In conjunction with leaving the League (and the overturn of Versailles), Hitler had long aimed to rearm Germany on par with its neighbours. Rearmament may have been seen as an inevitable consequence anyway, regardless of nationalism or Nazism, if only for the defence of the country. However, the rate of rearmament in Germany, and the money being flooded into it was somewhat alarming, yet Hitler would not admit the damage it was causing the economy, despite the ever decreasing availability of raw materials. It would seem there was only one thing on his mind, which consequently made the rearmament scheme very much a Nazi one – war.
In conjunction with the costly process of rearmament, the Anglo-German naval agreement was formed in 1935. This was appeasement on Britain’s part – providing a naval fleet 35% the size of their own, and an equal number of submarines in the hope of preventing attack from Germany. However, Hitler had spoken of hopes of dividing the world between its three greatest powers; Britain, Italy and Germany. For him, this was a step towards that (and so making the agreement very much “Nazi”), yet from the outside, it may easily have appeared to just be a nationalist striving to build his country’s naval force.
Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany has lost its overseas territories (German colonies), and also the Polish Corridor. It would be thought that any nationalist would aim to regain both of these areas (particularly the Polish Corridor perhaps, as it would allow greater access to the German territory of East Prussia, and cut Poland off from the Baltic Sea), yet Hitler did not appear to have intention of retaking either. He did not desire the colonies at all, and made a much unexpected move with Poland – forming a non-aggression pact. Poland and Germany were renowned for being enemies, but this pact made Poland far more vulnerable. It broke the Little Entente, and ceased relations between Poland and France, also leaving the latter further isolated, much to Hitler’s favour. Of course, Hitler never really intended the pact to do what it said on the tin, and Poland was to serve much the same purpose as Austria; that being, a stepping stone to the East, and also to act as a subordinate ally against the USSR if necessary. This move by Hitler would be difficult to claim as simple nationalism, due to it being no benefit to the Gross Deutschland concept or other nationalistic ideas, and that it was, in all, a strange move considering the two countries previously unfriendly stance against one another. It could be said that Hitler was merely trying to act as a peace-maker, but it later came to be clear that this was not his intention, and that the pact would benefit Nazi intentions for the future.
In 1936, remilitarisation of the Rhineland took place. An area already of German territory, this move was very easy to conceal as nationalistic one, as it was a further step in the overturn of Versailles. However, remilitarising the area would prove of benefit (much like many other territorial advances) to Eastward expansion, by providing greater defence against France via the construction of a wall (the Siegfried Line). It seems apparent that this would be the most likely reason for the reoccupation of the Rhineland.
Upon the Nazi rise to power in 1933, relations with the USSR dramatically cooled. Hitler spoke of occupying Russia for Lebensraum in Mein Kampf, and claimed communists to be “destroying a great nation”. Hitler had never denied his hated for communism, and the anti-comintern pact was created between Germany, Italy and Japan to defend against it. Germany moved closer towards Russia when, in October 1938, they occupied the Sudetenland, of which the agreement to (held in Munich on 30th September) was attended by neither Czechoslovakia nor Russia (who were one of Czechoslovakia’s few allies). Annexing the Sudetenland passed off as a nationalistic policy, due to it being occupied by around 3 million German speakers, and so expanding Gross Deutschland. However, the Sudetenland provided other opportunities for Germany. It was the area that contained most of Czechoslovakia’s raw material resources and industrial activity, which would prove wholly beneficial to Hitler’s aim of autarky (another distinctly Nazi aim, most likely for the benefit of maintaining the economy in wartime). Without the Sudetenland, the rest of Czechoslovakia was defenceless, potentially providing yet another step eastwards. It was unlikely that Hitler would just settle for the Sudetenland, considering the opportunity that the rest of Czechoslovakia would offer him. This was latter proved as much, upon the fall of Prague.
The Hossbach memorandum, a summary of the meeting held in November 1935 between Hitler and his military and foreign policy leadership, is a point where we can clearly see the radicalisation of German foreign policy, and hence became very much Nazi. The memorandum included the plans for expansion into East Europe for living space, Hitler’s desire for small wars to help support the German economy whilst striving for autarky. As for autarky itself, it was detailed that some aspects of it were unachievable at the time, and so war to the East could be considered a necessity to make these aspects possible. Further still, Autarky would have to be achieved in the next 5 years – Hitler wanted war with Britain and France in 1941-44/45.
It can be concluded that many of Hitler’s policies and aims may well have been nationalistic from the outside, but when read into, left paths to many more radical, Nazi plans. All territorial advances left doors to the East open and benefited the German economy, and in turn, aided the move towards autarky to set the country up for a state of war. Due to the territorial moves being in areas containing German speakers (Sudetenland, Austria), they were simply passed off as nationalism in uniting the German speakers to form Gross Deutschland. Moves such as the remilitarisation of the Rhineland and general rearmament (albeit on an excessive scale) were simply seen as a desire to overturn Versailles and its seemingly harsh terms. Only with the Hossbach Memorandum did it become clear that these moves would piece together to allow far more radical and very much Nazi plans to be undertaken.
