Hitler's Foreign Policy

Aims and Objectives

• securing survival against Bolshevik expansion

• preserve/enlarge the Aryan racial community

• Autarky - foreign policy synonymous with a strong, independent, self-determined economy

• More living space and more German speaking people in German occupied territory

• Solve the problem of Hitler’s main antagonists

  • Britain

  • France

• use of force to protect Germany’s flanks

• War on a western front to protect Germany from Western influences

• Overturn the Versailles Treaty

  • Redefine border with France

• Destroy Communism

Hossbach Memorandum 1937

• Severe tension between Hitler and Schacht over rearmament

• Speech to generals trying to convince them to push forward with aggressive expansionism

• Emphasising the need for Lebensraum

• Outlining his plan to target Austria and Czechoslovakia for their resources

• Received generally poorly - economy not sufficiently recovered from the Depression to garner much support

• The memorandum was transcribed by Hossbach - not a direct recantation of Hitler’s speech but the paraphrasing of it

• outlining the soviet union as an enemy

• outlining timeline for Lebensraum to be completed by 1943-45

Stages before war

• 1933-36: aggressive feeling after the Treaty of Versailles

  • January 1934 - German non-aggression pact with Poland

  • Upset the French and signalled a move away from Russia

  • France try to get close to Russia as a consequence

  • July 1934 - Austrian Nazis assassinate Chancellor Dolfuss

  • Mussolini moves troops to the border to oppose however no other steps taken to prevent an Anschluss

  • Stresa Front 1935: allied pact broken 9 days later when Russia and France signed a treaty of mutual assistance

  • Anglo-German naval Pact 1935 - sanctioning a 3x growth in German navy

  • October 1935 - Mussolini invades Abyssinia causing disunity between Britain, France and Italy

• Passivity from the West in reoccupying the Rhineland

Intentionalist Arguments

• Hitler took clear decisive steps to European dominance and war

• 1925 Mein Kampf

  • Use of the language of conflict (sword, victory)

  • Called for the acquisition of more land at Russia’s expense

• Zweites Buch

  • More foreign policy focused

  • 1928

  • Outlining directly who were to be the enemies and allies

• Secret Memorandum 1936

  • Justified a massive arms build up over the next 4 years

  • Prepare the country for war in 4 years

  • outlining Foreign policy aims of domination

• Believed Germany was in a constant ideological struggle with the Soviet Union and it was fated to lead to war and victory

• Trevor-Roper 1953

  • The Fuhrer had enough power to control events such that they led to war

• Bullock 1968

  • The invasion of Austria was a clear example of Trevor-Roper’s argument

Functionalist Arguments

• Aim to unite German speakers first

  • Did not wish to aggravate western territories originally

  • Germany still militarily and economically weak

  • Early aims - to only take the Sudetenland, Austria, Poland

• Only continues to push through due to successes and passivity in the West

• Taylor 1964

  • Hitler was a pragmatist who took advantage of chance situations

  • he exploited the western allies’ divide after Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia

• Was only planning to invade Soviet Union if the smaller conflicts strengthened the Reich

  • Relying on current events rather than planning

• Pushing war due to tensions in the economy - wished to mobilise before it got too bad

Joachim von Ribbentrop

• Ambassador to the UK for Germany 1936-38

• Navigated 1935 Anglo-German naval agreement

• Particularly cautious over remilitarisation of the Rhineland

• Reich minister for foreign affairs 1936-45

• Executed in Nuremburg trials

• Pact of Steel with Mussolini in 1939 - pact of friendship and non-aggression

  • Originally a Tripartite Pact but Japan pulled out until September 1940

• Wanted to maintain good relations with the Soviet Union and was against Barbarossa

• Molotov Ribbentrop Pact 1939

  • Mutual agreement to divide Poland East/West if Hitler invaded

• Supported the involvement of Japan and USA in the war

• Poor relations with the British foreign office

• Misinformed Hitler that he had Edward VIII support

  • Hitler thought Britain wouldn’t declare war so felt safe in expansionism

Active forces encouraging Expansionism 1936

• Rhineland

• Anschluss

• Czechoslovakia

• Poland

• Axis arrangement with Italy

  • Mutual self interest

  • did not intervene in Austria

• Anti-Comintern Pact

  • Broadened Axis to include Japan

  • Fixing a Pacific front in the event of war

• Actively seeking agreements with France’s potential ally, Russia

• Appeasement sharpened the injustice felt during the Versailles treaty

  • People more willing to support Hitler’s argument

• Germany’s bilateral agreements undermined the collective security of the League of Nations

Passive forces encouraging expansionism

• Depression pushing USA towards isolationism

  • Ineffective controlling force

• Treaty of Versailles too strict

  • Allies aware of this by 1936

  • Following a policy of appeasement to counteract it

  • allowed Germany free reign in other territory

• Momentum

  • Every time Germany breaks a clause in the Treaty, that becomes a blueprint for the next action

• League of Nations lacking power to intervene

• British and French too economically weak to fight for Czechoslovakia

• France isolated

• Soviet Union isolated

  • Belief in the West that it was Eastern communism that was the threat

  • Involvement in the Spanish Civil War increased Western suspicion

• West unable to secure a pact with USSR in 1930s

  • would have given Poland practical military protection