*****Hitler wanted to take risks with his foreign policy, and he was in a good position too******

Challenging the post-war settlement after 1937

Anschluss, 1938

He was ABLE to achieve his aims for the Hossbach Conference in 1937

Which was to annex Austria and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia

• NOT achieved the way Hitler wanted

• Historian Alan Bullock sees Anschluss as “a striking example” of Hitler’s ability

to combine “consistency in aim, calculation and patience in preparation with

opportunism, impulse and improvisation in execution”

• Hitler made more progress in spreading Nazi Influence

• July 1936 = an Austro–German agreement had been signed

● Germany reaffirmed its recognition of Austria’s independence

● Both powers agreed not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs.

● Austria would conduct a foreign policy consistent with it being a

“German state”.

• Secret clauses gave prominent Austrian Nazis, such as Arthur

Seyss-Inquart, a role in the government.

• in 1938 the chances to take over Austria were becoming larger due to the actions of Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg.

• Schuschnigg was worried about the Austrian Nazis and he requested an interview with Hitler.

• When Schuschnigg arrived at the meeting in Berchtesgaden on 12 February 1938, Hitler launched into an attack on Austria

• The Austrian Chancellor suffered torment for 2 hours

• And he was forced to agree to A list of demands which included in releasing those who were imprisoned who were pro-nazi agitators

• So this led to the band of pro Nazi parties

• Appointing Seyess-Inquart as interior minister

• And those who were pronazi were made ministers of war finance and economy of both Germany and Austria

• The demands ended the independence of Austria and the clause was if the chancellor of Austria did not agree Hitler would March right into the country.

• Schuschigg announced a plebiscite for March 13 1938 which would lead to a vote for Austrian Independence or “free and German, independent and social, Christian and united Austria”.

• The chancellors party was in charge of this voting

• There is a possibility of the population saying yes for Independence which could give him a chance to free himself from the agreements

• So before this could happen and Mussolini confirm that he is not going to take objection to the annexing of Austria

• Hitler mobilized his army an annexed Austria on March 12th 1938

• Italy, Britain and France were not coming to help

• Hitler went to his hometown (Linz) and he was very emotional

• Hitler announced the incorporation of Austria into the Reich.

• This was subsequently confirmed by 99% of the population in a plebiscite on 10 April.

The Sudeten crisis

Hitler focused on Czechoslovakia after he annexed Austria

• Considered Slavs to be untermenschen (racially and socially inferior).

• Those who resided in Czechoslovakia kind of rejected and tried to resist Austrian rule in the old austro-hungarian Empire and plus they have fought for Russia during the first World war rather than for Austria

• Czechoslovakia was like the only independent state which was successful that was created by the size element it had many different peoples and it was like very ethnically diverse

• There was an ethnic group of Germans who resided in chocolate but they had formerly lived in the Austrian Hungarian Empire so they lived in an area called the Sudeten crisis which bordered Germany

• Czechoslovakia was really supportive of the League of Nations

• It was allied with France in Russia

The Sudeten Germans

-It's a mountainous area, mineral rich

• Czechoslovakia was ordered to give the new state of stronger frontier to make sure it prospers

• Further strengthen its frontier with making defenses

• Czechoslovakia had a strong arms industry and plus they had a well organized Army

• Sudeten Germans had a population about 3.5 million but they didn't really accept their position in Czechoslovakia

• They were upset that they had lost their status and felt that they were discriminated against this, this ideology grew because of the great Depression and high unemployment

• Leader of the Sudeten Germans: Konrad Heinlein became like a representative for discontent of those who lived in that area

• Wanted self-government

• Led the Sudeten German party from 1935 which was founded by  Nazi Germany

• Hitler encouraged him to make a demands from the czechoslovakic government

• To keep up agitation and subversion

• On 24th April 1938, Heinlein presented the government with eight demands in the form of the  the Karlsbad Programme; these demands included autonomy and various special rights

• Hitler was reluctant to use force against Czechoslovakia.

• He told Heinlein that he would solve the Sudeten issue “in the not too distant future”, but did not commit himself to any clear plan on how this was to be achieved. In addition, many of Hitler’s generals warned him that Germany was not ready for a war at this stage.

The May Crisis, 1938

When Hitler changes mine to take action against Czechoslovakia it created the so-called May crisis

• On May 20th there were rumors that the Germans were making a military preparations near the Czech borders

• The Czechoslovakian government also partially mobilize their military

• Britain in France had send warnings to Germany though the rumors were unfounded and Hitler had to tell Powers involved that there were no such preparations to attack the country

• Hitler found this really  humiliating as it looked as though he had responded to the British and French threats

• On May 28th 1938 which was known as operation green this is when Hitler told his generals

• “It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future”.

• Throughout the summer of 1938 there was a lot of tension in the Sudeten Germans and with Hitler's instructions they were even more violent to the Czechoslovakian government

• On September 5th the president Edvard Beneš agreed to all demands of the Sudeten Germans for self-government.

• Heinlein was told by Hitler to reject this offer, thus proving that Hitler was interested only in conquest and not in justice for the Sudeten Germans.

• German press created anti-Czech feelings with footage of Sudeten Germans being treated unfairly

• And Hitler's speech at the Nuremberg rally caused more unrest in Sudetenland and the government in Czechoslovakia had to keep it under control which declared martial law

Chamberlain’s intervention

Great Britain decided to act now. Chamberlain wanted to avoid war so he flew to meet Hitler three times to make a deal over the Sudetenland.

Berchtesgaden, 15 September 1938

During this meeting it was agreed that Sudeten German's chocolate would be transferred to Germany. Chamberlain persuaded his cabinet and the French to agree to make this deal. After 2 days of persuasion the Czech agreed

Godesberg, 22–23 September 1938

Chamberlain flew to Godesburg to tell Hitler the good news, Hitler was furious on the other hand. He wanted an excuse to have a war with Czechoslovakia and not a peaceful handover of the Sudetenland. He insisted that the demands of the Hungarians and the poles for territory in Czechoslovakia should be met. German troops should be allowed to occupy the Sudetenland on 28th September.

It seemed that war was now impossible to avoid.

The Czech rejected Hitler's terms.

The French would now support Czechoslovakia.

They had a good army and they hoped with their allies France and the Soviet Union they could resist a German attack.

Munich, 29 September 1938

With Britain and France now showing that they were ready to fight and with Hitler's own generals pointing out that Jeremy was not ready for war at all at the moment.

Hitler agreed to do a further conference which led to Mussolini being the mediator to prevent the war.

A four power conference was held in Munich.

A plan presented by Mussolini even though it was written by Hitler was written was eventually agreed on

The plan included the following points

• The German occupation of the Sudetenland would take place by 1 October and an

international commission would determine a provisional new frontier by 10 October.

The international commission would also supervise plebiscites in areas of dispute.

• Czechs would be allowed to leave and Germans allowed to join the Sudeten territories

(neither the plebiscites nor the transfer of populations actually happened).

• Poland was to be given Teschen.

• Hungary was to get South Slovakia.

• Germany, along with the other powers, guaranteed the independence of the rest of

Czechoslovakia.

• Neither the Czech President, Beneš nor the Soviet leader, Stalin was invited to the Munich Conference.

• The Czechs were told that if they resisted this agreement they would receive no help from Britain or France, even though France had guaranteed the Czech borders at Locarno.

• They had no option to agree and then Benes resigned later

• Chamberlain got Hitler to sign a statement which he agreed to settle all matters of international interest through consultation Hitler on the other hand was not determined to be deprived of his war against Czechoslovakia

• On October 21st he gave the orders of “liquidation of the remainder of the Czech state”.

• The outcome of the meaner crisis: Czechoslovakia lost 70% of its heavy industry, a third of its population and both the natural mountainous defenses and the man-made fortifications the Sudetenland. Slovakia and Ruthenia were given self-government for internal affairs, though were still ultimately controlled by Prague.

• Hitler saw the Munich Agreement as “a stepping stone to the liquidation of the Czech state”

• From 1939, Hitler encouraged the Slovaks to create a disruption and ask for complete Independence

• Willingly helped in this by Father Jozef Tiso, who was head of the fascist Slovak People’s Party.

• Hitler had given an excuse to get directly involved when there was a new Czech president

• Emil Hachá, moved troops into Slovakia to crush this agitation. Prompted by Hitler, Tiso proclaimed full independence for Slovakia and asked for German protection.

• And I hope to save check with Slovakia the president asked to see Hitler and of course this was a huge mistake as he had to sign over Bohemia and Moravia to Hitler

• On March 15th 1939 German troops occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia and the next day on March 16th 1939 the two countries that were given to Hitler were declared a protectorate of Germany

• Slovakia was to be independent state under the protection of Germany and ruthenia was occupied by Hungarian troops

• This action led to a change in Britain's policy towards Germany

• On 18 March, Chamberlain told the British Cabinet that “no reliance could be

placed on any of the assurances given by the Nazi leaders”

German expansion: Poland

• It was clear that the next Target that Hitler was going to hurt was Poland

• Poland had been dismantled as a country in the 18th century in partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austrian Empire

• After Wilson's aims of self-determination at Versailles it had became a nation and it was a part of the treaty of Versailles and the one that the Germans resented the most as the less pressure had been given up to Poland and allowing you to have access to the sea

• Thereby splitting East Prussia was being completely disconnected from the rest of Germany.

• This was known as the Polish corridor

• Less than a week after the occupation

• of Prague, the Germans proposed to

• Poland that Danzig should be returned to Germany, and that Germany

• should have direct access to East Prussia via a German-controlled

• road and rail link. This was actually a more legitimate demand than

• the German claim to the Sudetenland, which had not been part of

• Germany before the First World War. However, Poland’s foreign

• minister Colonel Beck refused, seeing this as the start of an attack on

• Polish territory.

• included the city of Danzig, which became a “free city” run by the League of Nations, allowing both Poland and Germany to use it as a sea port.

• Less than a week after the occupation of Prague, the Germans proposed to

• Poland that Danzig should be returned to Germany, and that Germany

• should have direct access to East Prussia via a German-controlled

• road and rail link.

• This was actually a more legitimate demand than the German claim to the Sudetenland, which had not been part of Germany before the First World War.

• However, Poland’s foreign minister Colonel Beck refused, seeing this as the start of an attack on Polish territory

Britain’s guarantee to Poland

• In March 1939 Hitler asked if the Lithuanian government to hand over

Memel.

• Lithuania was a Baltic state that had been made independent from Russia in 1919

• Memel was the city and a strip of land was border with East Prussia and had a stop Central German population.

• Lithuania was not strong enough to stand up to Hitler so they gave up and handed over their land in 4 days and this is when Britain decided to act and on March 30th I guarantee was offered to Poland to help in the event of a attack

In the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence, and

which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with

their national forces, His Majesty’s Government would feel themselves bound

at once to lend the Polish Government all support in their power. They have

given the Polish Government an assurance to this effect.

I may add that the French Government have authorised me to make it plain that

they stand in the same position in this matter as do His Majesty’s Government.

• The Anglo polish treaty failed to make Hitler more conscious and his actions.

• He was furious about the opposition to his plans commenting “ “I’ll cook them a stew that they’ll choke on”.

• 2 days after the British guaranteed to Poland Hitler responded by declaring an anglo-german Naval agreement invalid.

• Then he ended the 1934 non-aggression pact with Poland

• Hitler ordered  Chief of Staff, Keitel, to prepare for the attack on Poland. (Operation White)

• Hitler wanted unlimited war while for France and Britain he wanted a more wider war

Changing international alignments: The Pact of Steel

May 1939

-As international tensions continued to rise with Mussolini's invasion of Albania.

-This action was caused by Muslims attempt to show his independence of Hitler and to show his own importance internationally

• And in Britain and France perspective they looked like coordinated actions between the two dictators

• So they sent guarantees to both Greece and Romania

• The Germans supported Mussolini's actions in Albania and muslimi thought that he needed Hitler's support given the hostile reactions of the British in the French.

• Leading to a pack of steel with Germany

• We're by each power agreed to come to the aid of others if it came involved in hostilities “contrary to its wishes and desires”

• However Mussolini was very wary I'm trying to get into a full scale war

• Privately he made a clear to Hitler that Italy would not be ready for war for another three or four years

• Nevertheless, Hitler was intent on an immediate war with Poland. The day after the signing of the Pact of Steel, he told his generals: “we are left with the decision: to attack Poland at the rst suitable opportunity”. As Kershaw writes, “War for [Hitler] was no conventional military conict. It represented the decisive step towards the fullment of his ‘idea’, the accomplishment of his ‘mission’”

The Nazi–Soviet Pact

• In the summer of 1939 both the Western democracies and the Hitler approached the Soviet Union for an alliance

• Even though Hitler hates the Communist Russia his plans for “Lebensraum” in the East and alliance with the Soviet Union at this stage be really desirable and it would prevent the Soviets from formula lines with Britain and France.

• It would secure Soviet neutrality in the war with Poland so he would not have a war on two fronts

• The Soviet Union had initially favored the alliance with Brandon France but in 1934 the Soviet Union had joined the League of Nations an alarmed by  the growing power of Hitler

• He had hoped that collected security would work to prevent Hitler's aggression but Western democracies were still suspicious of communist government and had worked to appease Hitler.

• The French worked alone and had signed in defensive pact with the Soviet Union in response to the German armament in 1935 but all this came crashing down after the Munich agreement

• Despite the mean agreement was seeming to stolen a capitulation to the Nazis

• He renewed a proposal of a military alliance with the West following Hitler’s occupation of Prague.

• Negotiations dragged on on both sides and everyone was distrusting each other meanwhile Stalin had made it clear to the Germans that he would welcome an agreement as a result on August 24th 1939 Germany pulled off one of the most controversial and cynical lines is in modern history

• Under this non-aggression pack Soviet Union and Nazi Germany would please to remain neutral in an event of the nation being attacked by a third party

• This pack included a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into Germany and the Soviet spheres of influence

• the Baltic states and Bessarabia in Romania were to be in the Russian sphere, and Poland was to be divided between the two powers.

For Hitler, this alliance meant that he could have a free hand in Poland and

that he could avoid fighting a war on two fronts. He could also get valuable

raw materials from the Soviet Union. He clearly regarded it as a short-term

expedient due to his long-term plans for attaining Lebensraum in the East.

For Stalin, there were also considerable advantages, as follows.

● It would keep the Soviet Union out of a war. This was important as

it faced a threat in the East from Japan, and the army was weakened

after Stalin’s purges (see glossary box).

● There was always the hope that Germany and the West would weaken

each other in the war and that the Soviet Union would emerge as the

strongest nation.

● He got considerable territorial gains from the pact: half of Poland and

the opportunity to take over Finland and the Baltic States.

● The Soviet Union could keep trading with Germany: Germany was

to send mechanical goods to the Soviet Union in return for raw

materials and foodstuffs (see Source B below for the importance of

this to Germany).

The outbreak of war

Even though Brandon France kept assuring Poland Hitler did not believe that they would take action at all and they would never declare war.

Hitler could not conceive that Britain and France, having failed to ght

for a militarily strong and democratic Czechoslovakia a year before despite

the assurance of Soviet aid, would now ght to save a militarily weak and

undemocratic Poland without the prospect of Soviet aid”. — Stackelberg, 1999

• Hitler was therefore taken back when he heard that Britain and Poland had signed a full military Alliance in August 25th 1939

• Mussolini had informed him that he was not ready for war at the same time

• Would you like to Hitler delaying his attack on Poland for the 26th of August until the 1st of September

• Hoping to cause some division between the British and the Polish

• I gave him some time to conjure up a last-minute proposal to the British. Involving a guarantee to the British Empire and trying to reach an agreement on disarmament on the conditions that Britain gives to Germany. (a free hand in Danzig and the Polish Corridor.)

• However, this was not taken up by Britain. The Poles also refused further negotiation.

• On August 31st Mussolini proposed that the conference should be held to resolve the crisis however Hitler wanted to have war and it was not prepared to wait for any peace negotiations

• The same evening Germany claim that one of its wireless stations near the Polish border had been attacked by the poles when in reality SS soldiers dressed and polish uniforms had stage the attack

• To make it feel authentic they left behind bodies of convicted criminals who are dressed in Polish uniforms

• Killed by lethal injection and shot

• It was an excuse for war

• At 4:45 a.m. on September 1st 1939 German troops invaded Poland and German planes bombed Warsaw

• On September 3rd the British government presented an ultimatum to Germany to call the attack by 11:00 a.m. when no response was heard Brennan friends declared war hoping that were on Poland would be a localized affair in fact at least the most destructive war of all time

Hitler’s actions after the declaration of war

• Following the British declaration of war, Hitler launched an attack on

Poland.

• Subjected to a “blitzkrieg” style of war, the Poles were quickly

defeated, and Germany and the USSR divided up Poland along the

so-called Ribbentrop–Molotov line as had been agreed in the Nazi-Soviet

Pact of 1939.

• The Germans were now able to transfer most of their forces

to the west.

The phoney war

• In October 1939, Hitler offered peace proposals but very few people

in Britain now trusted Hitler, and these were not taken up.

• However,there was no direct action from Hitler against the West for the next few

months. This was the period known as “the phoney war”.

Hitler takes over Europe

The calm of the phoney war was broken in April 1940. These are the key

events, 1939–40:

● Hitler’s troops occupied Denmark and landed at the Norwegian ports

in April 1940.

● 10 May, Germany attacked Holland, Belgium and France

simultaneously. Again, Hitler achieved swift victories. The Dutch

surrendered after four days; Belgium at the end of May. British

troops had to evacuate from Dunkirk in June 1940 as the invading

German troops swept through France.

● After the British had left, the Germans moved southwards; Paris

was captured 14th June and France surrendered 22nd June.

The Germans occupied northern France and the Atlantic coast;

unoccupied France was allowed its own government under Marshal

Petain; however it had no real independence

● To secure the defeat of Britain in the planned invasion called

“Operation Sea lion”, the Germans needed control of the air over the

English Channel. This led to the Battle for Britain during the summer

and autumn of 1940 as the British Royal Air Force fought Luftwaffe

planes in the skies above the coast of Britain.

● Although on the verge of defeating the RAF, Hitler switched to the

bombing of London and other British cities. This marked the start

of the Blitz. Hitler hoped that this would break the morale of the

British, however by the middle of 1941, this was still not the case.

It was at this point that Hitler decided to turn back to one of his main

foreign policy aims: achieving lebensraum in the East. Thus, Hitler

launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union in June

1941 with Britain still undefeated. Hitler anticipated that the attack

against the Soviet Union would end in a speedy Soviet defeat, after

which he would be able to return to finish off Britain. However, far

from ensuring a victorious final, the invasion of the Soviet Union

would ensure that the war would go on for much longer and that

Hitler would eventually be defeated.