1. The Role of Hitler and Ideas Shaping His Conduct of German Foreign Policy

Question 1

‘Mein Kampf’ (‘My Struggle’) book:

1. Who wrote it?
2. When was it written?
3. Why was it significant?

Answer 1

1. Adolf Hitler
2. 1924
3. Reflected some of the themes that dominated Hitler’s 1933-45 foreign policy, such as national revival

Question 2

What were Hitler’s four key long-term aims/ideas shaping his foreign policy?

Answer 2

1. National revival, partly by ending Germany’s commitment to the Treaty of Versailles
2. ‘Lebensraum’
3. German people were a ‘master race’
4. Communism was a threat

Question 3

Hossbach Memorandum:

1. When did this occur?
2. What happened in this meeting attended by Hitler’s commanders-in-chief and foreign and war ministers?

Answer 3

1. 5th November, 1937
2. Hitler said that his overriding aim was to acquire ‘Lebensraum’ in Europe, at the latest by 1943-5. He would, however, move against Czechoslovakia and Austria before this if France was distracted by either civil war or hostility with Italy.

Question 4

How was Hitler opportunistic? Give an example from the 1930s.

Answer 4

You could have said:

Reoccupation of the Rhineland: Hitler saw that the British were not opposed to the reoccupation, and France was concentrated on the Abyssinian Crisis.

OR

When Hungary and Poland moved to divide Czechoslovakia, Hitler saw an opportunity to take control of the industrialised portions of Czechoslovakia and proceeded to do so.

OR

Any other way Hitler exploited Britain and France’s appeasement policy

Question 5

Hitler under pressure to produce, from the German government and/or public, something of real importance to them:

1. What was this thing of real importance?
2. How did this influence Hitler’s foreign policy?

Answer 5

1. The return of land of the German Empire
2. Made his foreign policy more aggressively expansionist

Question 6

Why did Hitler’s policies cause war?

Answer 6

Britain and France were unprepared to accept a dominant Germany at the heart of central Europe.