10 March — The Encyclical Mit brennender Sorge of Pope Pius XI is published in Nazi Germany.
6 May — Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirteen passengers, 22 crew and one member of the ground crew were killed.
7 May — Spanish Civil War: The German Condor Legion Fighter Group, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
28 May - Volkswagen, state-owned carmaker, is formed to produce the new people's car.
8 June — Carl Orff's Carmina Burana premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.
20 July — The Geibeltbad Pirna is opened in Dresden, Germany.
13 October — Germany, in a note to Brussels, guarantees the inviolability and integrity of Belgium so long as the latter abstains from military action against Germany.
5 November — In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).
Births
20 February: Robert Huber, German biochemist and Nobel laureate
29 December: Dieter Thomas Heck, German actor
Deaths
November 27 - Wilhelm Weinberg, German physician and geneticist (born 1862)