

The Nazi Party became the largest in parliament following the July 1932 German federal election, but it did not hold a majority. The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after only 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where many aspects of life were controlled by the government. Nazi Germany (officially known as the German Reich 1933–43, later the Greater German Reich 1943–45) was the German state between 19, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship.
