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. 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. 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. 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.

Step 1: Hitler Rearms Hitler gave two reasons for rearming; It helped him to reduce unemployment in Germany, which was a big problem. 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. 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 works if; Both sides want to avoid a fight People can be trusted to keep their promises People have only limited aims and ambitions 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. 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. 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. 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.