German Rearmament

• 1933 (Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany)

• Within a week, he tells German military leaders that his ultimate foreign policy goal was to control lands to Germany’s East and to seek the ruthless Germanization

• One thing stood in Hitler’s way – Germany’s military weakness

• Victors of the WWI had written the Treaty of Versailles to keep Germany from threatening the rest of Europe ever again:

• Germany could have no more than 100,000 troops, the size of its navy was limited

• Germany bared from having an air force

• None of that mattered to Hitler – soon after consolidating power at home, he moved to rebuild the German military

• He ordered the creation of the Luftwaffe (the German air force)

• Launched plans to create army three times larger than what the Treaty allowed

• Initially Hitler kept these decisions secret – In public he proclaimed Germany’s peaceful intentions and its commitment to honor its international obligations

• All that changed on March 16, 1935 – Hitler announced that Germany was reintroducing a military draft – goal of creating more than half a million troops

• Also confirmed (what had long been rumored) that the Luftwaffe had 800 planes

• Hitler made his announcement based on a simple calculation: That the other European powers would grumble, but they wouldn’t go to war to enforce Treaty of Versailles

• He was right – Britain, France, Italy, and the L.O.N. all condemned Germany’s rearmament, but they did nothing to make Hitler pay a price

• This tepid reaction only emboldened Hitler.

• It won’t be till 1939 when Germany invades Poland, that the rest of the world will confront rather than appease