THE ROAD TO WAR 1939 - HITLER'S FOREIGN POLICY AIMS. Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. He ruled absolutely until his death by suicide in April 1945. Adolf Hitler came to power with the goal of establishing a new racial order in Europe dominated by the German “master race.” This goal drove Nazi foreign policy, which aimed to: throw off the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles; incorporate territories with ethnic German populations into the Reich; acquire a vast new empire in Eastern Europe; form alliances; and, during the war, persuade other states to participate in the “final solution.”

1. CONTENT
ROAD TO WAR
HITLER’S
FOREIGN POLICY
AIMS
4

2. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
HITLER COMING TO POWER
Because of the Depression the world was becoming a more dangerous
place, but the real turning point was in 1933 when Hitler came to
power in Germany.
His first acts were not encouraging.

3. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
HITLER’S FIRST MEASURE: START REARMING
Hitler walked out of Disarmament Conference in 1933.
He did not see why the size of Germany’s armed forces should remain
restricted by the Treaty of Versailles while other countries did little to
nothing about disarmament.

4. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
HITLER’S SECOND MEASURE: EXITING LON
Hitler took Germany out of the League of Nations. The LON’s job was
to defend the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler was determined to destroy it.

5. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
HITLER’S FOREIGN POLICY ABOUT RACE
Hitler’s foreign policy was influenced by his ideas about race, which he
described in Mein Kampf in 1924, while in prison.
He believed the Aryan races were superior to all other races, and the
Germans are the most superior of all Aryan races.
He believed that Jews and Slavs are inferior races.

6. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
AIMS OF HITLER’S FOREIGN POLICY
1. TO MAKE GERMANY GREAT AGAIN
- this would involve ignoring the terms of the TOV, rearming, taking back land
Germany had lost in the treaty.
2. REARMAMENT
- Hitler was determined to build up Germany’s armed forces.
3. TO RECOVER THE LANDS GERMANY HAD LOST
- to build a greater Germany where all the Germans could live together.
4. LEBENSRAUM
- To expand into the Eastern Europe and Russia, which would provide “living
space” for the growing population of Germany. Hitler justified this by the fact
that these areas were inhabited by the inferior races (Gypsies, Jews, Slavs).
5. BUILDING UP A CENTRAL EUROPEAN EMPIRE

7. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
LEBENSRAUM
1. Lebensraum means “living space”.
2. For Hitler it meant conquering land in the east for colonisation.
3. He thought Germany was over-populated, and needed more land
to guarantee future food supply and autarky (self sufficiency).
4. Note that the Japanese also invaded Manchuria in 1931 for “living
space”!

8. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
KEY POINT
1. YOU CAN SEE FROM THIS AIMS THAT HITLER DID NOT MAKE A
SECRET OF WHAT HIS AIMS WERE.
2. REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU LATER READ ABOUT WHAT HE DID
AND HOW OTHER COUNTRIES LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT.