Functionalist vs Structuralist Arguments

Question 1

Structuralist or Functionalist

Hitler had a masterplan for his foreign policy and for war from the start, which was outlined in Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”; his book first published in 1925)

Answer 1

Intentionalist

Question 2

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Regardless of whether Hitler had a master plan for war, or responded to events as they occurred, he intended to go to war.

Answer 2

Intentionalist

Question 3

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Certain pressures affected Hitler’s foreign policy: (1) from inside the party; (2) from social groups (e.g. industrialists); (3) external factors (e.g. the world economy)

Answer 3

Functionalist

Question 4

Intentionalist or Functionalist

German rulers, historically, followed a policy of expansionism. Hitler and the Nazis merely continued this policy after 1933

Answer 4

Intentionalist

Question 5

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Events in the rest of the world, and the intentions and actions of other world leaders, had a significant effect on whether the world went to war.
Hitler simply took advantage of international circumstances

Answer 5

Functionalist

Question 6

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Hitler had a step-by-step plan (Stufenplan) to either: (1) take over Eastern Europe; (2) take over Europe, then the Middle East and the British colonies, then the rest of the world

Answer 6

Intentionalist

Question 7

Intentionalist or Functionalist

A.J.P. Taylor (1961), The Origins of the Second World War: While Hitler wanted a German empire, he did not have a master plan, nor did he necessarily intend to go to war in 1939.
He mainly reacted to events at home and abroad.

Answer 7

Functionalist

Question 8

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Fritz Fischer (1961), Germany’s Aims in the First World War: Nazi foreign policy continued a long-held German expansion policy, rather than being a new policy. Hitler’s foreign policy was simply a continuation of earlier German foreign policy.

Answer 8

Intentionalist

Question 9

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Historians’ interpretations soon after WWlI
(1945): Nazi expansionist foreign policy or, more specifically, Hitler’s expansionist foreign policy took the world to war in 1939.

Answer 9

Intentionalist

Question 10

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Hitler always intended to destroy the state at Poland, unite all German-speaking peok and create a Lebensraum (a Nazi racial empire).

Answer 10

Intentionalist

Question 11

Intentionalist or Functionalist

Hitler, in the case of Poland, wanted to eliminate what he regarded as a potential threat to Germany. War [with Poland] was not at first in his mind.

Answer 11

Functionalist