History Debate - Affirmative: Adolf Hitler planned the Second World War

AS and A Level History

Ponmuhil Ravichandran

History Debate

Affirmative: Adolf Hitler planned the Second World War

From his youth, Hitler was a fierce, patriotic nationalist and wanted Germany to be the greatest power in the world and have a huge empire. This, he believed, could be achieved only through another World War.
When Hitler was sent to prison in 1923 for treason, he then wrote his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ (which means ‘My Struggle’). In this book, he expresses all his personal views and also war plans for Germany, if only he became the German Chancellor. Here, there is full evidence for the fact that first he wanted Germany to have a war with Russia. This was because of his idea of ‘Lebensraum’ (which means ‘living space’). According to Hitler, Germany needed lots of living space for its growing population. This, he believed, could only be achieved by expanding eastwards, i.e. by getting land from Eastern Europe and Russia.
In the same book of ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler also expresses his hatred towards France, as he saw her as a definite enemy of Germany and therefore talked of his aim of invading France also.
In 1928, Hitler wrote a ‘Secret Book’, in which there is shocking proof that Hitler did plan a major World War. In this ‘Secret Book’ he planned a major military program for Germany for conquering the world, including Britain and also the USA. His plans are as follows:

Germany would first of all invade France and Eastern Europe in a quick war and then invade Russia.
Then he said, “After building up a large navy, I would make a determined bid for world power, even if it involved a war with both Britain and ALSO THE USA.”

At least from these two books, there is clear definite evidence that Hitler planned a major World War (that would involve the whole of Eastern Europe, Russia, France, Britain and finally the USA) because these two books were written not just before the war, but as ...

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Germany would first of all invade France and Eastern Europe in a quick war and then invade Russia.
Then he said, “After building up a large navy, I would make a determined bid for world power, even if it involved a war with both Britain and ALSO THE USA.”

At least from these two books, there is clear definite evidence that Hitler planned a major World War (that would involve the whole of Eastern Europe, Russia, France, Britain and finally the USA) because these two books were written not just before the war, but as far back in the 1920’s when Adolf Hitler, himself was a youth.
Furthermore, if we flash back our memories we can see that what Hitler did in the WW2 was just exactly what he planned. Even the order of the invasions was the same.
The next major piece of evidence supporting my argument is the ‘Hossbach Memorandum’. Some background info: In November5, 1937 a conference was held in Germany between Hitler and his top military generals. In this conf. Hitler told his generals how he would plan and invade countries such Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland. Some rearmament plans and other major top-secret military plans were also discussed. The ‘Hossbach Memorandum’ is the written account of the event by Colonel Hossbach (who was present in the conf.) in his diary.
There were also lots of other plans by Hitler for a World War:

The Nazi family policy for women to have as many babies as possible: the intention for this was – lots of German baby boys in the 1930’s would either become future German army soldiers or would serve in the Hitler Youth org. to help the German war effort.
Hitler left the League of Nations and the Disarmament conference in 1933, as soon as he came to power: the intention for this was – he wanted full rearmament of Germany by the end the decade. In the same year, he told Hermann Goring and other top generals that he wanted them to create the biggest German military ever in history.
An alliance with Japan and Italy made it clear that Hitler’s policies were based on expansionism, since Japan particularly was a militaristic regime that had aggressive and expansionist foreign policies. Hitler thereby agreed to conquer half the world and leave the rest (particularly Asia) for Japan to set an empire for itself. From this, neither of them would interfere in the other one’s policies.
An interesting point to look at is to see how Hitler eradicated unemployment in Germany in the early 1930’s. The method used was pretty simple: the 6million unemployed German men went nowhere else, other than either straight into the German military or into the construction sites of ‘Autobahn’ (highway roads inside Germany connecting other countries), which Hitler later used them anyways for sending tanks to other Eastern European countries.
All these steps and actions of Hitler are not ordinary ones but are clear signs that show one common thing: Hitler’s preparation for the WW2.

Also that, many of the other incidents give us suggestions that Hitler’s actions are not just gambles, but are planned ones carried out with skill and determination:

His destruction of each country (or area) in Eastern Europe after every six-month gap: first, invasion of Rhineland in March1936, ‘Anschluss’ (‘Union’) with Austria in March1938, annexation of Sudetenland in September1938, destruction of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March1939 and finally the invasion of Poland in September1939 – all of this is not merely a coincidence, but the result of careful, well laid out and successfully carried out PLANS.
In each of the above incidents, Hitler clearly told his generals that he just wanted to achieve his objectives, even if it involved war with Britain and France. This shows that he is not a gambler.
Also that, there is absolutely no chance that ‘Blitzkrieg’ (lightning war) would have worked out without a master plan. ‘Blitzkrieg’ is the warfare technique used by Hitler to use vast numbers of tanks on land and aircrafts in the air. This was planned way back in the early 1930’s where Hitler started rebuilding enormous numbers of tanks and aircrafts, as soon as he came to power in Germany.

Finally, I conclude by siding with Winston Churchill’s orthodox view that ‘Adolf Hitler planned the Second World War’ as evidences for it can be seen in books written by Hitler such as ‘Mein Kampf’ and the ‘Secret Book’ (both written in the 1920’s), the Hossbach Memorandum and other planned actions explained above. I also believe that the revisionist view of historian A.J.P. Taylor is not correct, as Mr. Taylor’s intention is not to be analytical but to create controversy in History by confusing the readers and also to get name and fame and to earn money through his provocative history books!

David Williamson, International Relations 1919-1939. page101

For more information on this topic or for more historiography refer the booklet, ‘Interpreting the origins of the Second World War’ taken from a book written by Ted Townley and given to students by Mr. Neighbor.