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B A L T I C
S E A
N O R T H
EAST PRUSSIA
S E A
POLAND
1939
NETHERLANDS
GERMANY
Rhineland
1936
BELGIUM
Sudetenland
1938
REST OF
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1939
LUXEMBOURG
Saar 1935
KEY
FRANCE
Germany
in 1933
SWITZERLAND
0
100
200
300
400
500 km
AUSTRIA 1938
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1PMBOEXPVMENFBOUIBUUIF8FTUFSOQPXFSTPODFBHBJOXPVMEUBLFOPBDUJPO
R E VI E W Q UE S TI O N S
1 Why was the Rhineland called a demilitarised zone?
2 When was the Anschluss with Austria?
3 What was Hitlers excuse for starting the Sudetenland crisis?
4 Why didnt Hitler expect Britain and France to help Poland?
Historians differ in their attempts to explain Hitlers foreign policy. Intentionalists argue that Hitler
had long-term and detailed plans for war, whereas the Structuralist view is that Hitler had no specific
plans, but just took advantage of opportunities as they arose.
Source 11.24
Source 11.25
Hitler was not really planning for war in 1939. The proof of
this lay in the level of German rearmament which by 1939
was by no means great enough to sustain a European, let
alone a world, war.
A. J. P. Taylor cited in J. Jenkins, Hitler and Nazism,
Longman, 1998, p. 11213.
Overy argues that the Blitzkrieg theory does not fit the
facts. Hitler planned for a total war, though well after 1939,
and when war broke out Germany mobilised as fast as it
could. Things went wrong when economic planning got
out of phase with foreign policy. He supports this argument
by citing:
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was much bigger than was needed for Blitzkrieg.
War coming in 1939 threw the long-term plans into
confusion showing up unsolved structural problems in
the Nazi economy.
D O C U M E N T ST UDY Q UE S TI O N S
1 How do Taylor in Source 11.24 and Overy in Source 11.25 differ in their interpretation
of German foreign policy?
2 Read and discuss the points outlined in the section on Hitlers foreign policy, then,
aided by your own research, indicate which view you support and why. For more
information on Nazi foreign policy from 1935 to 1939, read Chapter 15.