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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| Albert Speer |
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
The Großgermanisches Reich (Greater Germanic Reich), fully styled the Großgermanisches Reich Deutscher Nation (Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation), is the official name of the political entity that Germany had established in Europe from 1939-1945.
Albert Speer stated in his memoirs that Hitler also referred to the envisioned state as the Teutonic Reich of the German Nation, although it is unclear whether Speer was using the now seldom used "Teutonic" as an English synonym for "Germanic".
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| 'Mein Kampf' |
Hitler also mentions a future Germanischer Staat Deutscher Nation (Germanic State of the German Nation) in 'Mein Kampf'.
The territorial claims for the Greater Germanic Reich varied over time, for instance during and for a short time after German-Soviet negotiations for the partition of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union took place, Hitler did not include territorial designs on the Soviet Union within the Greater Germanic Reich from 1939 to 1941, and instead was focusing on uniting the Germanic peoples of Scandinavia and the Low Countries into the Reich.
This pan-Germanic Empire was expected to assimilate practically all of Germanic Europe into an enormously expanded Reich.
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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complete with commentaries and biographical information
Territorially speaking, this encompassed the already-enlarged German Reich itself (consisting of pre-1938 Germany proper, Austria,Bohemia, Moravia, Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen-Malmedy, Memel, Lower Styria, Upper Carniola, Southern Carinthia and German-occupied Poland), the Netherlands, the Flemish part of Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, at least the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
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| Europe - Die neue Ordnung |
Another exception was German-populated territory in South Tyrol that was part of Italy.
In addition, its western frontiers with France were to be reverted to those of the earlier Holy Roman Empire, which would have meant the complete annexation of all of Wallonia, French Switzerland, and large areas of northern and eastern France.
The policy of lebensraum planned mass expansion of Germany eastwards to the Ural Mountains.
Hitler planned for the surplus Russian population, living west of the Urals, to be deported to the east of the Urals.
Neu-ordnung Europas
The Großgermanisches Reich Deutscher Nation was also referred to as the Neu-ordnung Europas.
The establishment of the New Order was publicly proclaimed by Adolf Hitler in 1941:
'The year 1941 will be, I am convinced, the historical year of a great European New Order.'
Among other things, it entailed the creation of a pan-German racial state, structured according to National Socialist ideology to ensure the supremacy of an Aryan-Nordic herrenvolk (master race), massive territorial expansion into Eastern Europe through its colonization with German settlers, the physical removal of the Jews, and the expulsion of most of the Slavic peoples and others regarded as "racially inferior".
Historians are still divided as to its ultimate goals, some believing that it was to be limited to Nazi German domination of Europe, while others maintain that it was a springboard for eventual world conquest and the establishment of a world government under German control.
“The Führer gave expression to his unshakable conviction that the Reich will be the master of all Europe. We shall yet have to engage in many fights, but these will undoubtedly lead to most wonderful victories. From there on the way to world domination is practically certain. Whoever dominates Europe will thereby assume the leadership of the world.”
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda - 8 May 1943
Racial Theory
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| Aryan Race |
National Socialist racial ideology regarded the Germanic peoples of Europe as belonging to a racially superior Nordic subset of the larger Aryan race, who were regarded as the only true culture-bearers of civilized society.
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Ancient Romans Racial Ancestors of the Germans © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
These peoples were viewed as either "true Germanic peoples" that had "lost their sense of racial pride", or as close racial relatives of the Germans.
Adolf Hitler also believed that the Ancient Greeks and Romans were the racial ancestors of the Germans, and the first torch-bearers of "Nordic–Greek" art and culture.
He particularly expressed his admiration for Ancient Sparta, declaring it to have been the purest racial state:
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| The First Racial State © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
"The subjugation of 350,000 Helots by 6,000 Spartans was only possible because of the racial superiority of the Spartans."
The Spartans had created "the first racial state."
Furthermore, Hitler's concept of "Germanic" did not simply refer to an ethnic, cultural, or linguistic group, but also to a distinctly biological one, the superior "Germanic blood" that he wanted to salvage from the control of the enemies of the Aryan race.
He stated that Germany possessed more of these "Germanic elements" than any other country in the world, which he estimated as "four fifths of our people".
'Wherever Germanic blood is to be found anywhere in the world, we will take what is good for ourselves. With what the others have left, they will be unable to oppose the Germanic Empire'.
Adolf Hitler
According to National Socialists, in addition to the Germanic peoples, individuals of seemingly non-Germanic nationality such as French, Polish, Walloon, Czechand so on might actually possess valuable Germanic blood, especially if they were of aristocratic or peasant stock.
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| Heim ins Reich © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
An example of this type of Germanization is the taking to germany of "racially valuable" Eastern European children.
The Heim ins Reich (Home into the Empire; or Back to the Reich), was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler beginning in 1938. The aim of his initiative was to convince all of the ethnically German people who were living outside of the Third Reich (e.g. in Austria and the western districts of Poland etc) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany. It included areas ceded after the Treaty of Versailles, as well as other areas containing significant German populations such as the Sudetenland. The policy was managed by VOMI (Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle) (English: Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans). As a state agency of the NSDAP, it handled all Volksdeutsch issues. By 1941, the VOMI was under the control of the SS.
The Heim ins Reich (Home into the Empire; or Back to the Reich), was a foreign policy pursued by Adolf Hitler beginning in 1938. The aim of his initiative was to convince all of the ethnically German people who were living outside of the Third Reich (e.g. in Austria and the western districts of Poland etc) that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into Greater Germany. It included areas ceded after the Treaty of Versailles, as well as other areas containing significant German populations such as the Sudetenland. The policy was managed by VOMI (Hauptamt Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle) (English: Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans). As a state agency of the NSDAP, it handled all Volksdeutsch issues. By 1941, the VOMI was under the control of the SS.
On the very first page of 'Mein Kampf', Hitler openly declared his belief that "common blood belongs in a common Reich", elucidating the notion that the innate quality of race (as the National Socialist movement perceived it) should hold precedence over artificial concepts such as national identity (including regional German identities such as Prussian and Bavarian) as the deciding factor for which people were worthy of being assimilated into a Greater German racial state (Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer).
Part of the strategic methods which Hitler chose to ensure the present and future supremacy of the Aryan race (which was, according to Hitler, "gradually approaching extinction") was to do away with what he described as the "small state rubbish" (Kleinstaatengerümpel, compare Kleinstaaterei) in Europe in order to unite all these Nordic countries into one unified racial community.
From 1921 onward he advocated the creation of a "Germanic Reich of the German Nation".
'It was the continent which brought civilization to England, and in turn enabled her to colonize large areas in the rest of the world.
America is unthinkable without Europe.
Why would we not have the necessary power to become one of the world’s centres of attraction ?
A hundred-and-twenty million people of Germanic origin – if they have consolidated their position this will be a power against which no-one in the world could stand up to.
The countries which form the Germanic world have only to gain from this.
I can see that in my own case.
My birth country is one of the most beautiful regions in the Reich, but what could it do if were left to its own devices ?
There is no possibility to develop one’s talents in countries like Austria or Saxony, Denmark or Switzerland.
There is no foundation.
That is why it is fortunate that potential new spaces are again opened for the Germanic peoples.'
Adolf Hitler, 1942
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| Heiliges Römisches Reich © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
The chosen name for the projected empire was a deliberate reference to the Heiliges Römisches Reich (Holy Roman Empire) (of the German Nation) that existed in mediaeval times, known as the First Reich in National Socialist historiography.
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| Krone des Heiligen Römischen Reiches |
Different aspects of the legacy of this medieval empire in German history were both celebrated and derided by the Third Reich.
The Frankish Emperor Charlemagne was admired by Hitler for his "cultural creativity", his powers of organization, and his renunciation of the rights of the individual.
He criticized the Holy Roman Emperors however for not pursuing an Ostpolitik (Eastern Policy) resembling his own, while being politically focused exclusively on the south.
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| Reichskleinodien |
Nürnberg, in addition of being the former unofficial capital of the Heiliges Römisches Reich, was also the place of the Reichsparteitag.
The transfer of the regalia was thus done to both legitimize Hitler's Germany as the successor of the "Old Reich", but also weaken Vienna, the former imperial residence.
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| Katherine Kirche - Nürnberg |
It is the second-largest city in Bavaria (after Munich), and is the largest in Franconia.
Composed of prosperous artisans, the guilds of the Meistersingers flourished here. Richard Wagner made their most famous member, Hans Sachs, the hero of his opera 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'.
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| Länger Arme des Protektorats Böhmen und Mähren © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
Unlike the "uncomfortably internationalist Catholic empire of Barbarossa", the Germanic Reich of the German Nation would be racial and nationalist.
Rather than a return to the values of the Middle Ages, its establishment was to be "a push forward to a new golden age, in which the best aspects of the past would be combined with modern racial and nationalist thinking".
The historical borders of the Holy Empire were also used as grounds for territorial revisionism by the National Socialists, laying claim to modern territories and states that were once part of it.
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| Der Westfälische Frieden |
On November 17, 1939, Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary that the "total liquidation" of this historic treaty was the "great goal" of the National Socialist regime, and that since it had been signed in Münster, it would also be officially repealed in the same city.
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic.
The Peace of Westphalia treaties involved the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III, of the House of Habsburg, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of France, the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic, the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and sovereigns of the free imperial cities and can be denoted by two major events.
Pan-Germanism versus Pan-Germanicism
Despite intending to accord the other "Germanics" of Europe a racially superior status alongside the Germans themselves, in an anticipated post-war racio-political order, the National Socialists did not however consider granting the subject populations of these countries any national rights of their own.
The other Germanic countries were seen as mere extensions of Germany, rather than individual units in any way, and the Germans were unequivocally intended to remain the empire's "most powerful source of strength, from both an ideological as well as military standpoint".
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| Heinrich Himmler |
The SS's official newspaper, 'Das Schwarze Korps', never succeeded in reconciling the contradiction between Germanic 'brotherhood' and German superiority.
Members of National Socialistic parties in Germanic countries were also forbidden to attend public meetings of the NSDAP when they visited Germany.
Although Hitler himself and Himmler's SS advocated for a pan-Germanic Empire, the objective was not universally held in the National Socialist regime.
Goebbels and the Reich Foreign Ministry under Joachim von Ribbentrop inclined more towards an idea of a continental bloc under German rule, as represented by the Anti-Comintern Pact,
Ribbentrop's "European Confederation" project and the earlier Mitteleuropa concept.
Germanic Mysticism
There were also disagreements within the National Socialist leadership on the spiritual implications of cultivating a 'Germanic history' in their ideological program.
Hitler was somewhat critical of Himmler's esoteric völkisch interpretation of the 'Germanic mission'.
When Himmler denounced Charlemagne in a speech as "the butcher of the Saxons", Hitler stated that this was not a 'historical crime' but in fact a good thing, for the subjugation of Widukind had brought Western culture into what eventually became Germany.
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| Alfred Rosenberg |
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| Ahnenerbe © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
In an attempt to eventually supplant Christianity with a new religion more amenable to Nazi ideology Himmler, together with Alfred Rosenberg, sought to replace it with Germanic paganism, such as renewed worship of the deity Wotan.
For this purpose they had ordered the construction of sites for the worship of Germanic cults in order to exchange Christian rituals for 'Nordic' consecration ceremonies, which included different marriage and burial rites.
Hitler, however, did not entirely approve of some aspects of this project, particularly with regard to the renewed worship of the Wotan
Establishment Strategy
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| Adolf Hitler 1937 Reichsparteitag |
Hitler's last speech at this event ended with the words:
"The German nation has after all acquired its Germanic Reich",
which elicited speculation in political circles of a 'new era' in Germany's foreign policy.
Several days before the event Hitler took Albert Speer aside when both were on their way to the former's Munich apartment with an entourage, and declared to him that:
"We will create a great empire. All the Germanic peoples will be included in it. It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy."
On April 9, 1940, as Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in Operation Weserübung, Hitler announced the establishment of the Germanic Reich:
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| Otto Eduard Leopold Fürst von Bismarck Herzog von Lauenburg |
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| Austrian Anschluß - 1938 |
The establishment of the empire was to follow the model of the Austrian Anschluß of 1938, just carried out on a greater scale.
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| Dr Paul Josef Goebbels |
The ultimate goal of the Gleichschaltung policy pursued in these parts of occupied Europe was to eliminate the very concepts of individual states and nationalities, just as the concept of a separate Austrian state and national identity was repressed after the Anschluss through the establishment of new state and party districts.
The new empire was to no longer be a nation-state of the type that had emerged in the 19th century, but instead a "racially pure community".
It is for this reason that the National Socialist occupiers had no interest in transferring real power to the various right-wing nationalistic movements present in the occupied countries (such as Nasjonal Samling, the NSB, etc.) except for temporary reasons of Realpolitik, and instead actively supported radical collaborators who favoured pan-Germanic unity (i.e. total integration to Germany) over provincial nationalism (for example DeVlag).
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| Wappen Reichsgau Sudetenland © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
Eventually these nationalities were to be merged with the Germans into a single ruling race, but Hitler stated that this prospect lay "many years" in the future.
During this interim period it was intended that the Neue Europa (New Europe) would by run by Germans alone.
According to Speer, while Himmler intended to eventually Germanize these peoples completely, Hitler intended not to "infringe on their individuality" (that is, their native languages), so that in the future they would "add to the diversity and dynamism" of his empire.
The German language would be its lingua franca however, likening it to the status of English in the British Empire.
A primary agent used in stifling the local extreme nationalist elements was the Germanic SS, which initially merely consisted of local respective branches of the Allgemeine-SS in Belgium, Netherlands and Norway.
These groups were at first under the authority of their respective national commanders (Quisling, Mussert and De Clercq), and were intended to function within their own national territories only.
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| SS Emblem © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
In the post-war Germanic Empire, these men were to form the new leadership cadre of their respective national territories.
To emphasize their pan-Germanic ideology, the Norges SS was now renamed the Germanske SS Norge, the Nederlandsche SS the Germaansche SS in Nederland and the Algemeene-SS Vlaanderen the Germaansche SS in Vlaanderen.
The men of these groups no longer swore allegiance to their respective national leaders, but to the germanischer Führer ("Germanic Führer"), Adolf Hitler:
'I swear to you, Adolf Hitler, as Germanic Führer loyalty and bravery. I pledge you and the superiors which you appointed obedience until death. So help me God.'
This title was assumed by Hitler on 23 June 1941, at the suggestion of Himmler.
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| Anton Mussert |
He had wanted to address Hitler as Führer aller Germanen ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style.
The difference between the two is that Führer aller Germanen implied a position separate from Hitler's role as Führer und Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the Greater German Reich"), while germanischer Führer served more as an attribute of that main function.
As late as 1944 occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title as well however.
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| Hakenkreuzfahne |
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| Welthauptstadt Germania |
Hitler had long intended to architecturally reconstruct the German capital Berlin into a new imperial metropolis, which he decided in 1942 to rename 'Germania' upon its scheduled completion in 1950.
The name was specifically chosen to make it the clear central point of the envisioned Germanic empire, and to re-enforce the notion of a united Germanic-Nordic state upon the Germanic peoples of Europe.
Just as the Bavarians and the Prussians had to be impressed by Bismarck of the German idea, so too must the Germanic peoples of continental Europe be programmatically steered towards the Germanic concept.
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| Große Halle - Germania - Albert Speer |
Some projects, such as the creation of a great East-West city axis, which included broadening Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) and placing the Berlin victory column in the centre, far away from the Reichstag, where it originally stood, were successfully completed. Others, however, such as the creation of the Große Halle (Great Hall), had to be shelved owing to the beginning of war. A great number of the old buildings in many of the planned construction areas were, however, demolished before the war and eventually defeat stopped the plans.
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Role of Britain
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| United Kingdom |
Leading Nordic ideologist Hans F. K. Günther theorized that the Anglo-Saxons had been more successful than the Germans in maintaining racial purity, and that the coastal and island areas of Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and Wales had received additional Nordic blood through Norse raids and colonization during the Viking Age, and the Anglo-Saxons of Eastern and Northern England had been under Danish rule in the 9th and 10th centuries.
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| Royal Arms of England © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
Britain was thus a nation created by struggle and the survival of the fittest among the various Aryan peoples of the isles, and was able to pursue global conquest and empire-building because of its superior racial heredity born through this development.
Hitler professed an admiration for the imperial might of the British Empire in 'Zweites Buch' as proof of the racial superiority of the Aryan race, hoping that Germany would emulate British "ruthlessness" in establishing its own colonial empire in Eastern Europe.
One of his primary foreign policy aims throughout the 1930s was to establish a military alliance with both the English (Hitler conflated England with Britain and the United Kingdom in his writings and speeches) as well as the Italians, to neutralize France as a strategic threat to German security for eastward expansion.
When it became apparent to the Nazi leadership that the United Kingdom was not interested in a military alliance, anti-British policies were adopted to ensure the attainment of Germany’s war aims.
Even during the war however, hope remained that Britain would in time yet become a reliable German ally.
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| British Empire |
In fact, Hitler's strategy during 1935-1937 for winning Britain over was based on a German guarantee of defence of the British Empire.
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| Ulrich Joachim von Ribbentrop |
The continued military actions against Britain after the fall of France had the strategic goal of making Britain 'see the light' and conduct an armistice with the Axis powers, with July 1, 1940, being named by the Germans as the "probable date" for the cessation of hostilities.
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| Generaloberst Franz Halder |
On May 21, 1940, Franz Halder, the head of the Army General Staff, after a consultation with Hitler concerning the aims envisaged by the Führer during the present war, wrote in his diary: "We are seeking contact with Britain on the basis of partitioning the world".
One of Hitler's sub-goals for the invasion of Russia was to win over Britain to the German side.
He believed that after the military collapse of the USSR, "within a few weeks" Britain would be forced either into a surrender or else come to join Germany as a "junior partner" in the Axis.
Britain's role in this alliance was reserved to support German naval and aerial military actions against the USA in a fight for world supremacy conducted from the Axis power bases of Europe, Africa and the Atlantic.
On August 8, 1941, Hitler stated that he looked forward to the eventual day when "England and Germany [march] together against America" and on January 7, 1942, he suggested that it was "not impossible" for Britain to quit the war and join the Axis side, leading to a situation where "it will be a German-British army that will chase the Americans from Iceland".
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| Alfred Rosenberg |
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| Wappen des Kaisertums Österreich © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
From a historical perspective Britain’s situation was likened to that which the Austrian Empire found itself in after it was defeated by the Kingdom of Prussia in the Battle of Königgratz in 1866.
As Austria was thereafter formally excluded from German affairs, so too would Britain be excluded from continental affairs in the event of a German victory.
Yet afterwards, Austria-Hungary became a loyal ally of the German Empire in the pre-World War I power alignments in Europe, and it was hoped that Britain would come to fulfil this same role.
Channel Islands
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| British Channel Islands © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
On July 22, 1940, Hitler stated that after the war, the islands were to be given to the control of Robert Ley's German Labour Front, and transferred into 'Strength Through Joy' holiday resorts.
It was suggested that the German occupiers should appeal to the islanders' Norman heritage and treat the islands as "Germanic micro-states", whose union with Britain was only an accident of history.
He likened the preferred policy concerning the islands similar to the one pursued by the British in Malta, where the Maltese language had been "artificially" supported against the Italian language.
Northern Italy
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| Fascist Kingdom of Italy © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| Wappen der Südtirol © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
The region of South Tyrol had been a place of contending claims and conflict between German nationalism and Italian nationalism.
One of the leading founders of Italian nationalism, Giuseppe Mazzini, along with Ettore Tolomei, claimed that the German-speaking South Tyrolian population were in fact a Germanicized population of Roman origin who needed to be "liberated and returned to their rightful culture".
With the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, the peace treaty designated to Italy the South Tyrol, with its border with Austria along the Brenner Pass.
The Italian Fascist regime pursued Italianization of South Tyrol, by restricting use of the German language while promoting the Italian language; promoting mass migration of Italians into the region, encouraged mainly through industralization; and resettlement of the German-speaking population.
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| Benito Mussolini |
Hitler, in 'Mein Kampf' had declared that concerns over the rights of Germans in South Tyrol under Italian sovereignty was a non-issue considering the advantages that would be gained from a German-Italian alliance with Mussolini's Fascist regime.
In 'Mein Kampf' Hitler also made clear that he was opposed to having a war with Italy for the sake of obtaining South Tyrol.
This position by Hitler of abandoning German land claims to South Tyrol produced aggravation amongst some NSDAP members who up to the late 1920s found it difficult to accept the position.
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| Hitler and Mussolini - Rome |
In 1939, Hitler and Mussolini resolved the problem of self-determination of Germans and maintaining the Brenner Pass frontier by an agreement in which German South Tyroleans were given the choice of either assimilation into Italian culture, or leave South Tyrol for Germany; most opted to leave for Germany.
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| Re Vittorio Emanuele III d'Italia |
In particular Hitler was considering the creation of a "Lombard State" in northern Italy that would be incorporated into the Greater Germanic Reich, while South Tyrol and Venice would be annexed directly into Germany.
In the aftermath of the Kingdom of Italy's abandonment of the Axis on 8 September 1943, Germany seized and de facto incorporated Italian territories into its direct control.
The Axis grew out of the Anti-Comintern Pact, an anti-communist treaty signed by Germany and Japan in 1936. Italy joined the Pact in 1937. The "Rome–Berlin Axis" became a military alliance in 1939 under the Pact of Steel, with the Tripartite Pact of 1940 leading to the integration of the military aims of Germany and its two treaty-bound allies.
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| La Repubblica Sociale Italiana © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
While the region identified by Germany as Operationszone Adriatische Kustenland that includedUdine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pola, Fiume (Rijeka), and Ljubljana were de facto incorporated into Reichsgau Kärnten and administered by its Gauleiter Friedrich Rainer.
After the Kingdom of Italy capitulated to the Allies in September 1943, according to Goebbels in his personal diary on 29 September 1943, wrote that Hitler had expressed that the Italian-German border should extend to those of the region of Veneto.
Veneto was to be included into the Reich in an "autonomous form", and to benefit from the post-war influx of German tourists.
Expected participation in the colonization of Eastern Europe
Despite the pursued aim of pan-Germanic unification, the primary goal of Nazi Germany’s territorial expansionism was to acquire sufficient Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe for the Germanic Aryan master race.
The primary objective of this aim was to transform Germany into a complete economic autarky, the end-result of which would be a state of continent-wide German hegemony over Europe.
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic systems. The latter are called closed economies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance or international trade. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky would be a state that could defend itself without help from another country. Autarky can be said to be the policy of a state or other entity when it seeks to be self-sufficient as a whole, but also can be limited to a narrow field such as possession of a key raw material.
This was to be accomplished through the enlargement of the territorial base of the German state and the expansion of the German population.
Because of their perceived racial worth, the Nazi leadership was enthusiastic at the prospect of "recruiting" people from the Germanic countries to also settle these territories after the Slavic inhabitants would have been driven out.
The racial planners were partly motivated in this because studies indicated that Germany would likely not be able to recruit enough colonial settlers for the eastern territories from its own country, and other Germanic groups would therefore be required.
Hitler insisted however that German settlers would have to dominate the newly colonized areas.
Conclusion
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| Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler |
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| Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler |
The Waffen-SS was to be the eventual nucleus of a common europäischen Armee, where each state would be represented by a national contingent.
Heinrich Himmler himself, held on to his Pan-Germanic vision, and in a speech given on April 1943 to the officers of SS divisions 'Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler', 'Das Reich' and 'Totenkopf' he stated:
'We do not expect you to renounce your nation. ... We do not expect you to become German out of opportunism. We do expect you to subordinate your national ideal to a greater racial and historical ideal, to the Germanic Reich'.
In the beginning of the Kampfzeit (time of struggle) Hitler had only been concerned with National Socialism in Germany and Austria, and the reclaiming of territory lost through the Treaty of Versailles.
The concept of a 'Große Reich' (Greater Reich) was a late development, and the idea of Weltherrschaft (world domination) was the result of Hitler's involvement with Major General Karl Ernst Haushofer, and his theories of Geopolitik (Geo-politics).
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| Karl Ernst Haushofer |
Geopolitik contributed to the foreign policy of the Third Reich, chiefly in the strategy and justifications for lebensraum. The theories contributed five ideas to German foreign policy in the interwar period:, the organic state, lebensraum ,autarky, pan-regions, land power/sea power dichotomy.
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| Rudolf Heß |
The evidence of Hausofer's influence can clearly be seen in the second half of Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'.
Geopolitics was very popular in Germany at the time that 'Mein Kampf' was published, and it is quite reasonable to suppose that Hitler included geopolitical chapters in 'Mein Kampf' in order to make it appear 'modern' and 'in tune' with current political and academic developments.
One cannot conclude, however, that Hitler seriously believed in the fundamental principles of Haushofer's geopolitical theories, as much of the contents of the remainder of 'Mein Kampf' is disingenuous to say the very least.
We should remember that while Hitler had no objection to extending the influence and power of the Third Reich beyond its previous racially demarcated borders, much of the speculation indulged in the National Socialist hierarchy about 'Weltherrschaft' is simply that - speculation.
For example, overtures to the Arab and Muslim world (haj Amin al-Husseini) were as disingenuous as many other aspects of the foreign policy of the Third Reich.
As far as Hitler was concerned, Arabs were Semites, and therefore little different, in racial terms, from the Jews.
Any statements made by Hitler and Himmler et al, were, therefore, simply the means to obtain temporary wartime support from these groups.
As for Africa, South America and other non-European areas, these were matters that would be settled, probably by diplomacy and treaties, when the conflict in Europe came to an end.
Hitler's primary concern, from the very beginning, was to create a settled, racially pure 'living-space' where Himmler's SS could undertake the biological breeding programs that would produce Die Herrenrass.
Die Herrenrasse is a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic race -a branch of the Aryan race - represented an ideal and pure race. The Nordic race was the purest example of the original racial stock of those who were then called the Proto-Aryans, who prehistorically dwelt on the North German Plain, ultimately originated from the lost continent of Atlantis. The Nordics (Germanic peoples), were the true Aryans because they were less racially mixed with "non-native" Indo-European peoples than other Aryan peoples, such as the Slavic peoples, the Romance peoples and the Indo-Iranian peoples. Based on this claim that the Nordic peoples were superior to all other races, and were entitled to expand territorially.This concept is known as Nordicism.
This, however, was only the first stage of the process that Hitler envisaged.
It is my ultimate aim to perform an act of creation, a divine operation, the goal of a biological mutation which will result in an unprecedented exaltation of the human race and the appearance of a new race of heroes, demi-gods and god-men.
We should remember that while Hitler had no objection to extending the influence and power of the Third Reich beyond its previous racially demarcated borders, much of the speculation indulged in the National Socialist hierarchy about 'Weltherrschaft' is simply that - speculation.
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| Heinrich Himmler and haj Amin al-Husseini |
As far as Hitler was concerned, Arabs were Semites, and therefore little different, in racial terms, from the Jews.
Any statements made by Hitler and Himmler et al, were, therefore, simply the means to obtain temporary wartime support from these groups.
As for Africa, South America and other non-European areas, these were matters that would be settled, probably by diplomacy and treaties, when the conflict in Europe came to an end.
Hitler's primary concern, from the very beginning, was to create a settled, racially pure 'living-space' where Himmler's SS could undertake the biological breeding programs that would produce Die Herrenrass.
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| Die Herrenrasse |
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| Nietzsche |
Hitler explained the process of creating the Nietzschean übermensch in the following manner:
'The real destiny of Man is something that ordinary men could not conceive and would be unable to comprehend, even if given a glimpse of it.
Our revolution is a final stage in an evolution that will end by abolishing history.
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| der Übermensch |
My party comrades have no conception of the dreams that haunt my mind, or of the grandiose edifice of which the foundations, at least, will have been laid before I die.
The world has reached a turning point, and will undergo an upheaval which the uninitiated cannot understand.'
Once the 'divine operation' had been achieved there would be no further need for economic, politics, or strategies.
The 'unprecedented exaltation of the human race' would produce "the 'Man-God', when Man will be the measure and centre of the world.
The 'Man-God', that splendid Being, will be an object of worship ...
But there are other stages about which I am not permitted to speak ..."
And so, in the final analysis, 'die Großgermanischen Reich der deutschen Nation' would simply be the 'seed bed' for the greater creation, which would go beyond all national and political considerations, and into the realm of 'pure metaphysics'.
great , marvelous, amazing
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