November 14 - Gunter Sachs, German-Swiss photographer and art collector
• December 19 - Bernhard Vogel, German politician
• December 31 - Felix Rexhausen, German journalist

  Deaths

• January 13 - Sophia of Prussia, Prussian princess
• January 24 - Eugen Boermel, German sculptor, writer and inventor
• February 6 - Hermann Ottomar Herzog, German American landscape painter
• February 18 - Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Germane last King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin.
• March 15 — Friedrich Radszuweit, German publisher and author
• April 4 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist
• April 6 - Max Lenz, German historian
• June 26 - Ernst Scholz, German lawyer and politician
• September 2 - Christian Wilhelm Karl Ewald
• September 20 - Max Slevogt, German painter
• October 3 - Max Wolf, German astronomer
• October 23 - Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner, German politician
• November 11 - Ludwig Hoffmann, German architect
• December 18 - Eduard Bernstein, German politician