Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Did Hitler have 'Master Plan' for war or was he an Opportunist? -…
Did Hitler have 'Master Plan' for war or was he an Opportunist?
Intentionalist
Mein Kampf
"not settle for 1914 frontiers"
Outlined his want for 'lebensraum'
Showed his foreign policy which involved goals of diplomacy and military force
Shows his ideas were deeply held long term
Hitler's speeches
1937 "we are going to fight"
1939 "last territorial demand in Europe"
1935 "Germany needs space ... take it by force"
The Second Book (Stufenplan)
Was a 'step by step plan'
Involved removal of the Treaty of Versailles restrictions
1) End French alliances with Easter Europe)
2) Defeat France
3) Invade Russia
War for world supremacy (against the US) in about 1942/43
Written in 1928 and released in 1958
Established 2 main enemies of Russia and France and proposed 2 potential allies of Britain or Italy
Argued by Professor Trevor-Roper
The Four Year Plan
Launched in 1936
Introduced policies like autarky in preparation for war in critical areas like oil, rubber, and metals
Involved increasing agricultural and armaments production
'guns v butter' debate
Demonstrates long term plan of an 'inevitable' war
The Hossbach memorandum 1937
Needed a military expansion and set out a timeline at this meeting
Talked about plans for Anschluss, Czechoslovakia and general war in 1942/43
Meeting recorded outlining Hitlers aggressive expansion in Europe
Hitler spoke about necessity for war with Britain and France: “German policy must reckon with its two hateful enemies, England and France,"
Overall, Hitler's actions aligned closely with his claims
Opportunist
The Hossbach Memorandum
Not a verbatim transcript but a recollection of a meeting drafted five days later by Hitler’s military adjutant, Colonel Hossbach
Dismisses the minutes of the conferences as convincing evidence as Hitler wouldn't want to reveal his inmost thoughts to his generals
Mein Kampf
Wasn't coherent or systematic
Written when Hitler was still consolidating power
Written when Hitler was trying to appeal (Munich Putsch)
Didn't outline concrete plans
It was an example of Hitler being a coffee house talker and a dreamer rather than a planner
Ideological posturing
AJP Taylor didn't read this before he wrote his book and has said he regrets not doing so
WW2
Shocked at the outbreak and said to Foreign Minister Ribbentrop "What now?"
Hitler had underestimated Britain loyalty to Poland
Caused by blunders on all sides in 1939
Believed Hitler was only trying to scare the Western powers with his preparations for war and that with a bit of shaking they would drop their plums
Argued by AJP Taylor in his book ‘The Origins of World War Two’ (1961)
Taking opportunities
Only reason his foreign policy worked for a while
Britain and France were focused on Italy and Abyssinia so Hitler took this time to remilitarise the Rhineland
Took Britain appeasement policy as a way to make territorial gain without war (Naval agreement and The Munich Conference)
Took advantage of the fact the USSR and France were weak by internal political and economic instability
Anschluss was triggered by Chancellor Schuschnigg who called plebiscite in Austria, which would've been a political setback for Hitler if he had allowed it to take place
Internal problems between Czechs and Slovaks in March 1939 that led to the German invasion
Structuralist/ functionalist
Argued by Martin Broszat and Hans Mommsen
Argues that Hitler's foreign policy was a result of the decentralised, fragmented composition of the Nazi regime which led to competing interest
Believes figures like Goering and Ribbentrop individuals often pursued their own agendas, leading to conflicts and inconsistent policy decisions
Tim Mason and the Role of Economic factors
The economic crisis in the early 1930s led to unhealthy competition in the Nazi state leading to crisis within
Tensions between the Office of the Four Year Plan
Tensions between the military and industrial leaders
Pressure on living standards
Inflationary pressures
Poor labour relations
Possibility of unrest
Food and fuel shortages
Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 to alleviate the pressures on the German economy by acquiring resources, including labour and raw materials and to strengthen the dictatorship in Germany
The issues with German society and the economy in 1939 drove Hitler into war
Argued that the full employment that was achieved under the regime increased the amount of money therefore increasing inflation and this led to lightning strikes and class warfare so invaded to divert conflicts and plunder
Did Hitler have full control?
Germany’s Foreign Office had many conservative aristocrats who initially maintained influence over foreign policy
Konstantin von Neurath and other pre-Nazi officials had policies which involved the breaking down of the Treaty of Versailles without war
General Beck and other members of the Wehrmacht opposed Hitler's aggressive expansionist ideas
Hermann Göering played a significant role in pushing for the Anschluss with Austria in 1938 by contacting the Austria Chancellor
Ribbentrop actively promoted aggressive policies like the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, which facilitated the invasion of Poland