What were Hitler

1
What were Hitlers aims?
In his book Mein Kampf (my struggle), Hitler
describes his aims to make Germany the world
power that it once was.
2
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 didnt 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 Germanys 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 Britains actions,
but there was nothing it could do.
3
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 lands 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 wasnt stopped it was a huge bluff the
allies were so frightened of war that they went
no where near Hitler.
4
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 shouldnt
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 didnt 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.
5
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, Italys 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.

6
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 didnt 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, Hitlers 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.
7
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
couldnt 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.
8
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.
• Russias 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
  Stalins 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.