Goals of Nazi foreign policy

Hitler’s prime aim was to rebuild German strength. This meant

ending the Versailles settlement and extending German power.

Nazi foreign policy focused on three key goals:

• Rebuilding Germany’s military

• Extending German territory

• Links with other countries

Rebuilding Germany’s military

The Nazis’ long term hopes of building a stronger and larger

Germany rested partly on having a rebuilt military.

Hitler believed that Versailles’ restrictions – including limits on

personnel numbers and a weakened navy – left Germany

vulnerable and powerless.

The German economy was designed to meet the country’s

military needs.

The Four Year Plan started in 1936 and set Germany the challenge of being ready for

war in four years, both in terms of economic and military

readiness. Herman Goering argued for “guns, not butter.”

Through the interwar years, Germany secretly developed an

air force, including training pilots in the USSR.

On 9 March 1935, Hermann Goering announced the setting up of the Luftwaffe (Germany’s

air force). It was overseen by Erhard Milch (who later

founded Lufthansa).

One week later, on 16 March 1935, Hitler announced the

reintroduction of conscription into the Germany Army.

100,000 conscripts (able bodied men who turned 19)

were to be recruited and trained each year, although

officially the Wehrmacht size would remain 100,000 (in line

with Versailles).

These actions violated the Treaty of Versailles so Britain, France

and Italy held the Stresa Conference in April 1935.

They agreed to oppose further Versailles breaches. However

Britain undermined this with the Anglo-German Naval

Agreement in June 1935, which increased the German Navy’s size.

Extending German territory

Hitler wanted to unite all Germans in one country.

He argued in Mein Kampf that Germany needed Lebensraum

(‘Living Space’). This meant that Nazi Germany had to expand its borders to give

space for all Germans.

Between 1936-1939, the Nazis took numerous actions to

expand Germany’s size and population. Ultimately these

changes would eventually led to the start of World War Two.

The 1937 Hossbach Memorandum outlined the

Nazis’ plans for a more aggressive foreign policy.

In March 1936, the Nazis took full control of the Rhineland, the area demilitarised as part

of the Treaty of Versailles.

Germany marched 22,000 troops into the area. Although

Britain and France opposed this, neither took any steps to

stop it due to their own military weakness.

Another key part of the Versailles Treaty was that

Germany and Austria could not unite (Anschluss).

In February 1938, the Austrian government gave into pressure and included Nazis in

their government. In March 1938, a referendum on

Anschluss was announced.

Hitler claimed that the referendum was rigged

against Anschluss, so on 11 March 1938, Germany

invaded Austria.

The Austrian government legally confirmed Anschluss

on 13 March 1938. The persecution of Jews in Austria

started immediately.

A referendum was held on 10 April 1938. 99.7% of Austrian

voters supported Anschluss. There was no secret ballot and

voters were observed.

Austrians were given a ballot paper which asked them if they backed Anschluss and Hitler’s

party. The Yes option was much bigger than the No option.

Hitler’s next target was the Sudetenland in

Czechoslovakia. The Czechs’ had gained German land as part of the Versailles’ treaty.

After Anschluss, German Sudetens had demanded to be reunited with Germany. A war

over the issue seemed increasingly likely.

The German Army advised Hitler against invading

Czechoslovakia. Some even plotted to overthrow him if he

went against this advice.

Instead Hitler met British Prime Minister Neville

Chamberlain in September 1938. Chamberlain agreed to

give Germany the Sudetenland, as did France three days later.

The Munich Conference of September 1938 officially

confirmed German control of the Sudetenland. The Czechs also agreed after being told Britain would not go to war

over this issue.

Losing the Sudetenland and its mountains left Czechoslovakia

vulnerable to invasion.

Hitler’s next target was all of Czechoslovakia. In March 1939, the German army marched into the country and took control of

all areas.

The Allies did not stop this but now realised they could not

trust Hitler (Czechs were not Germans, for example). They

now promised to defend Poland.

On 1 September 1939, German troops marched into Poland. Germany refused a British demand to withdraw

from the country, believing that war would not happen.

On 3 September 1939, Britain and France declared war on

Germany, starting World War Two. The USSR then invaded

Poland too.

Links with other countries

Although Hitler’s goal was to create a strong Germany, he recognised that this would involve building links with

other countries.

Hitler also gambled that other European countries did not

want war so would not oppose Germany’s actions.

In October 1933, Hitler announced that Germany was

to leave the League of Nations, as well as a Disarmament

Conference which was being held at the time.

Hitler argued that Germany had already disarmed, whereas other countries were refusing

to do the same.

In January 1934, Germany signed a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland, with both sides

promising not to attack the other.

Hitler also built links with Fascist Italy, meeting leader Benito Mussolini in June 1934. The

following year the Italians dropped their commitment to

protect Austrian independence.

German and Italian links were reinforced in November 1936

with a Rome-Berlin Axis.

Earlier in 1936, Germany had given military support to

Spain’s Nationalist government, in the Spanish

Civil War. This let the Germans test their military strength,

especially the Luftwaffe.

Germany also sought to exploit British fears over Japan. Britain

worried its Asian empire was under threat from Japan’s own

imperial plans.

In November 1936, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern

Pact (against the Soviet Union) with Japan. Italy joined this

group in 1937.

May 1939 saw Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel,

promising each other military and economic support.

Japan was due to sign this too but all sides disagreed on

whether the Pact’s target was the USSR (Japan’s demand) or Britain and France (Germany

and Italy’s preference).

Hitler was passionately anti-Communist and had built many alliances based on this. However

in August 1939, Germany surprised everyone by signing a Non-Aggression Pact with the

Soviet Union.

This meant that both sides would not attack the other and resulted

in the invasion of Poland.

Hitler also sought alliances with other countries, but was

rejected. In particular he wanted to work with Britain.

Hitler believed that British focus was on their Empire,

whilst Germany could control Europe. The USSR Pact was

signed partly because Britain would not sign its own version.

Historians’ views

• Hugh Trevor-Roper: Believes that Hitler had a clear foreign policy plan to culminate in a major war.

• A.J.P. Taylor: Argues that Hitler had no clear aims and was simply an opportunist dealing with issues as they arose.

• Alan Bullock: Argues for a mixture of Taylor and Trevor-Roper’s opinions; he believes that Hitler did have a plan of action, but that a lot of the specific actions he undertook were a result of circumstances at the time.