HSC Modern History

1. NAZI FOREIGN
POLICY
1933-1939

2. FOR DEALING WITH OTHER
NATIONS.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL, IT
NEEDS TO INVOLVE
RATIONAL DISCUSSION,
CLEAR COMMUNICATION,
MUTUAL GOALS AND A
WILLINGNESS TO
COOPERATE TO MEET
THESE

3. SPACE AND RACE
➤ Dual, overriding
goals of the Nazis’
foreign policy
➤ Lebensraum - the
need for living
space to build a
great, self-sufficient
German state
➤ Racial Purity - the
need to bring all
Germans under the
Reich and eliminate
all others

4. SUB GOALS
➤ Race
➤ The volksgemeinschaft - all German speakers united in a single homeland
to create the people’s community
➤ Destroy the USSR and remove the threat of Communism
➤ Social Darwinism - all non-Aryans removed from the new community
➤ Space
➤ Lebensraum - Expand into the East, taking Poland and the western USSR
to create living space for the new German community
➤ Autarky - Obtain enough land to make Germany self-sufficient
➤ Reunite with Austria to create a strong and proud German empire
➤ Re-arm and militarise the Rhineland - buffer zone
➤ To make all this happen - military expansion

5. Pre-WWI Post-WWI

6. KEY TERMS - AUTARKY
➤ Hitler wanted to make Germany self-sufficient in preparation for
war
➤ Produce own food and raw materials and minimise trade
➤ Four-Year Plan designed to make Germany autonomous -
failed (still importing 33% of goods by 1939)
➤ Still relied on relationships with other countries
➤ Norway for iron ore
➤ Czechoslovakia for metals
➤ Ukraine for wheat
➤ Romania for oil

7. KEY TERMS - LEBENSRAUM
➤ Living space to build the great, pure-blood, autonomous German empire
➤ Historical basis -
➤ In the 19th century this was focused on overseas colonies
➤ Continued in 1917 with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (took Ukraine and Baltic
regions from Soviet Union)
➤ Under Hitler, it was focused on taking land to the East that was rich in
resources (autarky) and unite all German-speaking, pure-blood people
under the Reich
➤ The Herrenvolk (master race) would then be empowered to dominate Europe
➤ Lesser races or untermenschen would become slaves of the pure-blood
Germans in their thousand-year Reich
➤ Communism would be destroyed and Nazism established as the controlling
system of government in Europe

8. KEY TERMS - APPEASEMENT
➤ One stated aim of the League of Nations was collective security
➤ Article X of the Covenant of the LoN stated that if one nation was
under threat the others would have to defend it regardless of
personal interest or outcome
➤ However this failed - the major powers (Germany, USSR, USA)
were not part of it and the League had no real power
➤ Led by British PM Neville Chamberlain the Allies turned to negotiation
or appeasement when faced with German aggression
➤ This meant that they would negotiate with Hitler rather than
responding with aggression and enforcing the Treaty
➤ It marked a recognition that Germany was a sovereign nation with its
own agenda and needs, not just the villain of WWI

9. KEY TERMS - APPEASEMENT
➤ Early historians saw this as a failure on Chamberlain’s part but
revisionists are more sympathetic towards Chamberlain, citing
(for example) British support of the policy and their inability to
rearm after the economic downfall of the 1930s
➤ AJP Taylor in The Origins of the Second World War argues
that appeasement was a logical and sound policy but
Chamberlain made many blunders, especially abandoning
the policy, and this brought on the war
➤ The French followed Chamberlain’s lead because they were
so politically unstable (16 coalition governments from 1932
and 1940) and could not face war

10. BRITISH ATTITUDES TO APPEASEMENT

11. REARMAMENT
ALLIES
EXPANSION

12. 1933
➤ Hitler withdraws from the League of
Nations
➤ France would not agree to
German equality of rearmament
➤ Promises to regain all lost land
from the Treaty of Versailles
➤ Hitler declares peaceful
intentions: The German
government wish to settle all
difficult questions with other
governments by peaceful
methods . . . Germany will tread
no other path than that laid down
by the Treaties . . . The German
people have no thought of
invading any country

13. 1934
Hitler signs a non-aggression pact with Poland
➤ In January, Hitler promised not to engage in aggressive acts against
Poland for ten years
➤ Very successful move as it placated Britain who took it as evidence
of his peaceful intentions
➤ Ruined the French-Polish alliance (Little Entente)
➤ Guaranteed Polish neutrality when Germany moved against
Czechoslovakia and Austria

14. 1934
➤ First attempt at the Anschluss
➤ Attempted a union between Austria and
German in July
➤ Austrian Nazis (encouraged by Hitler)
staged a revolt and murdered
Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss
➤ However Mussolini intervened - sent
troops to the border, was joined by
Britain and France forming the Stresa
Front
➤ Hitler backed off and claimed no
responsibility
➤ Realised he would have to win
Mussolini’s support to take Austria

15. 1935
➤ The Saar Plebiscite
➤ A small territory on the border with France
controlled by the League of Nations since WWI
➤ Contained many Saar Nazis but also a lot of anti-
Nazis (SPD and Communists) who had fled there
➤ Nazis in the Saar conducted a scare campaign to
make them vote to return to Germany - boycotts
and violence
➤ 17 000 Saarlanders in Germany threatened to
invade
➤ League too scared to get involved - cause Nazi
riots
➤ Plebiscite conducted - 90% voted to return to
Germany
➤ Election overseen by independent parties and
declared valid
➤ Showed that Hitler had support outside Germany,
that he could expand legally and that the League
feared him greatly

16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCiLQ6KVNPs

17. 1935
➤ Remilitarisation
➤ In March, Hitler announced the
expansion of the army to 550 000
troops and the creation of the German
Air Force
➤ Secret plans to expand had been in
place since 1933 (Army was 300 000
and had built 2500 war planes)
➤ Conscription was re-introduced
➤ In June this was made legitimate with
the Anglo-German Naval Agreement,
allowing the German navy 34% of the
tonnage of the British navy
➤ Beginnings of appeasement - foster
good relations and stop Germany
feeling cornered by harsh conditions of
Versailles

18. 1936
➤ Hitler Remilitarises the Rhineland
➤ In March, German troops moved
into the Rhineland (border of France
and Belgium)
➤ Direct contravention of Versailles
➤ Britain and France unwilling to act -
Italy had dropped out of the Stresa
Front and was moving towards
relations with Germany
➤ “I see no reason to risk war in order
to stop Hitler marching into his own
backyard” - Lord Lothian, British
editor and foreign affairs
commentator
➤ Germany built a line of forts along
the border and stationed troops

19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdWEJU3bLfw

20. 1936-37
➤ Fascists rally together
➤ In July, Germany and Italy sent
armaments and troops to support Franco
in the Spanish Civil War
➤ In October, Germany and Italy signed the
Rome-Berlin Axis, promising to promote
mutual foreign policy aims
➤ In November, Germany and Japan signed
the Anti-Comintern Pact, promising to
contain the spread of Communism but
with a secret clause promising to consult
and protect common interests if either
power was attacked by the Soviet Union
➤ But Hitler declares peaceful aims: The
German people do not wish to continue
waging war to readjust frontiers. Each
readjustment is bought by sacrifices out
of proportion to what is to be gained

21. 1938
➤ Anschluss with Austria
➤ In March, Hitler decided to make a second attempt to take Austria
➤ Austria had always wanted union with Germany but this drive had
decreased since 1933
➤ Hitler, a native Austrian, wanted to bring his homeland into the volk
➤ Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg tried to appease Hitler - appointing a
Nazi Minister of Police, amnesty for Nazi prisoners, German-Austrian
agreement on foreign policy 1936
➤ However Hitler was not satisfied - ordered Austrian Nazis to stage
demonstrations in major cities (if law and order broke down he could
justify marching into Austria to restore it)
➤ Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg was losing control of his country

22. 1938
➤ Wed March 9 - In a desperate act,
Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite to
decide whether they would join
Germany. Hitler furious - a vote against
him would take away the legitimacy of
his invasion
➤ Thu March 10 - Hitler orders generals to
prepare for invasion and Schuschnigg to
call off vote. Schuschnigg concedes
➤ Fri March 11 - Hitler reassures
Czechoslovakia that they would not be
involved
➤ Sat March 12 - German troops march
into Austria unopposed.
➤ April - In a rigged referendum Hitler
shows that the Austrian people approved
of being under German control

23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75ldUNc2Xw

24. 1938
➤ Impact of the Anschluss
➤ In March 1938 the whole French government resigned - this
political turmoil meant that they did not oppose the Anschluss
➤ British PM Chamberlain was determined to appease Hitler and
was also experiencing political turmoil over his new relationship
with Italy - did not oppose Germany
➤ Germany added 7 million people and an army of 100 000 to the
Reich
➤ Gained new resources - steel, iron ore
➤ German influence increased in the Balkans
➤ Czechoslovakia now surrounded on three fronts

25. 1938
➤ The Sudetenland
➤ After his success in Austria Hitler set his
sights on the German-speaking
Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia
➤ It had coal and copper mines, power
stations, farmland, the biggest arms works
in the world, and offered the Alps, a chain
of fortresses and protection to the East
➤ 3 million German Sudetens who would be
useful to him - historians Mau and
Krausnick (1959) argue that Hitler took
advantage of the minority status of the
Sudetens to convince them of the need to
rebel and create chaos in Czechoslovakia,
giving him an excuse to invade

26. 1938
➤ The Munich Agreement
➤ In September Hitler encouraged the Sudeten Nazis to rebel and demand union
with Germany - Czech government declared martial law, Hitler threatened war
➤ Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler and, without consulting Czechoslovakia,
agreed to give Hitler all areas where more than 50% of the population was
German
➤ Hitler demands the whole Sudetenland and Chamberlain refuses
➤ War threatens but Chamberlain tells the British people that the crisis is “a
quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing”
➤ France, Britain and Germany meet in Munich and agree to give Hitler the
Sudetenland if he agrees to leave the rest of Czechoslovakia alone
➤ German troops march into Sudetenland, welcomed as heroes
➤ Chamberlain famously declared he had won peace in our time

27. 1939
➤ Consequences of the Munich
Agreement
➤ Weakened Czechoslovakia
➤ Scared Hungary, Yugoslavia and
Romania who all reached out to
Hitler
➤ Proved the extent of appeasement
➤ Convinced Russia that they would
have to oppose Hitler alone
➤ Gave Britain, France and
Germany time to rearm
➤ Hitler promised he was done: The
Sudetenland is the last territorial
claim which I have to make in
Europe

28. 1939
➤ The invasion of Czechoslovakia
➤ On March 15 1939 German troops
marched into Czechoslovakia, taking
over Bohemia and establishing a
protectorate over Slovakia
➤ Showed that Hitler was not just
interested in “greater Germany” - the
Czechs were not German
➤ On March 17 Chamberlain gave a
speech stating that he could not trust
Hitler not to invade other countries
➤ On March 31st Britain promised to
protect Poland if Hitler invaded them
➤ Hitler maintained his stated
commitment to peace: In general we
have but one wish - that in the coming
years we may be able to make our
contribution to the general pacification
of the whole world

29. 1939
➤ Agreements
➤ May - Germany and Italy signed the
Pact of Steel promising to stand together
during war
➤ August - Germany and the Soviet Union
signed the Non-Aggression Pact with the
USSR promising not to attack Germany
for invading Poland. In return, Russia
would get half the Polish territory
➤ Hitler avoided a war on two fronts and
was given a chance to test Britain and
France’s commitment to appeasement
➤ Stalin was able to delay what he saw as
inevitable war to rearm and was able to
get back at Britain and France for not
involving him in the Munich Conference

30. 1939
➤ The invasion of Poland
➤ On September 1 1939, Hitler
invaded Poland
➤ The Germans swept through using
tanks from Czechoslovakia
➤ Reasons included lebensraum, to
test Chamberlain’s resolve, to
defend Germans in Poland against
persecution, to overturn Versailles,
➤ Britain and France demanded that
he stop
➤ When the Germans continued,
Britain and France declared war
on Germany on September 3

31. 1939
➤ Ian Kershaw believes that Hitler invaded Poland out of an
over-estimation of his own abilities
➤ Argues that the yes-men and Fuhrer cult, along with
Chamberlain’s appeasement, convinced Hitler he was
untouchable and thus to make a move into Poland before their
military was fully ready
➤ This led him to a calamitous over-estimation of his own
abilities, coupled with an extreme denigration of those -
particularly the military - who argued more rationally for greater
caution