1943 in Germany

Decades:	1920s; 1930s; 1940s; 1950s; 1960s;
See also:	Other events of 1943; History of Germany • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 1943 in Germany.

Incumbents[edit]

National level[edit]

Head of State and Chancellor

Adolf Hitler (the Führer) (Nazi Party)

Events[edit]

The bombing of Hamburg during 1943.

18 January – World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
18 January – The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins.
27 January – World War II: 64 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany (Wilhelmshaven is the target).
29 January – German police arrest alleged necrophiliac Bruno Ludke.
29 January – Dr Ernst Kaltenbrunner succeeds the late Reinhard Heydrich as head of the RSHA SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt controlling the Schutzstaffel Gestapo
2 February – World War II: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the surrender of the German 6th Army and its 91,000 remaining soldiers.
3 February – World War II: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are drowned, when their ship (Dorchester) is struck by a German torpedo.
14 February – World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia.
16 February – World War II: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov
18 February – In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declare a "Total War" against the Allies.
18 February – The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
22 February – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
28 February – Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork.
1 March – Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for Nazi Germany's Army.
13 March – Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
16 March – 19 March – World War II: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat wolfpack attack of the war.
22 March – World War II: The entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by the German Dirlewanger Brigade in retaliation for an attack of a German convoy by Soviet partisans.
26 March – Adolf Hitler writes to Benito Mussolini that Russia is so weakened by the defence of Stalingrad that it cannot possibly be a serious menace.
13 April – World War II: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
6 May – World War II: Six U-boats are sunk after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5, regarded as the turning point in the North Atlantic U-boat war.
13 May – World War II: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
15 May – The Comintern is dissolved in Moscow.
16 May – World War II: Operation Chastise by RAF 617 Sqdn is carried out on German dams.
16 May – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends.
24 May – Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes the chief medical officer of Auschwitz.
5 July – World War II: Operation Citadel commences, resulting in the Battle of Kursk – The largest tank battle in history begins, with German Panther tanks seeing combat for the first time.
12 July – World War II – Battle of Prokhorovka: The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight to a draw.
24 July – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day.
27 July – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The continued British bombing of Hamburg, initiates a firestorm. The fire rages through the night into the morning of the 28th, causing the majority of Operation Gomorrah's deaths.
3 August – World War II: Operation Gomorrah closes, with an estimated 42,600 killed and 37,000 wounded; much of Hamburg is leveled.
23 August – The Battle of Kursk ends with a serious strategic defeat for the German forces.
24 August – World War II: – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany.
29 August – World War II: Germany dissolves the Danish government after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities (see Occupation of Denmark).
8 September – World War II: Frascati bombing raid September 8, 1943: The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone.
12 September – World War II: German paratroopers rescue Benito Mussolini from imprisonment, in Operation Eiche.
13 October – World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
17 October – World War II: The last commerce raider, auxiliary cruiser Michel, was sunk off Japan by United States submarine Tarpon.^[1]
22 October – World War II: The RAF delivers a highly destructive airstrike on the German industrial and population center of Kassel.
15 November – Porajmos: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
18 November – World War II: The Royal Air Force opens its bombing campaign against Berlin, with 440 planes causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses 9 aircraft and 53 aviators.
23 November – The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed.
2 December – A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile, causing numerous fatalities; the exact death toll is unresolved, as the bombing raid itself causes hundreds of deaths as well.
11 December – United States Army Air Corps raids a U-boat yard at Emden, losing 20 planes but shooting down 138 German fighters.
20 December – First flight of a true four-engined version of the troubled He 177A heavy bomber, as the Heinkel He 177 V102 prototype of the Heinkel He 177B series makes its maiden flight with four separate Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines at the Heinkel-Sud factory airfield in Schwechat.^[2]

Births[edit]

6 January – Wilhelm Kuhweide, German sailor
14 January – Manfred Wolke, German boxer
22 January – Wilhelm Genazino, German author and journalist (died 2018)
24 January - Peter Struck, German politician (died 2012)
25 January -
- Dagmar Berghoff, German journalist and television presenter
- Roy Black, German actor and singer (died 1991)
1 February – Brun-Otto Bryde, German judge
11 February – Gerhard Glogowski, German politician
12 February – Rainer Eppelmann, German politician
13 February – Friedrich Christian Delius, German writer (died 2022)
15 February – Elke Heidenreich, German author and television presenter
21 February – Paul Kirchhof, German judge
22 February – Horst Köhler, German politician, former President of Germany
27 February – Klaus Köste, German gymnast (died 2012)
24 March – Marika Kilius, German pair skater
12 April
- Lothar Kobluhn, German football player (died 2019)
- Michael Otto, German entrepreneur
16 April
- Christian Herwartz, German Catholic priest (died 2022)
- Petro Tyschtschenko, German businessman
19 April – Claus Theo Gärtner, German actor
1 May – Sabine Uecker, German politician
2 May – Manfred Schnelldorfer, German figure skater
6 May – Wolfgang Reinhard, German pole vaulter (died 2011)
10 May – Wolfgang Porsche, German manager
18 May – Helmut Haussmann, German politician
22 May – Gesine Schwan, German politician
24 May – Gerd Gies, German politician
31 May – Antje Vollmer, German theologian and politician (died 2023)
28 June – Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
30 June – Hartmann von der Tann, German journalist
30 June – Dieter Kottysch, German boxer (died 2017)
4 July
- Conny Bauer, German trombonist
- Heide Simonis, writer and politician (died 2023)
6 July – Hans-Jürgen Papier, German judge
7 July – Jürgen Geschke, German track cyclist
25 July
- Hans-Peter Kaul, German judge (died 2014)
- Erika Steinbach, German politician
29 July
- Michael Holm, German singer
- Ingrid Krämer, German diver
4 August – Barbara Saß-Viehweger, German politician, lawyer and civil law notary
12 August – Herta Däubler-Gmelin, politician
27 August – Wolfgang Nordwig, German pole vaulter
3 September – Dagmar Schipanski, German physicist and politician (died 2022)
7 September – Lena Valaitis, German singer
16 September
- Oskar Lafontaine, German politician
- Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter, German Lutheran bishop
25 September – Willi Entenmann, footballer and coach (died 2012)
27 September – Walter Riester, German politician
28 September
- Michael Herz, German businessman
- Ursula Werner, German actress
29 September – Wolfgang Overath, German footballer
30 September – Johann Deisenhofer, German biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
6 October – Udo Zimmermann, German composer and opera director (died 2021)
19 October – Axel Ullrich, German biologist
20 October – Madeleine Schickedanz, German entrepreneur
22 October – Wolfgang Thierse, German politician
28 October – Cornelia Froboess, German actress
20 November – Bernard Broermann, German businessman
23 November – Günther Beckstein, German politician
8 December – Bodo Tümmler, German Olympic middle-distance runner
12 December – Renate Schmidt, German politician
17 December – Heidemarie Koch, German archaeologist (died 2022)
23 December – Queen Silvia of Sweden
25 December – Hanna Schygulla, German actress
31 December – Wolfgang Gerhardt, German politician

Deaths[edit]

13 January – Else Ury, German writer (born 1877)
15 January – George of Saxony, Crown prince of Saxony (born 1893)
14 February – David Hilbert, German mathematician (born 1862)
22 February – Hans Scholl, German White Rose resistance member (executed by Nazis) (born 1918)
22 February – Sophie Scholl, German White Rose resistance member (executed by Nazis) (born 1921)
26 February – Theodor Eicke, German Nazi official (born 1892)
10 March – Otto Modersohn, German painter (born 1865)
22 March – Hans Woellke, German shot putter (born 1911)
13 April – Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor and choreographer (born 1888)
24 April – Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, German general (born 1878)
15 May – Ludwig Roselius, German businessman (born 1874)
31 May – Helmut Kapp, German Gestapo official
13 July – Luz Long, German long jump athlete (born 1913)
21 July – Theodor von Guérard, German jurist and politician (born 1863)
5 August – Liane Berkowitz, German resistance fighter of the Red Orchestra organisation (born 1923)
2 September – Wilhelm Geiger, German Orientalist in the fields of Indo-Iranian languages (born 1856)
16 September – Robert Schmidt, German politician (born 1864)
22 September – Heinrich Waentig, German politician (born 1870)
23 September – Theodor Wolff, German writer and journalist (born 1868)
5 October – Ludwig von Estorff, German general (born 1859 in Germany)
date unknown: Gottlob Walz, German diver (born 1881)

References[edit]

^ Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of World War II. Prentice-Hall. p. 276. ISBN 0-13-354027-8.
^ Griehl, Manfred; Dressel, Joachim (1998). Heinkel He 177 – 277 – 274. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. pp. 166–67. ISBN 1-85310-364-0.

[1] Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of World War II. Prentice-Hall. p. 276. ISBN 0-13-354027-8.

[2] Griehl, Manfred; Dressel, Joachim (1998). Heinkel He 177 – 277 – 274. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. pp. 166–67. ISBN 1-85310-364-0.

[1]

[2]

v t e Years in Germany (1871–present)
19th century	Pre-1871 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900
20th century	1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
21st century	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024