Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), which established a totalitarian dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1940. The state was a major European power in the 1930s. Its significance lies mainly in its responsibility for escalating political tensions in Europe such as uniting with Austria or Invading Switzerland. In 1938, Germany was bounded on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Lithuania, The Free City of Danzig, Poland and Czechoslovakia; to the south by Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Yugoslavia and Hungary; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.