Nazi Germany , officially the German Reich and later the Greater
German Reich , was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian
dictatorship. 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). The Third Reich,
which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich , ended in May
1945, after 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the
capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.