What were Hitler’s aims?
In his book “Mein Kampf” (my struggle), Hitler describes his aims to make Germany
the world power that it once was.
Lebensraum (living space)
Involves forcibly taking land from
Russia and Poland to give more
room for the peoples of Germany
to live on. This would cause war
because of the invasion of these
countries to take their land. This
would also create a problem for
the people who already live on
this land – how would Hitler “get
rid” of them.
Abolish Communism
Partly achieved through
Lebensraum. If Hitler invaded Russia
for living space for Germans, he
would also overthrow the Russian
government, who were at the time
communist. His opinions are firmly
anti-communist because he believed
that it was communists who brought
about Germany’s defeat in WWI.
Hitler thought that Germany was “the
next great objective of Bolshevism”
and that they must pull together to
rise and defeat it.
Abolish the Treaty of Versailles
Taking back land; Upper Silesia,
West Prussia and Posen would be
taken back, meaning an invasion
of Poland. The Rhineland would no
longer be demilitarised, and so the
buffer between France and
Germany would no longer exist.
Army would be built up again,
making a future war even bigger
than it would have been.
GrossDeutchland
His idea is based upon the
thought of all German
speakers being united under
one great German nation; so
all those in Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Poland,
Alsace and Lorraine would
become German again,
meaning certain war with
these countries.
Step 1: Hitler Rearms
•
Hitler gave two reasons for rearming;
1.
It helped him to reduce unemployment in Germany, which
was a big problem.
2.
Helped to deliver his promise to make Germany strong again
and to turn back the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
•
In October 1933, Hitler withdrew Germany from the World Disarmament
Conference because no other countries would disarm to the same level as
himself. Hitler used this as an excuse to rearm; he didn’t want to build up
his army, but it was only fair because no other country would come down to
his level of disarmament.
•
In 1936, Hitler further broke the Treaty of Versailles by introducing
conscription back into the army.
•
Hitler had judged that he would get away with the rearmament of Germany;
he was right; many other countries were using rearmament to fight
unemployment.
•
Hitler benefited from rearmament because it boosted Nazi support. It made
Germany’s army larger than it was after Versailles, and Hitler knew that
Britain had sympathies with him on this issue – Britain thought that
Versailles was too harsh on Germany, and in some ways wanted Germany
to rearm because a strong Germany could be a buffer against communism.
•
Germany got away with rearmament because Britain were quite happy for
them to rearm to some extent, and so they would do nothing to stop them.
The 1935 Anglo-German Naval Treaty was an
agreement between Germany and Britain,
which said that Germany was allowed to
increase it navy to up to 35% of the size of the
British navy. This helped to dismantle the treaty
of Versailles – and France were angry about
Britain’s actions, but there was nothing it could
do.
Step 2: The Saar
The Saar Coal fields were taken from Germany at
Versailles. They were run by the League of Nations and
France was allowed to mine the coal as part of their
reparations.
The Saar was always planned to be returned to Germany
after 15 years, but rather than simply taking the Saar back,
Hitler held a plebiscite in 1935. In this vote 95% of the Saar
land’s people wanted to join back up with Germany.
Hitler used this plebiscite as a victory for himself and the
Nazi party. It was a huge propaganda exercise to show to
the people of Germany how strong Hitler was at “turning
back the treaty of Versailles”.
Remilitarising the Rhineland
•
Germany was forbidden from stationing troops in the
Rhineland under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. This
provided a buffer between Germany and France. In 1925,
Germany signed the Locarno Treaty, accepting these
borders, on the understanding that if Germany attacked
France, Italy and Britain would come to defend France.
Even though Germany signed this, Hitler always
demanded that the German rights to the Rhineland be
restored.
In 1936, Hitler marched his troops
into the Rhineland. He chose this
time because the world was
distracted with the Abyssinian
crisis, and neither Britain nor
France raised much of an
objection. Hitler had given the order
to the troops to retreat at the first
sign of confrontation, but no one
challenged him, and so the
Rhineland was remilitarised.
Hitler wasn’t stopped – it was a huge bluff – the allies were so frightened of war
that they went no where near Hitler.
Why was Hitler not stopped in the Rhineland?
Britain and France had both lost huge numbers of men, 1 million
and 2 million respectively. They did not want to lose more in
another unnecessary war.
The Great depression had made Britain and France poor, and
neither could afford armaments to fight a war.
The League of Nations was clearly weak after the way in which
Manchuria and Abyssinia were handled. Hitler was permitted to think he
could get away with marching into the Rhineland.
There is a feeling that the Treaty of Versailles is unfair, and was far too
harsh on Germany, and therefore Hitler should be allowed to take back
the Rhineland. Neville Chamberlain said “I see no reason to risk war in
order to stop Germany marching into her own back yard”.
Mistakes by Britain and France
Britain had made the Anglo-German Naval agreement. They
might not want to have war after negotiating with Hitler. But
Britain shouldn’t have signed the treaty in the first place,
because it helped to dismantle the Treaty of Versailles.
A militarised Rhineland would not effect Britain at ll, and so
they didn’t seem to care. However, they should care,
because the Rhineland was a buffer protecting France.
France did not want to go to war with Germany because it
did not trust Britain after they made the Anglo-German Naval
Treaty. Britain had broken the promise they made at
Versailles, and France, rightly, did not trust them to support if
they launched an attack.
Anschluss with Austria
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Anschluss, political union, with Austria, because it
would give rise to his idea of GrossDeutchland – all
German speakers united under one greater German
Reich.
In 1934, Germany threatened to invade Austria.
Mussolini (Italy) marched his troops to his border
with Austria, warning Hitler that if he invaded Austria,
Italy’s army would soon be there to get rid of him.
Hitler backed down to this threat.
In 1936, the Rome-Berlin Axis was signed by Hitler
and Mussolini. This alliance joined Italy and Germany
together, and Hitler and Mussolini became friends as
they were both fascists. Mussolini then withdrew his
promise to protect Austria if Germany attacked.
In February 1938, Hitler sent a telegram to Schussnig
of Austria telling him of ten demands. The chief
demand was that Seyss Inquart should be made chief
of the interior (head of the Austrian police force).
Seyss Inquart was an Austrian Nazi and having him
as police chief would help Hitler to take over Austria.
Schussnig replied that he could not give such a high
position to a Nazi, and instead he proposed a
plebiscite to ask Austrians their opinion of the
Anschluss.
Hitler was not prepared for a plebiscite to take place
and so told Schussnig that if he and his cabinet did
not resign, Germany would invade by force.
Schussnig and his cabinet did resign, leaving only
Seyss Inquart in the Austrian government. On 15th
March 1938, he invited Hitler into Austria, and Hitler
marched into Vienna triumphant. A plebiscite was
held under the watch of Nazi soldiers, and 99.75%
voted for the Anschluss.
Appeasement
Appeasement is when you give into force or the threat of
force to avoid confrontation. This was British policy towards
Hitler in the 1930s.
Appeasement works if;
-Both sides want to avoid a fight
-People can be trusted to keep their
promises
-People have only limited aims and
ambitions
In the case of Britain and Hitler,
Neville Chamberlain thought that
Hitler didn’t want war, when in actual
fact, Hitler was keen to fight.
Chamberlain also assumed that Hitler
was reasonable, and that every
demand he made would be his last.
However, Hitler’s demands would
never stop, and his ambitions were to
control the entire world, and so
appeasement would never work.
Appeasement was popular in Britain, because;
the population was still devastated at their losses in WWI and were keen to do
anything to avoid another war.
The British people also thought that allowing Germany to make themselves
stronger would stop the spread of communism from Russia.
There was a general feeling that Versailles had been too harsh on Germany,
and they should be allowed to take back the Rhineland and the Saar.
Appeasing Germany would give Britain chance to build up their arms in
preparation for a war in the future if it came to this.
Appeasement and the
Czechoslovakian Crisis
The Sudetenland was part of Czechoslovakia
which was mainly inhabited by German
speakers in the Western areas of the country,
nearest to the German borders.
Czechoslovakia could be considered a strong
country; it was rich in coal and heavy industry,
and it had the Skoda Armaments works. Its
army was quite strong, and it had its major
defence fortifications in the Sudetenland
border with Germany, because this is the
place where they most feared an attack would
be launched. This would make conquering
the country easy; once you were past them,
the country was weak. Also, Czechoslovakia
was made up from many different
nationalities; poles, Czechs, Slovaks,
Germans, Hungarians and Poles.
Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia,
but he had to be careful in the
way he dealt with it. He knew
that Britain and France had
promised to protect the country if
he attacked, and at this point,
Hitler was not strong enough to
fight a war. He also knew he
would come up against the
strong defences in the
Sudetenland.
Meeting one – Berchtesgaden - 15th September 1938
Hitler had encouraged Nazis living in the Sudetenland to riot in the streets to
demand Czechoslovakia be united with Germany. Chamberlain was alarmed by this,
and called a meeting with Hitler. Here, Hitler demanded that large parts of German
speaking Sudetenland were given to Germany, Chamberlain accepted this provided
that it was done peacefully.
Meeting two – Bad Godesberg – 22nd September 1938
Hitler here demanded that the Sudetenland was given to him by October 1st, and
other places were given to Austria and Poland. Chamberlain couldn’t agree to this
kind of destruction, and Europe was on the brink of war.
Meeting Three – The Munich Conference – 29th September 1938
Here, Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier met. The terms which were
rejected at Godesberg were accepted in return for a promise from Hitler of not
attacking the rest of Czechoslovakia. On 1st October, Hitler marched into the
Sudetenland, and on 15th March 1939, Hitler had invaded the rest of the country
breaking his promise. Because Hitler had the strong defences in his control,
invasion and conquest was easy, and Czechoslovakia was defeated in days.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Poland was created from land from Germany and
land from Russia at the Treaty of Versailles. Both of
these countries wanted their land back.
•Poland was vulnerable from attack from two
sides; both the East (USSR) and the West (Britain
and France).
•Germany wanted its land back, and so did
Russia. However, if Germany attacked Poland to
reclaim its land, then two things would happen.
•Firstly, Britain and France would attack Germany,
because they had promised to do this if Germany
showed any further aggression.
•Secondly, Russia could also decide that they
want their land back, and invade Poland. In this
situation, Germany would be surrounded by allied
forces. If war broke out, Germany would have to
fight a war on two fronts, and this would be
impossible to win.
•Hitler therefore needed a plan to Take Russia out
of the equation.
Stalin had tried to make alliances with those who
he wanted to fight with. But, since Britain and
France had refused, Stalin was driven towards
Germany. War was inevitable, and Russia could
not stand alone, and therefore he felt that a pact
with Germany would benefit him in the short term.
He knew that Hitler planned to attack Russia later
on, but by making a pact with Germany, Stalin
bought himself time to rearm and build up his
strength.
The NAZI-SOVIET pact was signed on 23rd
August 1939. It was a non-aggression pact, and it
agreed that Russia and Germany would not go to
war, and that they would invade Poland together
and each reclaim the land that was originally
theirs.
This pact made war inevitable, because Hitler now
had the confidence to invade Poland, which would
bring Britain and France into a war. Hitler knew
that with this pact, he would only have to fight on
the Western front against Britain and France,
giving him a greater chance of winning.
The Allies are divided…
• Stalin, the leader of the USSR, assumed
that he would make an alliance with Britain
and France. This seemed natural, as they had
fought together in WWI.
•However, this never happened…
•Throughout the summer of 1939, Britain,
France, USSR and Poland worked together to
form an alliance against Nazism.
•Russia’s condition of the alliance was that
they would be allowed to station their troops
in Poland to protect them.
•France, Britain and Poland were suspicious
of Stalin’s intentions, because they feared
communism, and after being tricked by Hitler,
they did not want to make the same mistake
again.
•They refused USSR the right to station their
troops in Poland, and so the negotiations
collapsed, and no alliance was formed.
•Poland was allied to Britain and France, but
this meant little; a German attack on Poland
would destroy them before Britain and France
could mobilise themselves.
25th August: France and Britain renew their
guarantee to protect Poland.
1st September: Germany invades Poland,
Allies give them 48 hours to withdraw.
3rd September: Hitler ignores warning. At
11am, Chamberlain declares war on Germany.