Hitler’s actions, 1936-38
The road to war
The Spanish Civil War
•
In 1936 a civil war broke out in
Spain between Communists, who
were supporters of the Republican
government, and right-wing rebels
under General Franco.
•
Hitler saw this as an opportunity to
fight against Communism and at the
same time to try out his new armed
forces.
•
In 1937, as the League of Nations
looked on helplessly, German
aircraft made devastating bombing
raids on civilian populations in
various Spanish cities.
•
The destruction at Guernica was
terrible. The world looked on in
horror at the suffering that modern
weapons could cause.
A postcard published in France to mark the bombing
of Guernica in 1937. The text reads ‘The Basque
people murdered by German planes. Guernica
martyred 26 April 1937’.
The Anti-Comintern Pact, 193637
• The Italian leader Mussolini was also heavily involved
in the Spanish Civil War.
• Hitler and Mussolini saw that they had much in
common also with the military dictatorship in Japan.
• In 1936, Germany and Japan signed an Anti-Comintern
Pact. In 1937, Italy also signed it.
• Anti-Comintern means ‘Anti-Communist International’.
• The aim of the pact was to limit Communist influence
around the world. It was particularly aimed at the
USSR.
• The new alliance was called the Axis alliance.
Anschluss with Austria, 1938
•
With the successes of 1936 and
1937 to boost him, Hitler turned
his attention to his homeland of
Austria.
•
The Austrian people were mainly
German, and in Mein Kampf
Hitler had made it clear that he
felt that the two states
belonged together as one
German nation.
•
Many in Austria supported the
idea of union with Germany,
since their country was so
economically weak. Hitler was
confident that he could bring
them together into a ‘greater
Germany’.
So what did Hitler do?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hitler encouraged the Nazis in Austria
to stir up trouble for the government.
They staged demonstrations calling for
union with Germany and they caused
riots.
Hitler then told the Austrian Chancellor
Schuschnigg that only Anschluss
(political union) could sort out these
problems.
Schuschnigg asked for help from France
and Britain but was refused it. So he
called a plebiscite (a referendum), to
see what the Austrian people wanted.
Hitler was not prepared to risk this –
he might lose!
He simply sent his troops into Austria
in March 1938, supposedly to guarantee
a trouble-free plebiscite.
Under the watchful eye of the Nazi
troops, 99.75% voted for Anschluss.
This is part of a painting by Rudolf Hermann
Eisenmemger Titled “Austria Comes Home.”
It depicts an Austria freed from chains marching alongside
the swastika flag.
What was the foreign reaction?
• Listen to this live news
broadcast from Vienna.
• What impression do you
gain regarding the
Anschluss in Austria?
• Listen to this news
broadcast from England.
• What impression do you
gain regarding the
Anschluss in England?
• http://www.otr.com/ra/new
s/1938-315_Hitler%20in%20the%
20Heldenplatz.mp3
• http://www.otr.com/ra/new
s/us31538.mp3
What was the foreign reaction?
• Anschluss was
completed without any
military confrontation
with France and Britain.
• Chamberlain, the British
Prime Minister, felt
that Austrians and
Germans had a right to
be united and that the
Treaty of Versailles was
wrong to separate them.
What are each of these cartoons
saying about the Anschluss?
A cartoon from Punch
commenting on the Anschluss,
1938.
A Soviet cartoon commenting on the
Anschluss, 1938, showing Hitler catching
Austria.
The outcome
• Austria’s soldiers, weapons
and its rich deposits of gold
and iron ore were now added
to Germany’s increasingly
strong army and industry.
• Hitler was breaking yet
another condition of the
Treaty of Versailles but
clearly Britain and France
were not prepared to go to
war to defend a ‘flawed’
treaty.
• With a unified Germany and
Austria, which country should
now be worried?
•
http://www.otr.com/ra/news/1938-312%20Czech%20Radio%20reports%20British%20reaction.mp3
Summary film
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6YvSC
IPBAA
Homework
Failure of
the League
Manchuria
Disarmament
Abyssinia
Did it help Hitler
directly?
Did it damage
Hitler's
opponents?
Did it create a
situation
which Hitler could
exploit?
Homework – peer assess
Failure of
the League
Did it help Hitler
directly?
Did it damage
Hitler's
opponents?
Did it create a situation
which Hitler could
exploit?
Manchuria
Not really. Hitler was not in power
at this time. However, the event
did damage the credibility of the
League and that helped Hitler in
the longer term.
It damaged the reputations of
Britain and France. It also
showed that they were too
weak to take military action in a
place as far away as Asia.
Not really as Hitler was not in power
at this time.
Disarmament
Yes. The fact that other countries
had not disarmed enabled Hitler
to claim that Germany was being
treated unfairly. It gave him the
excuse he needed to walk out of
the Disarmament Conference
and start his rearmament
programme. This is what he
wanted to do anyway
Yes. The failure of
Disarmament showed that the
countries of the League (and
the USA) were not prepared to
disarm. It made Britain and
France look like hypocrites
because they were supposed
to disarm and they did not.
Yes. It allowed Hitler to present
himself to the German people as the
leader who was finally demanding fair
treatment for Germany. It also gave
Hitler the excuse he wanted to build
up Germany’s armed forces again. He
even signed an agreement with Britain
which allowed him to start building his
navy.
Abyssinia
Yes. It meant that the attention of
the League and the other major
powers was focused on Africa
and not on the Rhineland.
Yes. Britain and France
emerged from the Abyssinian
crisis with very little credibility.
They failed to impose effective
sanctions or take military
action. They even tried to put
together a secret deal to betray
Abyssinia.
Yes. Hitler was able to march his
troops into the Rhineland while Britain
and France were concerned about
events in Abyssinia. This gave him the
confidence to take his next step –
Anschluss, in 1938.