Birth of the Reich

On September 12, 1919 a 29 year-old Adolph Hitler, serving as a corporal in the German Army’s Bavarian Guard, attended a meeting of the German Worker’s Party in Munich. The “political officer” in the German Army was there to spy on the activities of the group and their leader, a locksmith named Anton Drexler. When he left the meeting, the future dictator was convinced that he had found, in this fledgling party, the ideal vehicle that could raise him to supreme power. In the coming years Hitler would rise to power on the waves of political unrest, economic uncertainty, and bitter resentment of the Treaty of Versailles.

Treaty of Versailles

“This is not peace, but an armistice for 20 years.” Marshall Foch

The main terms of the Treaty were: surrender of all German colonies for distribution under a system of mandates; return of Alsace-Lorraine to France; cession of Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium; cession of Prussian Poland, parts of East Prussia, and Upper Silesia to the new and intensely nationalistic state of Poland; cession of two german cities, Danzig (administered by the League of Nations) and Memel, eventually granted to Lithuania; occupation of the coal-bearing region of the Saar by France for fifteen years, and payment of intense reparations that were so great the state of Germany would have been crippled if they had actually paid them.

In addition to the loss of territory due to the Treaty, there were also many small pockets of ethnic Germans living in many of the surrounding nations, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Alsace-Lorraine. In the end the Treaty of Versailles may have acted as an official and legal end to the war in Europe, but in reality it was the cause of another, more devastating one.

Rhineland: Germany’s First Move

Under the terms of the Locarno Treaty of 1925, the Allies undertook to evacuate the Rhineland in 1930 in return for a guarantee by the Germans not to militarize it. Upon becoming Chancellor in 1933, Hitler publicly said he would abide by the terms of the Treaty, but privately he was waiting for a suitable excuse to bring the Rhineland “home to the Reich.”

Just such an excuse presented itself in March of 1935 when France & Russia came to a preliminary agreement for a mutual aid pact. On March 16, Hitler abolished the military restraints of the Versailles diktat, leading the way for an enlarged German Army and a new Air Force, the Luftwaffe. Hitler also claimed that the terms of the Locarno Treaty were voided by the proposed Franco-Soviet pact. Pending ratification of this pact, Hitler had the General Staff work up plans for a coup in the Rhineland. The army felt that the small, growing German army was no match for the French army. Furthermore, the British were very likely to join the French in the event of any hostilities.

On February 27, 1936 the pact was completed and on March 1 the German leader decided to act. On March 7 the German troops entered the Rhineland. As expected, there was great joy and welcoming by the German people in the Rhineland. What was surprising to the Germans was that there was no response from the French or British. It was the once and future Allies inaction that gave Germany an easy military victory. More importantly, it gave Hitler some political credibility with his cautious Generals.