G42+Ideology+and+Foreign+Policy


 * 4 Nazi foreign policy**


 * impact of ideology on Nazi foreign policy to September 1939

//Text: Chapter Twelve "The Path to War"//


 * Foreign policy was a central part of Hitler’s ideology and was linked to racial beliefs
 * Policy objectives set out in **Mein Kampf**: restore Germany to its rightful position; history a struggle between nations for slf-preservation; drive to the east.
 * Demoralisation had caused defeat in World War I. //Gleichschaltung// was a means of creating a strong unified nation able to achieve foreign policy goals: all institutions coordinated under the Nazis; all opposition removed; military strength restored.
 * //**Lebensraum**//: the central tenet of policy – for the survival of the racially pure Germans, territory in the east needed to be taken. This was inhabited by Slavs – //untermenschen//.
 * The Treaty of Versailles needed to be destroyed.
 * Small weak nations, some with Germans, e.g., Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland
 * Germans needed to be brought into a greater Germany – //grossdeutschland//.
 * Force must be used as it was the only way to achieve this.