Hitler's Foreign Policy (1933 - 1938)

Hitler’s Plans

Abolish the Treaty of Versailles - Believed that the treaty was unjust. Hated the German leaders who signed it “The November Criminals”. Hitler had promised that if the became leader of Germany he would reverse the treaty which he believed was humiliation by the Allies. When he was elected (1933), Germany stopped making reparation payments.

Expand German Territory - Treaty had taken away much land which he wanted back.
• Wanted Germany to unite (Anschluss) with Austria
• Wanted German minorities in other countries to become part of a greater Germany
• Wanted to carve out an empire in Eastern Europe to give “Lebensraum” for Germans

Defeat Communism - A German empire carved out of the Soviet Union would help Hitler defeat communism as Hitler was anti-communist. He feared that the Bolsheviks helped to defeat Germany in WW1 and also believed that they wanted to take over Germany.

Rearmament (1933)

One of his first steps was to increase armed forces. Thousands of unemployed workers were drafted in which also helped solve unemployment (a major problem in Germany). It also helped him to deliver his promise to make Germany strong again.

In order to avoid other countries being alarmed, Rearmament was originally secret. He made a great public display showing his desire not to rearm as the countries had refused to disarm. He then pulled Germany from the League of Nations.

1935 - Hitler openly staged massive rally celebrating German armed forces. Conscription was re introduced. This was against the treaty but he got away with it as many other countries were also using rearmament to fight unemployment. League of Nations Disarmament Conference in 1934 collapsed which showed that the other nations were not prepared to disarm.

Advantages of Rearmament 

• Boosted Nazi support
• Knew Britain would be sympathetic as they had originally believed that the restrictions on Army were too tight
• Britain understood that the permitted force was too small to protect the country
• Thought Germany would be a good buffer against communism

Britain had signed a naval agreement in 1935 allowing Germany to increase its navy up to 35% the size of the British Navy. French were angry but there was little that the could do.

The Saar Plebiscite (1935)

Was given to France for 15 years by Treaty of Versailles. In 1935 it was promised by the LON to have a plebiscite for people to vote whether their region should return to German rule. 90% of the population (legit) voted to return to German rule.

Remilitarisation of the Rhineland (March 1936)

Was demilitarised in TOV. Hitler’s first major risky move was placing troops in the Rhineland. If he was forced to withdraw, he would be humiliated and would have lost support of the German Army (many generals were already unsure about him).

France had  signed a treaty (Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance)with the USSR to protect each other from Germany. Hitler used this to claim that German was under threat.  He argued that he should have the right to station troops on his own frontier in the face of such a threat.  Many British people felt that he had rights to do and therefore Hitler was  fairly confident that Britain would not intervene.

Hitler’s army were instructed to pull out if French acted against them. Hitler’s army was no match for that of France as Hitler lacked essential equipment and air support.

The LON were busy with the Abyssinian crisis and therefore condemned Hitler’s actions and did not have the power to do anything else. The French had no idea about how weak the German army was and therefore decided not to start a war without British support. This increases Hitler’s confidence.

Spanish Civil War (1936)

Civil war between Communists (supporters of the Republican government) and right wind rebels under  General Franco. This meant that Hitler could fight against Communism and also try out his new armed forces. In 1937 German aircraft made devastating bombing raids on civilian populations in Spanish cities. The destruction of Guernica was terrible.

The Anti-Comintern Pact  (1936-1937)

Mussolini was involved in the Spanish Civil War also and saw that he had much in common with Hitler and the military dictatorship in Japan. In 1936 Germany and Japan signed the pact, Italy also signed it in 1937. The aim was to limit Communist influence around the world, mainly in USSR. The new alliance was known as the Axis Alliance

Anschluss with Austria (1938)

Failed attempt in 1934 as Mussolini stopped him but now they are allies.
Hitler was confident due to the earlier successes. Austria’s people were mainly German and Hitler believed that they should belong together as one German nation. Austria supported the idea as their country was so economically weak.

There was a strong Nazi party in Austria. Hitler encouraged the party to stir up trouble for the government. They staged demonstrations calling for union. They caused riots. Hitler pressurised Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg that only Anschluss could sort out the problems. Schu asked for help from Britain and France but they disagreed (lol). Schu therefore called a plebiscite to see whether the Austrian people wanted to unite or not. He sent troops to Australia in March 1938 in order to ensure that he didn’t lose. 99.75% voted for Anschluss. Chamberlain believed that they had a right to be united and that the TOV was wrong for splitting them. Lord Halifax had even suggested before Anschluss that Britain would not resist Germany and Austria uniting.