In late March 1938, while Germany was yet in the process of annexing Austria, another conflict, the “Sudetenland Crisis” occurred, where ethnic Germans, who formed the majority population in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, demanded autonomy and the right to join the Nazi Party. Hitler supported these demands, citing the Sudeten Germans’ right to self-determination. The Czechoslovak government refused, and in May 1938, mobilized for war. In response, Hitler secretly asked the German High Command to prepare for war, to be launched in October 1938. Britain and France, anxious to avoid war at all costs by not antagonizing Hitler (a policy called appeasement), pressed Czechoslovakia to yield, with the British even stating that the Sudeten Germans’ demand for autonomy was reasonable. In early September 1938, the Czechoslovak government agreed to the demands. Then when civilian unrest broke out in the Sudetenland which the Czechoslovakian police quelled, in mid-September 1938, a furious Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany in order to stop the supposed slaughter of Sudeten Germans. Under great pressure from Britain and France, on September 21, 1938, the Czechoslovak government relented, and agreed to cede the Sudetenland. But the next day, Hitler made new demands, which Czechoslovakia rejected and again mobilized for war. In a frantic move to avert war, the Prime Ministers of Britain and France, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, respectively, together with Mussolini, met with Hitler, and on September 29, 1938, the four men signed the Munich Pact, where the Sudetenland was formally ceded to Germany. Two days later, Czechoslovakia accepted the fait accompli, knowing it would not be supported by Britain and France in a war with Germany. In succeeding months, Czechoslovakia disintegrated as a sovereign state: the Slovak region separated, aligning with Germany as a puppet state; other regions were annexed by Hungary and Poland; and in March 1939, the rest of the Czech portion of the country was occupied by Germany.
(Taken from Events Leading up to War in Europe – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)
Hitler and Nazis in Power In October 1929, the severe economic crisis known as the Great Depression began in the United States, and then spread out and affected many countries around the world. Germany, whose economy was dependent on the United States for reparations payments and corporate investments, was badly hit, and millions of workers lost their jobs, many banks closed down, and industrial production and foreign trade dropped considerably.
The Weimar government weakened politically, as many Germans turned to radical ideologies, particularly Hitler’s ultra-right wing nationalist Nazi Party, as well as the German Communist Party. In the 1930 federal elections, the Nazi Party made spectacular gains and became a major political party with a platform of improving the economy, restoring political stability, and raising Germany’s international standing by dealing with the “unjust” Versailles treaty. Then in two elections held in 1932, the Nazis became the dominant party in the Reichstag (German parliament), albeit without gaining a majority. Hitler long sought the post of German Chancellor, which was the head of government, but he was rebuffed by the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg[1], who distrusted Hitler. At this time, Hitler’s ambitions were not fully known, and following a political compromise by rival parties, in January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, with few Nazis initially holding seats in the new Cabinet. The Chancellorship itself had little power, and the real authority was held by the President (the head of state).
On the night of February 27, 1933, fire broke out at the Reichstag, which led to the arrest and execution of a Dutch arsonist, a communist, who was found inside the building. The next day, Hitler announced that the fire was the signal for German communists to launch a nationwide revolution. On February 28, 1933, the German parliament passed the “Reichstag Fire Decree” which repealed civil liberties, including the right of assembly and freedom of the press. Also rescinded was the writ of habeas corpus, allowing authorities to arrest any person without the need to press charges or a court order. In the next few weeks, the police and Nazi SA paramilitary carried out a suppression campaign against communists (and other political enemies) across Germany, executing communist leaders, jailing tens of thousands of their members, and effectively ending the German Communist Party. Then in March 1933, with the communists suppressed and other parties intimidated, Hitler forced the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act, which allowed the government (i.e. Hitler) to enact laws, even those that violated the constitution, without the approval of parliament or the president. With nearly absolute power, the Nazis gained control of all aspects of the state. In July 1933, with the banning of political parties and coercion into closure of the others, the Nazi Party became the sole legal party, and Germany became de facto a one-party state.
At this time, Hitler grew increasingly alarmed at the military power of the SA, particularly distrusting the political ambitions of its leader, Ernst Rohm. On June 30-July 2, 1934, on Hitler’s orders, the loyalist Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel; English: Protection Squadron) and Gestapo (Secret Police) purged the SA, killing hundreds of its leaders including Rohm, and jailing thousands of its members, violently bringing the SA organization (which had some three million members) to its knees. The purge benefited Hitler in two ways: First, he became the undisputed leader of the Nazi apparatus, and Second and equally important, his standing greatly increased with the upper class, business and industrial elite, and German military; the latter, numbering only 100,000 troops because of the Versailles treaty restrictions, also felt threatened by the enormous size of the SA.
In early August 1934, with the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed a law that abolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became both German head of state and head of government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer (leader) and Chancellor. As head of state, he also was Supreme Commander of the armed forces, making him absolute ruler and dictator of Germany.
In domestic matters, the Nazi government made great gains, improving the economy and industrial production, reducing unemployment, embarking on ambitious infrastructure projects, and restoring political and social order. As a result, the Nazis became extremely popular, and party membership grew enormously. This success was brought about from sound policies as well as through threat and intimidation, e.g. labor unions and job actions were suppressed.
Hitler also began to impose Nazi racial policies, which saw ethnic Germans as the “master race” comprising “super-humans” (Ubermensch), while certain races such as Slavs, Jews, and Roma (gypsies) were considered “sub-humans” (Untermenschen); also lumped with the latter were non-ethnic-based groups, i.e. communists, liberals, and other political enemies, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. Nazi lebensraum (“living space”) expansionism into Eastern Europe and Russia called for eliminating the Slavic and other populations there and replacing them with German farm settlers to help realize Hitler’s dream of a 1,000-year German Empire.
In Germany itself, starting in April 1933 until the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in September 1935 and beyond, Nazi racial policy was directed against the local Jews, stripping them of civil rights, banning them from employment and education, revoking their citizenship, excluding them from political and social life, disallowing inter-marriages with Germans, and essentially declaring them undesirables in Germany. As a result, tens of thousands of Jews left Germany. Hitler blamed the Jews (and communists) for the civilian and workers’ unrest and revolution near the end of World War I, ostensibly that had led to Germany’s defeat, and for the many social and economic problems currently afflicting the nation. Following anti-Nazi boycotts in the United States, Britain, and other countries, Hitler retaliated with a call to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany, which degenerated into violent riots by SA mobs that attacked and killed, and jailed hundreds of Jews, looted and destroyed Jewish properties, and seized Jewish assets. The most notorious of these attacks occurred in November 1938 in “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night), where in response to the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew in Paris, the Nazi SA and civilian mobs in Germany went on a violent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews, jailing tens of thousands of others, and looting and destroying Jewish homes, schools, synagogues, hospitals, and other buildings. Some 1,000 synagogues were burned, and 7,000 businesses destroyed.
In foreign affairs, Hitler, like most Germans, denounced the Versailles treaty, and wanted it rescinded. In 1933, Hitler withdrew Germany from the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both cases denouncing why Germany was not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.
In March 1935, Hitler announced that German military strength would be increased to 550,000 troops, military conscription would be introduced, and an air force built, which essentially meant repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles and the start of full-scale rearmament. In response, Britain, France, and Italy formed the Stresa Front meant to stop further German violations, but this alliance quickly broke down because the three parties disagreed on how to deal with Hitler.
Italy, after being denounced by the League of Nations and slapped with economic sanctions after its invasion of Ethiopia, switched sides to Germany. Mussolini and Hitler signed a series of agreements that soon led to a military alliance. Meanwhile, Britain and France continued their indecisive foreign policies toward Germany. In March 1936, in a bold move, Hitler sent troops to the Rhineland, remilitarizing the region in another violation of the Versailles treaty, but met no hostile response from the other powers. Hitler justified this move as a defensive response to the recently concluded French-Soviet mutual assistance pact, which he accused the two countries of encircling Germany, a statement that drew sympathy from some British politicians.
Nazi ideology called for unification of
all Germanic peoples into a Greater German Reich. In this context, Hitler had long sought to
annex Austria, whose indigenous
population was German, into Germany. An annexation attempt in 1934 was foiled by Italian
intervention, with Mussolini determined to go to war if Germany invaded Austria. But by 1938, German-Italian relations had
warmed and were moving toward a military alliance. With Britain
and France watching by, in
March 1938, Hitler put political pressure on Austria, and with the threat of
invasion, forced the Austrian government to resign, and cede power to the
Austrian Nazi Party. Within days, the
latter relinquished Austrian independence to Germany,
and German troops occupied Austria. In a Nazi-controlled plebiscite held in April
1938, an improbable 99.7% of Austrians voted for “Anschluss”
(political union) with Germany.
[1] Hindenburg achieved worldwide fame in World War I as Germany’s Chief of the General Staff