prewar period-reading notes p. 137-142 (keylor)

1930s Germany

p. 137-142 (Keylor)

German Rearmament

• By 1933 and the Ascension of Adolf Hitler-–German rearmament was already well

advanced –A decade and a half in the making• Under the watchful eye of General Hans von

Seeckt

German Rearmament

• March, 1935- Adolf Hitler announced the official rearmament of Germany as he inherited…– A general staff that was effectively concealed within a

labyrinth of government agencies and military bureaus– The nucleus of a well-trained army of several hundred

thousand men dispersed among various police forces– Paramilitary organizations– Veterans’ associations– Rifle clubs– An embryonic air force in the form of hundreds of commercial

airline pilots with thousands of hours of flying time

German Rearmament

• March, 1935- Adolf Hitler announced the official rearmament of Germany as he inherited…– An elaborate infrastructure of munitions plants• First located in Russia during the time of Allied

inspections• Reassembled in the Ruhr Valley and capable of quickly

turning out huge quantities of war materiel that was originally banned by the Treaty of Versailles– Aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, shells, and poison gas

German Rearmament

• The extent of the German buildup was unknown to the Allies – 1927- Allied inspection teams were removed– 1930- Allied military occupation of the Rhineland

ended• Allies were left with little leverage to apply

against a rearmed Germany• The feasibility of enforcing German

disarmament began to fade by the late ‘20s

German Rearmament

• Early 1920s- Britain and the United States had demobilized their large land armies, dismantled their munitions industries, and voluntarily accepted limitations to the naval strength – Thus…they were in no position to enforce

German disarmament

The Locarno Treaties, 1925

• Signatories included the Western Allied nations as well as the newly created Central and Eastern European countries

• Purpose- to secure post-war territorial settlements and to normalize relations with Weimar Germany

• Content- divided borders in Europe into two categories– Western (guaranteed by the Locarno treaties)– Eastern borders between Germany and Poland

• Open for revision, which led to renewed German claims to Danzig, the Polish Corridor, and Upper Silesia

Geneva Disarmament Conference, 1926

• Through the Locarno treaties, Britain and Italy paved the way for the convocation of a preparatory commission on disarmament – Purpose was to study the means by which to

reduce the level of armaments in the world– France’s suspicions about Germany’s good

intentions spoiled the attempt• 1931- the conference closed shop with very

little to show for five years of deliberations

Geneva Conference, 1932

• The Great Depression and increased apprehension about the clandestine, unilateral rearmament of Germany prompted the great powers to convene an international conference on land armaments…once again

• Purpose- the hope of reaching some definitive agreement on the size of national armies


• German delegation reiterated the position that it had taken in informal exchanges with the Allied governments throughout the ‘20s– Universal disarmament as prescribed by the

Treaty of Versailles or…– Equality of arms between Germany and the other

great powers of Europe• France reneged and the German delegation

abruptly left the conference


• Britain and France promised to grant Germany “equality in a system which would provide security for all other nations in order to get the German delegation back to the negotiating table

• This time the Germans came with orders from Hitler (recently named chancellor of Germany)– An agreement for equality of arms with the other

great powers of Europe– All the while initiating a massive rearmament

program


• Purpose for Germany’s Rearmament was twofold…– Vast government expenditures for military

purposes would stimulate employment and industrial production and therefore rescue the Germany economy through deficit financing

– Military superiority in Europe

German Policy of Lebensraum

• The Malthusian Curse– Insufficient arable land with which to feed Germany’s

expanding population• Adolf Hitler’s Solution- Lebensraum

– “Living Space”– Germans would emigrate to adjacent land area to Germany’s

east that was populated by inferior races that would be subdued and then expelled or annihilated to make way for the German pioneers

– Focus was on Eastern Europe and western Russia• Areas that could supply Germany with the food and raw materials it

needed to survive and prosper as well as provide an outlet for its surplus population


• The lands east of Germany were comprised of two main ethnic groups that were detested by Adolf Hitler and therefore destined for obliteration– Slavs– Jews

• Standing in Germany’s way was France– Destruction of France would be necessary before

the policy of Lebensraum could be undertaken


• Hitler hoped to hold the British at bay by not challenging their navy and colonial holdings as the Kaiser did prior to WWI

• Hitler had an affinity towards Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini– Common distaste for the French due to perpetual

conflict over naval and colonial matters in the Mediterranean

– On the flip side, Germany’s designs on Eastern Europe and Russia posed no threat to Italy’s vital interests• Except maybe Austria [we’ll get to that later]


• Foreign Policy Goals of Hitler’s Predecessors-– Recovery of the territory lost by Germany at the

Paris Peace Conference– The annexation of adjacent regions with

substantial German populations on the basis of the principle of national self-determination

– Restoration of military parity for Germany with the other power of Europe


• Hitler’s Twist on Predecessor’s Foreign Policy-– He cared nothing about the fate of the German-

speaking citizens in neighboring countries…but…– Their grievances served as a pretext for

destroying the territorial settlement and the balance of power in Europe as a prelude to conquering and exploiting the vast expanses of territories to the east where few Germans lived but where German colonists were to be sent in some distant future


• Brit PM Ramsay MacDonald’s Compromise Plan…– Parity of national armies in Europe at 200,000 men

each to be achieved by the gradual reduction of French forces over five years

• …was rejected by the German delegation– Under orders from Hitler who told them to reject any

multilateral restrictions– Germany demanded the immediate right to

construct restricted weapons and increase the size of the standing army


• France immediately opposed Germany’s demands

• October/November, 1933- Hitler withdrew from the disarmament conference and the League of Nations, dissolved the Reichstag, and staged a referendum – Produced a 90% vote of confidence in his recent

actions in Geneva

Post-Geneva Conference, 1933

• Germany’s withdrawal from the conference and the League of Nations dealt a blow to the principle of global collective security– Side Note: Second Sino-Japanese War already

struck the first blow in Manchuria in 1931• France was devastated as they realized that

restraining Germany through the application of the pressure of world opinion was no longer in the cards


• January, 1934- Hitler creates the German-Polish nonaggression pact– Crushed France’s defensive alliance system in

Europe– Instigated by Germany because Hitler realized his

country was not ready for war and this would give him time to facilitate military preparedness


• Two Existing Sources of Friction between Poland and Germany-– A tariff war that had raged for over eight years– The political conflict between the German-speaking

majority of Danzig and the Polish government• A friendship was cemented by…– Hitler’s imposed tactical restraints on the Nazi municipal

government that had been elected in 1933 by the German-speaking majority

– Poland’s desire to gain access to German coal and agricultural surpluses


• In Hitler’s first foray into bilateral diplomacy since he threw off the constraints imposed by membership in the League of Nations, he was able to damage the French alliance system and obtained what appeared to be a considerable measure of security on Germany’s eastern flank

prewar period-reading notes p. 137-142 (keylor)

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