Hitler and Great Britain: A short story about Hitlers foreign politics by Richter Gregor

Author:Richter, Gregor [Richter, Gregor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

"That Hitler felt strong enough and considered himself weak enough to switch from courting England to a tactic of exerting pressure is very clearly shown by the change in his judgement of the British . 46 [sic]

Aggression as a new foreign policy tool

Since Mussolini and thus fascist Italy sacrificed their position of protective power over Austria in order not to end up in political isolation and to reconcile with the German Reich, Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg was forced to appease Hitler. He was aware that Hitler had already been

"Mein Kampf" propagated the reunification of all German-speaking countries and thus Austria was the first goal of a German expansion.

At no time was Austria able to assert itself militarily against the Wehrmacht and the government knew that the support phrases of the Western powers would remain without consequences. The newly appointed German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop was also sure that "this aid was not to be expected, however, because England saw no reason for a war in Central Europe, since its colonies were not threatened " 47 .

The idea of reunification was not the only one behind the calculation of German politics; the miserable financial budget had to be supported much more. Göring, who played a key role afterwards, saw the economic advantages early on.

"Göring saw quite clearly that the Alpine republic, with its stocks of iron ore, wood, crude oil and magnesite as well as its gold and foreign exchange reserves of 400 million Schilling, was able to weather the German financial and raw material crisis in the iron and steel sector and, moreover, was the strategic springboard for further German expansion into Eastern Europe " 65 .

At a meeting at the Berchtesgaden court, Hitler once again emphasized his demands on Schuschnigg to legalize the National Socialists in Austria and, at the same time, to involve them in government. He also made clear his "historical mission" and that he would "solve the so-called Austrian question " and that if the whole SS [Schutzstaffel] and Wehrmacht needed it, he would " stand overnight all at once in Vienna".

Schuschnigg now tried to alert the Western powers with a referendum on Austria's independence and to prevent a military intervention by Germany at the last moment. In vain, for Hitler mobilized the Wehrmacht on the same day and thus prepared the "Otto enterprise" [note: named after Otto von Habsburg]. Schuschnigg resigned on 11 March. The next day, 12 March, the German troops marched into Austria to the cheers of the population. As expected, England's reaction was moderate. The only country in the world that condemned the annexation was Mexico.

Encouraged by the successes in the "Austria Question" Hitler set his sights on the annexation of the Sudetenland as his next goal. Since the NSDAP supported the Sudeten German Party under Konrad Henlein with sufficient financial means, the political situation in Czechoslovakia has intensified. The infiltration of the party by National Socialists and the success of the Czech parliamentary elections led the party to turn its back on the idea of autonomy for Bohemia and Silesia.

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