'Favourable circumstances, rather than diplomatic skill explain why Germany enjoyed such success in Foreign Policy in the years 1933 - 1936?' How far do you agree with this judgement?

In 1934 Hitler tried to use his diplomatic skill in achieving Anchluss which was one of Hitler’s most cherished ambitions although it could be argued that circumstance had allowed Hitler to take this bold gamble.  From 1933, Hitler backed a campaign by Austrian Nazis to undermine the government of Austria, led by Engelbert Dollfus.  Their actions included destroying strategically important buildings and attacking important government officials. On 25th July 1934, Austrian Nazis murdered Engelbert Dollfuss, the Chancellor.  However, their attempted takeover of power was foiled by government troops led by Dr Kurt von Schuschnigg.  The affair raised the possibility of Nazi intervention in Austria.  Hitler intended to put his army in to Austria to “restore order” but Mussolini was concerned about a strong central European power and so moved Italy’s army to the Austrian border. The clear attempted failure of Anchluss shows how Hitler was too weak at this time to achieve Anchluss and created great damage to one of Hitler’s main foreign policy goals.  In this episode it could be argued that Hitler was improvising his reactions to events rather than pursuing a plan and that both diplomatic skills and circumstance prevented Hitler’s success in his foreign policy of uniting all the German speaking people into a greater Reich.

In 1935 Hitler wanted to expand the German Navy; however he needed the consent of Britain who ‘ruled the waves’ as it was the only country that Hitler felt could prevent this naval rearmament policy.  Britain was interested in protecting its empire and, in June 1935, signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement with Germany.  It could be argued that this occurred out of diplomatic skill from Nazi foreign minister, Ribbentrop who used blatant ultimatum tactics to ensure the acceptance of German naval rearmament which gave Britain very little diplomatic chance.  It appears that a German fleet approximately a third of the size of the British fleet was a way of ensuring a check on German naval rearmament and if not endorsed by the British, German naval rearmament could go unchecked and this would be more of a danger to the British Empire.  The Naval treaty undermined the Stresa front creating circumstances for Hitler to go on and successfully fulfil other parts of his foreign policy.

One of Hitler’s most dangerous political gambles was the remilitarisation of the Rhineland in March 1936.  The Wehrmacht was not of any great strength and would not have been able to resist French intervention.  However, Hitler was prepared to take the risk and ordered German troops into the region.  However, the French did not respond militarily.  The diplomatic world was distracted by the Abyssinian Crisis where Mussolini had invaded Abyssinia in Africa in the hope of creating a colony.  This was condemned by the League of Nations and minor sanctions were placed on Italy. Britain was not prepared to introduce sanctions against Germany and so it could be seen that it was in this case circumstances rather than diplomatic skill that allowed Hitler to fulfil this part of his foreign policy successfully.

One can see that both favourable circumstance and diplomatic skill allowed Nazi foreign policy to succeed during the years 1933 – 1936.  In the case of the Polish non-aggression pact of 1934 and the Anglo – German naval agreement of 1935 it was diplomatic means that created success however the remilitarisation of the Rhineland can be seen as a fulfilment of foreign policy based on circumstance due to the developing crisis of Abyssinia and the withdrawal of the attention of the league of nations towards Germany.  However the case of the attempted Anchluss of 1934 demonstrates that there was circumstances were not favourable and diplomatic skill also failed. In conclusion one can see that it was a combination of both circumstance and diplomatic skill that explain why Germany enjoyed such success in foreign policy in the years 1933 -1936.