Hitler’s Foreign Policy

Hitler’s Foreign Policy

Hitler and his Nazi party stood for German racial superiority. The German were described as master race destined to conquer others. The Nazi party in its three point programme of foreign policy had laid down its objectives as:-

i. The union of all people of German race by the right of self-determination in one great Germany.

ii. The cancellation of the peace treaties of Versailles.

iii. Acquisition of further territory for the support of the people and the settlement of the surplus human population.

These specific points were given a very wide background in Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kemp. His final political objectives were to be ‘world or nothing’. He wrote ‘’never allow the rise of two continental powers in Europe’’. Obviously this was to be only one continental power Germany and it would aim at world power or nothing. Regarding the method to be followed, Hitler said, ‘reliance on force and rejection of compromise should be the keystone’.

a) Rearming Germany:-He took up the work of rearming Germany. He wanted to reduce the treaty of Versailles to a scrap of paper and took the first step in the direction by withdrawing from the League of Nations in October 1933. He also withdrew from the world disarmament conference being held at Geneva on the ground that France would not agree to Germany having equality of armaments. At the same time, he insisted that Germany was willing to disarm if other states would do the same and that he wanted only peace.

b) Non-aggression pact (1934):-To give a show of Germany’s peaceful intensions, in January 1934, Hitler concluded a non-aggression pact with Poland for ten years. He signed this pact because he needed polish neutrally in the event of occupation of Czechoslovakia. He also wanted to weaken the ‘Little Entente’ formed by smaller nations and France.

c) Saar Plebiscite:-The treaty of Versailles had vested France with the right to occupy for a period of fifteen years and the future of the Saar would be decided by a plebiscite. In January 1935 the plebiscite was arranged and 90% of the voters voted in favour of Germany. Thus Saar region again became united with Germany which added to the resources of Germany.

d) German Remilitarization:-Hitler first successful breach of Versailles came in March 1935 when he announced the reintroduction of consumption. He declared that Germany was not bound by the militating of the treaty of Versailles and the peace strength of the German army would be 36 divisions. His excuse was that Britain had just announced air force increase and France had extended consumption from 12 to 18 month.

e) Anglo-German Naval Agreement:-in June 1935, Hitler entered into a naval agreement with Great Britain. According to it, Germany agreed to limit the size of her navy to 35% of the strength of the Britain navy. By this agreement, Hitler was able to remove the suspension of Great Britain and win her to his side.

f) Capture of Rhine land:-The treaty of Versailles had demilitarized the Ruhr land; it had been specifically provided that no German troops were to be stationed in that region. However in March 1936, Hitler denounced the Locarno treaties and German troops marched into the Rhine land. Though the troops had ordered to withdraw at the first stage of French opposition no resistance was offered, except the usual protests. At the same time, well aware of the mood of pacifism among his opponents, Hitler soothed them by offering peace treaty to last for 25 years.

g) Spanish Civil War 1936:-Spain offered Hitler a field to test his policy. Spain had a republican government, but the republic was moving towards communism. To save the country from communists’ control, General Franco organized a revolt which led to the outbreak of civil war in Spain in 1936. Hitler and Mussolini sent troops to help General Franco. The struggle ended in victory of Franco. The Spanish civil war was a dress rehearsal for a greater drama soon to be played on a bigger stage. Thus Spanish civil war brought Germany and Italy closer to each other.

h) Axis Pact:-Hitler realized that a war could not be successfully fought without allies, realizing that France and Russia could not befriended and Britain could not be relied, he looked towards Italy’s trust in Ethiopia created a wedge between Italy on the other. Therefore, Mussolini saw in Germany friendship the only way out. Germany and Italy came closer to each other because both of them wanted to undue the peace settlement of 1919. During the Spanish civil war, when Mussolini was sending men and ammunition to General Franco, Hitler supported him and won him over. In October 1936, the two countries concluded an agreement for mutual co-operation. Thus this agreement came to be known as Rome-Berlin Axis.

In 1936, Hitler concluded another part with Japan known as Anti-Comintern Pact. The main objectives of this pact were opposition to Russian communism and its international organisation to safe guard Japan ambition in the far-east and to serve German ambition in Europe. Italy joined this pact in 1917 and thus Berlin-Berlin-Tokyo Axis came into being. Initially the implication of this pact was not clear. But by 1940, it was classified in the flowing terms:-

i) Germany and Italy were to respect Japan’s leadership in Asia.

ii) Japan recognized the leadership of Germany and Italy in Europe.

iii) They mutually agreed upon to help each other in the event of an attack by a fourth country.

iv) The pact was to remain in force for 10 years.

This Axis was a new balance of power against Britain France and Russia.

ANSCHLUSS (Annexation of Austria)

Hitler’s next action was the conquest of Austria. The Austrians were also Germans and they had been kept separate from Germany by treaty of Versailles. However Germany would like to annex Austria and with this objective in view, Hitler encouraged the Nazi agitations in Austria to capture government. In 1934 Hitler suffered a setback to his ambitions of an Anschluss. Austrian Nazis encouraged by Hitler stayed a revolt and murdered Chancellor Dollfuss. When Mussolini moved Italians troops to the Austrian frontier, and warned the Germans, the revolt collapsed.

In February 1938 the Austrian Prime Minister, Schuschnigg, met Hitler at Berchtesgaden in the Alps. At the meeting the Austrian chancellor was threatened and was forced to place leading Austrian Nazis in his Government.

On his return to Austria, Schuschnigg tried to stop spreading German influence by calling a referendum. This enraged Hitler and Schuschnigg was forced to resign. German troops “were invited in” by the new Nazi Prime Minister, Seyss-Inquart.

Hitler returned in triumph to Vienna where he was greeted by euphoric crowds. This was the city where before World War One he had lived as a down and out. Hitler incorporated Austria into the Reich as the province of Ostmark. This event became known as the Anschluss.

The year from September 1938 to September 1939 saw Hitler wagging two pressure campaigns, the first against Czechoslovakia and the second against Poland.

The Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) 1938:-The next target for Hitler was the country of Czechoslovakia. It had been founded after World War One. It was the only democracy in Eastern Europe and possessed a good army. It also contained a number of national minorities (it was nicknamed “little Austria-Hungary”) including a large German minority in an area known as the Sudetenland. Hitler encouraged the Germans living there to demonstrate against Czech rule. The leader of the Sudeten German Party was Konrad Henlein.

Hitler decided to use the grievances of the Sudeten Germans to bring the area under German control. He secretly set the date of 1 October for war with Czechoslovakia if the issue was not resolved. Throughout

the summer of 1938 the crisis grew worse. The Sudeten Germans backed by Nazi propaganda agitated for greater autonomy (independence).

Chamberlain hoped to avoid war and felt that there was some justification in the German demand for the region. He flew to Germany and met Hitler twice, at Berchtesgaden and Bad Godesberg. However although it seemed an agreement had been reached, Hitler made new demands and it looked as if Europe was on the brink of war.

Mussolini was ill prepared for a war and proposed a conference of Britain, France, Germany and Italy. This met at Munich on 28 September. The Czechs were not even invited. The British and French agreed to Hitler’s demands and it seemed as if the threat of war was averted. Chamberlain and Daladier, the French Prime Minister, received heroes welcomes when they returned home. The Czechs were bitter at the loss of territory including most of their border fortifications and were now virtually powerless to resist the Germans.

In March 1939, Hitler took over the rest of the Czech lands after encouraging the Slovaks to declare independence under German protection. The Czech President, Hacha was invited to Berlin and was threatened that if he did not agree to German occupation, Prague would be bombed. Significantly this was the first non-Germanic land that Hitler had seized. This occupation outraged public opinion in Britain and marked the end of appeasement. In the same month the German speaking town of Memel was seized from Lithuania.

Poland 1939:-The occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia had led Britain to guarantee Poland that if she was attacked she would come to her aid. Under the Treaty of Versailles the newly created state of Poland was given the German speaking port of Danzig and land known as the Polish Corridor in order to give it access to the sea.

Hitler wanted to destroy Poland in order to gain living space (Lebensraum).Hitler demanded the German speaking town of Danzig from Poland and the building of a motorway to link East Prussia with the rest of the Reich.

However the demand for Danzig was not the real issue for Hitler. He said

Further successes can no longer be attained without the shedding of blood…Danzig is not the subject of the dispute at all. It is a question of expanding our living space in the east…there is no question of sparing Poland.

He accused the Poles of mistreating the German minority in other parts of Poland. Nazi propaganda greatly exaggerated stories of attacks on the German minority. The Poles refused to hand over the town of Danzig.

A Very Surprising Alliance!

As the summer wore on tension grew. Both Britain and France and Germany were trying to gain the support of the USSR in the event of war. Stalin did not trust Britain and France and felt they were encouraging Hitler to attack Russia. He had been greatly angered by the Munich agreement.

Although both Germany and the Soviet Union had been bitter enemies up to 1939, the world was stunned to learn that they had reached an agreement on 23 August 1939. This was a Ten Year Non-Aggression pact. Both countries benefited from this agreement. For the Soviet Union it allowed her more time to prepare for war and she gained a lot of territory in Eastern Europe. Germany was assured that if she attacked Poland she would not have to face a two-front war.

Hitler hoped that the news of the Pact with Russia would stop France and Britain from going to war if Germany attacked Poland. He was surprised when Britain and Poland concluded a mutual defence treaty. Mussolini informed him that Italy was unprepared for war and he postponed the invasion of Poland. A flurry of diplomatic activity achieved nothing and on 1 September Germany invaded Poland. On 3 September Britain and France declared war on Germany.