There has been much debate amongst historians about Hitler's aims:
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Some historians argue he had no aims at all, making up his policies as he went along, responding to situations when they arose. |
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Some historians argue that Hitler wanted a 'Greater Germany' (the invasions of Austria and the Sudetenland were claimed by Hitler to be the regaining of Germans for Germany) – but others have pointed out that ‘the move into the rest of Czechoslovakia showed that Hitler wanted more than just German land’. |
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The historian AJP Taylor argued that Hitler simply continued the aggressive foreign policy of pre-WWI Germany – but others point out that he did not seek the return of Germany's former colonies. |
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Many historians – and Hitler himself – claimed that he wanted to reverse the Treaty of Versailles: |
My foreign policy was to abolish the Treaty of Versailles. It is futile nonsense for the rest of the world to pretend today that I did not reveal this program until 1933 or 1935 or 1937. Instead of listening to foolish chatter, these gentlemen would have been wiser to read what I have written thousands of times.
Hitler, talking on 15 March 1939.
– yet he left Germany's new western frontiers with France and Belgium intact.
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Von
Ribbentrop claimed that Hitler’s primary motive was fear of
Communist Russia – “Hitler wanted a strong Reich at home and armed
against all eventualities should a military power arise in the
East”. |
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How
important was the policy of Lebensraum? |
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Did Hitler want war all along – perhaps to re-fight World War One? Was World War Two a successful climax or a disastrous end to Hitler's foreign policy? Hitler himself said that "for me, war is a means to other ends” and during the war he claimed "I am a war leader against my own will." |
based on ideas in the Wellington College, Belfast, website