The Rise of Germany

 

   The Nazi party came to power in Germany in January 1933, pledged to tear up the Treaty of Versailles which had drastically cut down the size of Germany. The country would be restored to its 'rightful' place as the most powerful in Europe and all those Germans living in areas outside the Reich would be incorporated into the 'Greater Germany'. The treaty had limited Germany's armed forces to a 100,000 man army, and no airforce. But under General Hans von Seeckt, the army was organized as a highly trained, professional framework for a much larger force which could one day be raised by conscription. Development of tanks and military aircraft went ahead under various disguises -- much of it undertaken in the Soviet Union  -- and civilian flying schools built up a pool of trained pilots. Thus in the spring of 1935, Hitler was able to announce that Germany repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, that she now had an air force, and that conscription would be introduced to bring the army up to 300,000 men.

  The Western democracies, Britain and France, made no effective protest and this convinced Hitler that they had lost the will to act decisively. In March 1936 he openly proved this by reoccupying the Rhineland -- against the advice of his generals who knew that the army was still under trained, under equipped, and far smaller than that of France.

German troops cross border during the annexation in March 1938

   In March 1938, with the apparent approval of the bulk of her population, Austria was annexed to the Reich.

Once again, Britain and France made no effort to prevent it. Despite warnings, their governments were determined to avoid war and preferred to give way to Hitler rather than run any risks. But in the autumn of 1938 the Fuhrer made his first overt move against independence state, when he demanded that the Sudetenland  - the western border of Czechoslovakia - with its 3,000,000 Germans should be annexed to the Reich, because its inhabitants were being maltreated by the native population. Czechoslovakia was a model democracy, prosperous and socially advanced, with large well equipped armed forces and defenses which would have proved a difficult opponent for the Germans. The government prepared to resist, but as Hitler had for
seen, under pressure from Britain and France an 'honorable' solution was found guaranteeing 'peace in our time'. The Sudetenland with all of the Czech frontier defenses was handed over to Germany. Hitler had removed a potentially difficult threat on his southern flank and was further convinced that nothing to fear from Britain and France. In March 1939 he completed the occupation of Czechoslovakia, but now at last the Western democracies had realized the true nature of his plans and begun to rearm. However, it would take time to redress the years of inactivity and the German forces were now more than equal in strength to their probable opponents. Hitler was ready to turn on his next victim -- Poland -- where the Danzig corridor cutting off East Prussia from the Reich presented an invited excuse for intervention.