Introduction to Interpretations

Question 1

What points to keep thinking about?

Answer 1

Functionalist vs Intentionalist
Was it a radical change in direction or continuation of “sonderweg”?
Do other countries bear responsibility for driving WW2?
Dependent on interpretations and discovery of new evidence

Question 2

View of historians immediately after WW2?

Answer 2

Very much intentionality - Hitler’s expansionist foreign policy took the world to war and he had always intended to go to war in order to build up a German empire
Radical change in direction - almost all of the weight lies with Hitler

Question 3

What changed these original views?

Answer 3

1961 - AJP Taylor published the Origins of the Second World War which suggested that whole Hitler wanted a German empire ; he did not have a master plan and nor did he necessarily intend to go to war in 1939 ; he had simply reacted to events at home and abroad ; FUNCTIONALIST
Plus Fritz Fischer made connections between first and second world wars suggesting that Nazi Foreign policy was not a change but a continuation of a long-held Germans passion policy (Sonderweg)

Question 4

Reaction to Taylor and Fischer

Answer 4

Outcry - many said they were excusing Hitler’s actions - I think they are partially excusing him ; no one who killed 6 million Jews etc can really be excused as such ; there were other factors to play yes but unlike in WW1 where there was a catalyst with the assassination of Archduke Frank Ferdinand ; this was simply a clear Lebensraum movement by the fanatic Hitler (movement into Poland) - no excuses…?

Question 5

Understanding Hitler himself? Why is it so hard?

Answer 5

His speeches and actions varied wildly and he could make a diplomatic deal with the Poles for the polish corridor while telling others there was no option but to go to war over the territory.
Inability to make up his mind
Cunning diplomacy (different impressions of his aims)
Shifting his thinking with variations in political situation (reactionary - functionalist)

Question 6

Categories of causes for the Second World War?

Answer 6

Economic 
International
Nazi foreign policy
Treaty of Versailles
Social
Other countries’ foreign policy

Question 7

Economic

Answer 7

World-wide depression of the early 1930s helped the rise of dictators and allowed them to rise to power on the promise of revitalisation (caused resentment in populations)

Question 8

Nazi Foreign Policy

Answer 8

Expansionism

Racial purity

Question 9

Social

Answer 9

Expectations of groups within Germany - industrialists, Nazi pressure and ordinary germans

Question 10

Treaty of Versailles

Answer 10

Fed German resentment (November Criminals etc)
Created an unstable international situation with the creation of new states that argued over their borders
Made other nations more tolerant of German expansionism

Question 11

Other country’s foreign policy

Answer 11

Chamberlain and French appeasement
Western attitudes to contain communism (Russia)
US/Japanese foreign policy
Italian foreign policy
Russian foreign policy and build up of Red Army

Question 12

International

Answer 12

USA policy of non-involvement (national self-determination)
Dictatorships in Japan and Italy
Problems with League of Nations
Russia becoming communist
Desire for peace from many countries

Question 13

What if Hitler hasn’t come to power…?

Answer 13

Counterfactual history

Question 14

Validity of evidence used to formulate different interpretations?

Answer 14

How believable is what politicians say to the public

Is this more or less useful than what they say to other politicians

Question 15

How can Hitler’s foreign policy be divided?

Answer 15

Intentionalist and functionalist

Question 16

Intentionalist

Answer 16

Hitler and the Nazis will is what drove the war and he had always intended to go to war
He had a master plan outlined in Mein Kampf ; plan to take over Eastern Europe or Europe, then the Middle East and British colonies and the whole world

Question 17

Functionalist

Answer 17

Outside influences were more significant/as significant as Nazi foreign policy
Continuity of German policy of expansionism - the gap between the first and second world wars was just a lull in the same 30 years war
Events in the rest of the world and intentions and actions of others had a significant impact
Other pressures within German affected Hitler’s foreign policy - pressures inside the party, other social groups and external factors