To What Extent was the Idea of 'Lebensraum' the Main War Aim of Hitler's Military Conquest?

The historian Ian Kershaw describes the policy of Lebensraum as “a leap of logic that moved into justification for imperialistic conquest’. This is clear evidence that Kershaw believes that this policy is a viable option for being the main war aim, he, however, does not think it is. Kershaw states “the mission of the Nazi movement was therefore clear: to destroy Jewish Bolshevism”, this view clearly disagrees with that of Evans saying that it was in fact the destruction of the Jewish Bolshevism that was central to the Nazi movement, not Social Darwinism. However these two points of view are not as contradictory as it may seem. Hitler believed that it was the Jews who were responsible for Bolshevism and Communism, two similar ideas that he absolutely detested and wanted to wipe out. Bolshevism and Communism was increasingly becoming more and more popular, particularly in the East and in the newly Bolshevist Russia, and therefore Hitler saw the invasion of these nations as a way of ridding the world of it. So in this instance both Lebensraum and Jewish destruction work hand in hand, if the policy of Lebensraum was followed through, then Jewish Bolshevism would almost certainly be wiped out through force alongside the other races living in the occupied nations.

Kershaw and Evans are both modern historians who share the contemporary view that Hitler’s actions were in fact to do with race. The difference between these two views is whether the eastern expansion was in order to destroy a population, or to create living space to develop one. According to RJ Evans Hitler thought the Jews were “responsible for all of Germany’s ills and that the only long term solution was their complete annihilation”. This shows Hitler believed that in order for Germany to prosper the Jews must be destroyed, and this piece of evidence suggests that maybe it was this that would be Hitler’s main reason for going to war, as it was his personal view after all. But it is more likely that Hitler saw the destruction of Jewish Bolshevism simply as a bonus to going through with the Lebensraum policy, as the racial destruction was already part of the scheme. Hitler himself suggests this in his book Mein Kampf when he announces “the end of Jewish rule in Russia will be the end of Russia as a state”, it is clear here that Hitler believes that it is the Jews responsible for Bolshevism and that he wants to destroy it, including Russia itself, through German invasion. This evaluation is also confirmed by the fact that Evans also believes Lebensraum was the main reason for war, despite believing the Jews were Hitler’s main concern for Germany’s triumph.

One reason for the hatred towards the Jews was that many Germans blamed them for the loss of World War One, not only did they blame them for infiltrating the German Ranks but they placed all blame on them for signing the Treaty of Versailles and therefore crippling Germany economically, militarily and throwing the country into disillusion. The Treaty also meant Germany lost a lot of territory, but this will be discussed as a separate factor as it an external condition.

The acceptance of War Guilt, the drastic restrictions on the size of their army, and the reparations they had to pay to the allies causing rapid inflation, worsened by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, humiliated Germany and left them in a very vulnerable position. Fritz Fischer agrees with this when he states that “a constant aim of the German governments had been, to effect, a revision of the Versailles settlement”. One way that Germany could repudiate the terms of the treaty could be to wipe out the allies who enforced it, and the obvious support of the renunciation of the treaty that Fischer discusses would prove to back up that Hitler would have received a lot of support for doing this. Fischer also says that all Governments had this as an aim, therefore showing that most Germans, no matter which political party they belonged to (which was such an important part of a German’s everyday life) would have supported this reasoning. It is important however to notice that Fisher is of German origin and therefore is very possibly biased in his attitudes towards his nation’s history, trying to talk down the discussion of the Jewish genocide. His book was also written in 1976, and he shared a view that many historians of the time, including Taylor and Sherer, also held. The acceptance that the revision of the Treaty was the most important factor has since moved on, to that of Evans and Kershaw. Evans does however agree with Fisher in some respects when he says “the Treaty of Versailles united virtually every part of the political spectrum in a grim determination to overthrow it”, clearly agreeing with Fischer’s view, and confirming it was also an aim of the Nazi government, just obviously not the major cause for conquest. The public certainly also adhered to the political parties, as AJP Taylor says, “all Germans intended to repudiate it at some time in the future” and this just shows how Hitler, whilst living in Germany, probably grew up within what frame of mind.

This view on Hitler is shared also by historian John Sherer who says “the Treaty of Versailles may have created Hitler, and it also preserved as a state the country which he was to make his mark”. Sherer here clearly shows that he believes that it’s very possible that the effect of the Versailles Treaty could have moulded Hitler’s views and political aims for the Nazi party, nowhere however does any evidence appear to prove that the revision of the Treaty of Versailles was actually a reason for Germany going to war. When Hitler came to power he showed no regard for the terms of the Treaty, breaking the military restrictions and even breaking the territorial restrictions by marching into the Rhineland. This shows that whether or not war occurred Hitler did not feel restricted by the Treaty of Versailles and would have certainly carried on breaking the terms to achieve his domestic aims. Therefore it is unlikely that Hitler would have gone to war in order to break the Treaty as he was doing it already anyway without any hassle from the Allies. The Allied fear of another war was what caused Hitler’s lack of respect for the terms, shown in the appeasement settlement at the Munich Conference, resulting in Germany’s acquisition of the Sudetenland, and the lack of action against Hitler breaking the other conditions laid down in 1919.

As mentioned earlier, Germany lost a lot of territory in the terms of the Treaty, including the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia, which not only left Germany as a much less significant country, but also split many Germans from their homeland. In 1871 Bismarck became the chancellor of Germany with a vision of making Germany one of the most powerful empires in the World, this was a time of German pride and another reason that the German nation now felt so humiliated. They had lost all hope of an Empire and had lost so much of the territory their grandfathers had fought to gain. Hitler may not have actually been a German but he certainly felt like one, and he too wanted to make Germany the greatest power in Europe, and at least reunite all German’s to the fatherland.

David Irving stresses the importance of this to Hitler when he states “From the day he seized power Hitler knew that only sudden death awaited him if he failed to restore pride and empire to post-Versailles Germany”. This statement suggests that whether or not Hitler even wanted to, it would have been an important objective which he had to achieve, face losing power, or perhaps worse. Therefore we can safely conclude that it was a war aim of the Nazi’s, Hitler himself stated in a speech that the unity of German speakers was “the highest task of the National Socialist movement”. This phrasing is probably more for oratory effect rather than actually reflecting what he believed was the most vital task of the Nazis, but it certainly showed it was essential to the movement. RJ Evans again supports this argument when he states “all Hitler wanted was the revision of the Treaty of Versailles, the restoration of German borders of 1914 or self determination of German speaking minorities in Central Europe”. Evans clearly shows that the unification of Germany was an important factor, and even goes as far as saying that it was ‘all Hitler wanted’. However, it’s important to review this in context, as Evans discusses this in his book as simply a stepping stone towards conquering Jewish Bolshevism and occupying Russian land for, as Hitler puts it, the “industrious work of the German plough”. Again this suggests that the unification of German speakers and the repossession of their lost territories is in fact a measure towards the success of the Lebensraum plan, and therefore not the main War aim.

From this evidence I feel I can derive that the other options I suggested, destruction of Jewish Bolshevism; repealing the terms of the Versailles Treaty; regaining lost territories and Bismarck era pride, were all in fact steps towards achieving the overall mission of Lebensraum. Richard J Evans sums this up well when he says that “[German] foreign policy was no longer conducted between states, but between races”. This implies that the Nazis imperial aims were not in fact against specific nations, but against racial denominations, hence why Hitler discusses the destruction of Russia as the result of the annihilation of Jewish Bolshevism, not that his objective was simply to destroy Russia.

General Friedrich von Bernhardi’s book was incredibly influential on the Nazi movement, stating that “War is a biological necessity”, this essentially captured the main reasoning behind the Nazi offensive action against other nations. Therefore I feel I can safely conclude that it was in fact Lebensraum that was Hitler’s main war aim. His obsession that the Germans should conquer land in order to provide living space for their grand, new Empire of superior beings was the overall purpose of the Nazi movement as we have seen from the evidence given by separate Historians, and Hitler himself.

---

Bibliography

http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII7a.htm

http://hsc.csu.edu.au/

*Online complete book sources:

Mein Kampf – http://www.crusader.net/texts/mk/

The Next War - http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/bernhardi.html

---