1944 in Germany

Incumbent

National level

• Adolf Hitler

Events

• 4 January — World War II: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• 20 January — World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
• 27 January — World War II: The 3-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• 29 January — World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place.
• 15 February — World War II - Battle of Monte Cassino: A monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
• 20 February — World War II: The "Big Week" begins with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
• 26 February — Holocaust: Shooting begins on the Nazi propaganda film, The Fuehrer Gives a Village to the Jews in Theresienstadt.
• 15 March — World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery and stage an assault.
• 17 March — World War II: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbniţa.
• 19 March — World War II: Germany's Panzerfaust occupy Hungary.
• 23 March — World War II: Members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
• 9 May — World War II: In the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last man.”
• 12 May — World War II: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea.
• 15 May — Holocaust: Deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz begins.
• 18 May — World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino: The Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces take the stronghold after a struggle that claimed 20,000 lives.
• June — German V-2 rockets on test from Peenemünde become the first man-made objects to enter space. By the end of the month, more than 380,000 Hungarian Jews have been transferred to concentration camps - around half of the country's Jewish population.
• 4 June — World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
• 5 June — World War II: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
• 5 June — The German Navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
• 6 June — World War II: Battle of Normandy: Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
• 10 June — World War II: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre in France.
• 13 June — World War II: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England.
• 22 June — World War II: Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
• 3 July — World War II: Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
• 7 July — Holocaust: Hungarian Regent Horthy orders Jewish transports to Auschwitz halted; 437,000 Jews have already been deported, mostly to their deaths.
• 10 July — World War II: Soviet troops begin operations to occupy the Baltic countries.
• 31 July — World War II: Vilnius is liberated.
• 20 July — World War II: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt, led by Claus von Stauffenberg.
• 24 July — Holocaust: Russian troops liberate the first concentration camp, at Majdanek, where 360,000 Jews have been exterminated.
• 1 August — World War II: The Warsaw Uprising begins.
• 2 August — World War II: Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
• 4 August — Holocaust: A tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse, where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
• 5 August — Holocaust: Polish insurgents liberate a German labor camp in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
• 6 August — Holocaust: Łódź, the last remaining Jewish ghetto in Poland, is liquidated and 60,000 Jews are sent to Auschwitz.
• 19 August — World War II: An insurrection starts in Paris.
• 20 August — World War II: American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.
• 20 August — World War II: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused of being "terror fliers" by the Gestapo, arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
• 24 August — World War II: Liberation of Paris: The Allies enter Paris, successfully completing Operation Overlord.
• 25 August — World War II: German surrender of Paris: General Dietrich von Choltitz surrenders Paris to the Allies in defiance of Hitler’s orders to destroy it.
• 25 August — World War II: Maillé massacre: Massacre of 129 civilians by the Gestapo at Maillé, Indre-et-Loire.
• 25 August — World War II: Hungary decides to continue the war together with Germany.
• 3 September — World War II: The Allies liberate Brussels.
• 4 September — World War II: Finland breaks off relations with Germany.
• 8 September — World War II: London is hit by a V-2 rocket for the first time.
• 2 October — Holocaust: Nazi troops end the Warsaw Uprising.
• 7 October — Holocaust: A revolt by Jewish slave labourers at Auschwitz-Birkenau results in the complete destruction of Crematory IV.
• 10 October — Holocaust: Porajmos: 800 Romani children are systematically murdered at the Auschwitz death camp.
• 14 October — World War II: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
• 18 October — World War II: The Volkssturm is founded on Hitler's orders.
• 20 October — World War II: Belgrade is liberated by Yugoslav Partisans and the Red Army.
• 21 October — World War II: Aachen, the first German city to fall, is captured by American troops.
• 25 October — World War II: The Red Army liberates Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated.
• 30 October — Holocaust: The last gassings take places at Auschwitz.
• 25 November — Holocaust: Himmler orders the destruction of the crematories at Auschwitz.
• 16 December — World War II: Germany begins the Ardennes offensive, later known as Battle of the Bulge.
• 17 December — World War II: German troops carry out the Malmedy massacre.
• 19 December — World War II: The entire territory of Estonia is taken by the Red Army.
• 31 December — World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.

  Births

• 4 January - Judy Winter, German actress
• 12 January - Klaus Wedemeier, German politician
• 16 January - Thomas Fritsch, German actor
• 21 January — Hasso Plattner, German entrepreneur
• 24 January — Klaus Nomi, German singer
• 31 January - Uwe Kockisch, German actor
• 12 February - Ortwin Runde, German politician
• 28 February — Sepp Maier, German footballer
• 2 March — Uschi Glas, German actress
• 15 March - Josef Joffe, German publisher
• 20 March — Erwin Neher, German biophysicist
• 21 March — Gila von Weitershausen, German actress
• 6 April - Bernd Spier, German singer
• 7 April — Gerhard Schröder, former Chancellor of Germany
• 16 April — Elmar Wepper, German actor
• 29 April - Hermann Scheer, German politician
• 30 April - Rudi Assauer, German football manager and player
• 3 May - Renate Blume, German actress
• 4 May - Monica Bleibtreu, German actress
• 13 May - Uwe Barschel, German politician
• 15 May - Ulrich Beck, German sociologist
• 6 June - Edgar Froese, German artist and electronic music pioneer
• 19 June - Amélie Mummendey, German social psychologist
• 22 June - Helmut Dietl, German film director and author
• 6 July - Bernhard Schlink, German jurist and writer
• 9 July - Katrin Alvarez, German painter
• 18 August - Volker Lechtenbrink, German singer
• 22 August - Peter Hofmann German singer
• 25 August - Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia
• 14 September — Günter Netzer, German football player
• 19 September — Friedrich Christian Flick, German businessman and art collector
• 29 September - Lerke Osterloh, German judge
• 14 October - Udo Kier, German actor
• 18 October - Harry Blum, German politician
• 28 October - Anton Schlecker, German businessman
• 12 November - Liesel Westermann, German discus thrower
• 15 November - Joy Fleming, German singer
• 18 November - Ibrahim Böhme, German politician
• 18 November — Wolfgang Joop, German artist, fashion designer and art collector
• 2 December - Botho Strauß, German novelist and playwright
• 14 December - Michael Glos, German politician
• 24 December - Erhard Keller, German speed skater

  Deaths

• 9 January - Kurt Hasse, German equestrian
• 11 February — Carl Meinhof, German linguist
• 18 February - Hermann Blau, German engineer and chemist, and inventor of Blau gas
• 3 March - Anton Geiss, German politician
• 5 April — Isolde Kurz, German painter
• 13 April - Hugo Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering und Schönberg, German politician
• 21 April — Hans-Valentin Hube, German army general
• 5 May — Bertha Benz, German automotive pioneer
• 20 June - Toni Merkens, German cyclist
• 23 June — Thomas-Emil von Wickede, Wehrmacht general and Knight's Cross recipient
• 20 July — Ludwig Beck, German general and Chief of the German General Staff
• 21 July — Claus von Stauffenberg, German military and resistance fighter, Henning von Tresckow, Heinz Brandt, Werner von Haeften, Friedrich Olbricht and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim
• 22 July — Günther Korten, German Colonel General and Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe in World War II.
• 23 July - Max Nettlau, German historian
• 23 July — Eduard Wagner, general in the Army of Nazi Germany who served as quartermaster-general
• 26 July — Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven, colonel in the High Command of the German Armed Forces
• 8 August — Erwin von Witzleben, Paul von Hase and Erich Hoepner
• 10 August — Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, aristocrat, lawyer and member of the July 20 plot
• 17 August — Günther von Kluge, German field marshal
• 18 August - Ernst Thälmann, German politician
• 23 August - Carl Moritz, German architect
• 26 August — Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat
• 27 August — Georg von Boeselager German nobleman and an officer in the Wehrmacht
• 30 August — Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, German general in the Wehrmacht
• 4 September — Erich Fellgiebel German Army general
• 4 September - Fritz Thiele, member of the German resistance who served as the communications chief of the German Army
• 8 September - Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld, German landowner, officer, and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime
• 8 September - Ulrich von Hassell, German diplomat
• 14 September - Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten, German major general and resistance fighter
• 16 September — Gustav Bauer, Chancellor of Germany
• 17 September — Friedrich Zickwolff, Wehrmacht general
• 22 September — Fritz Lindemann, German officer in the Wehrmacht
• 29 September — Otto Herfurth, Wehrmacht general, Knight's Cross recipient and July 20 conspirator
• 1 October — Rudolf Schmundt, German officer in the Wehrmacht and adjutant to Adolf Hitler
• 7 October - Diego von Bergen, German diplomat
• 14 October — Erwin Rommel, Wehrmacht Field Marshall
• 19 October - Erich Koch-Weser, German lawyer and politician
• 24 October — Karl Freiherr von Thüngen, German general in the Wehrmacht
• 26 October - Joseph Fischer, German cartographer
• 28 October - Kurt Gerron, actor
• 10 November - Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, German diplomat
• 13 November - Paul Graener, German composer and conductor
• 19 November - Ludwig Dettmann, painter
• 30 November - Max Halbe, German dramatist
• 19 December — Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur
• 20 December — Caesar von Hofacker, German Lieutenant Colonel and member of the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler