Following are the successful events of Hitlers’s policy between 1933 and 1938 :
The Saar : The Saar, with its rich coalfields, was an industrial area that had been taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles and put under the control of the League of Nations. A plebiscite (a vote by the people living in an area to decide the answer to an important question) was to be held after 15 years to decide if it was to be returned to the Germans. The plebiscite was held in January, 1935. The results of the plebiscite showed that over 90% of the population of the Saar wanted to reunite with Germany. Hitler considered this as a great triumph because it was the first of the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles to be reversed.
The Disarmament Conference- 1932-1934 : The conference first met in February. 1932. The main problem that they were discussing was what to do with Germany. Germany had been involved in the League for 6 years and many people accepted that Germany should be treated more fairly than it was said in the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The question was, should everyone disarm to the level that Germany had been forced to or should the Germans be allowed to rearm to the level of other countries ? The Germans walked out of the conference in July 1932 when the other countries refused to disarm to the level that Germany had to. In May 1933, Hitler returned to the conference and promised that he wouldn’t rearm if ‘in five years all other nations destroyed their arms’. They refused and Hitler withdrew from the conference in October and not much later, the League of Nations.
Non-Aggression Pact with Poland 1934 :
Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Poland in January 1934.
Hitler signed this for various reasons, including :
(i) He hoped to weaken the alliance that already existed between Poland and France.
(ii) He hoped to reduce the Polish fears of German aggression.
(iii) He wanted to show that he didn’t have a quarrel with Poland, merely the USSR.
Rearmament: Hitler staged a huge military rally celebrating the armed forces of Germany in 1935. He also reintroduced conscription and announced an army of 550,000 in the same year. An Air Ministry was set up to train pilots and build 1,000 aircraft. Hitler was breaking the terms of the Treaty of Versailles but he believed that he would get away with it due to the collapse of the Disarmament Conference. French, Italian and British representatives meet at the town of Stresa where they agreed to co¬operate to preserve the peace in Europe. They condemned the rearmament of Germany. This was known as the Stresa Front against German aggression. But it didn’t last long. It collapsed due to the Abyssinian Crisis which destroyed the relations between France, Britain and Italy and the Anglo-German Naval Treaty.
Anglo-German Naval treaty 1935 : Hitler was aware that Britain had some sympathy towards Germany regarding rearmament. Britain believed that the terms of the treaty had been too harsh on Germany and that a strong Germany would be a buffer against Communism. In 1935, Britain signed a naval agreement with Germany. This allowed the Germans to have navy fleet up to 35% of the size of the British fleet and had the same number of submarines. The British were accepting Hitler’s breach of the Treaty.
The Remilitarisation of the Rhineland 1936 : On 7th of March, 1936, Hitler moved German troops back into the demilitarised area of the Rhineland. This was a risk for Hitler as it was clearly a breach of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Also, the German army consisted of only 22,000 men and if the French army had reacted then there would have been no opposition. The men were also under strict orders to withdraw if they were faced with any opposition. But, neither the French nor British did anything. The troops remained in the Rhineland. Anschluss with Austria 1938 : Hitler was Austrian bom and he wished to see Germany and Austria united as one country.
