Wilderness Years
Winston Churchill in the 1930s
20 Jan 1933
Hitler elected German Chancellor
9 Feb 1933
The Oxford Union King and Country debate
Winston Churchill in the 1930s
1933 - 1939
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
Walk with us, through the life of a legend
Life of Churchill
Wilderness Years
By the early 1930s, Churchill no longer had a Government position. He opposed plans to give greater independence to India and seemed out of touch.
Based at his beloved house at Chartwell in Kent, he continued to write books and newspaper articles, but many thought his political career was over. It was his vocal opposition to Hitler’s new Nazi dictatorship in Germany, and his calls for British rearmament, that gradually brought him back to public notice. Initially, it was a message that few wanted to hear, but after the Munich Crisis of 1938 and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, there was a growing consensus that he was right. When war finally broke out in September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had no choice but to make him First Lord of the Admiralty, the same position that he had held at the outbreak of the First World War.
In this section, you’ll learn more about Churchill’s years in ‘the wilderness’ and how he finally returned to power.
1933 - 1939
10 Feb 1933
The first singing telegram
27 Feb 1933
Fire destroys the Reichstag (German Parliament)
29 Feb 1933
German President Hindenburg issues the Decree for the Protection of People and the Reich.
4 Mar 1933
President Roosevelt proclaims ‘The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself’
14 Mar 1933
Churchill’s first speech on the need to rebuild Britain’s air defences
23 Mar 1933
Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany
27 Mar 1933
Japan leaves the League of Nations
26 Apr 1933
The Gestapo, an abbreviation for the Geheime Staatspolizei, was the official secret police of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring
6 Oct 1933
Publishes ‘Marlborough’, the three volume biography of John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough
10 Oct 1933
Tells James Roosevelt: ‘I wish to be Prime Minister…’
1934
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is Published
26 Jan 1934
German-Polish non-aggression pact signed
2 Aug 1934
Hitler proclaims himself ‘Führer and Chancellor’
18 Jul 1935
Anglo-German Naval Agreement allows Germany up to 35% of British naval strength
Jul 1935
Churchill joins Committee of Imperial Defence
2 Oct 1935
Mussolini invades Abyssinia
14 Nov 1935
UKs General election returns large Conservative majority
1936: Gone with the Wind is published
20 Jan 1936
Death of King George V
7 Mar 1936
Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland
17 Jul 1936
Spanish Civil War begins
7 Dec 1936
Churchill is shouted down in the House of Commons in support of Edward VIII
10 Dec 1936
Abdication of King Edward VIII
12 May 1937
Coronation of King George VI
29 May 1937
Warns German Ambassador ‘Do not underestimate England’
4 Oct 1937
Publishes Great Contemporaries
20 Feb 1938: Anthony Eden resigns as Foreign Secretary
13 Mar 1938
Adolf Hitler proclaims Anschluss: The Union of Germany and Austria
Prime Ministers Lord Neville Chamberlain of the UK and Edouard Daladier of France, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini and Foreign Minister Count Gian Galeazzo Ciano meet in Munich on September 29, 1938 to sign the Munich treaty between Nazi Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, authorising Hitler to annex the Czech territory called the Sudetenland
20 May 1938
Czechoslovakia mobilises
30 Sep 1938
Munich Agreement signed by Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler cedes Sudetenland
9 Nov 1938
Reichkristallnacht pogrom of Jews in the Third Reich
15 Mar 1939
German troops enter Prague, Czechoslovakia
31 Mar 1939
Britain guarantees Poland’s independence
7 Apr 1939
Mussolini invades Albania
15-25 Aug 1939
Churchill visits Rhine fortifications
24 Aug 1939
Germans and the Soviet Union sign Non-Aggression Pact
1 Sep 1939
Hitler invades Poland
2 Sep 1939
France mobilizes
3 Sep 1939
Appointed First Lord of the Admiralty
3 Sep 1939
Britain and France declare war on Germany
17 Dec 1939
German battleship Graf Spee scuttled off Montevideo
The Admiral Graf Spee photographed in Montevideo Harbour following the Battle of the River Plate. A shell-hole is visible below the forward guns
Writing, Articles & Books
In his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.
View his writing
Young Churchillians
Working to celebrate the life and achievements of a great leader.
Young Churchillians
Publications
In his lifetime, Churchill published more than 40 books in 60 volumes.
View Publications
Subscribe
WANT MORE?
Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.
