Nazi Foreign Policy Ambition - Coursework Example

Nazi Ambitions The Nazi foreign policy agenda prior to 1939, as it is commonly understood, included expanding the German borders well into the Soviet Union to the West and enveloping all of Europe and ultimately Britain as well. This perception is accurate but Nazi military ambitions reached much farther. Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime dramatically expanded its authority by invading other countries with its own horrific style of murder, terror and total domination. Initially, conquering and annexing other nations came rather easily which further emboldened the Third Reich to reevaluate their goals and consider ever higher aspirations including the conquest of the entire world. Of course, even as the German military machine was invading its neighbors, the Nazi’s public position was that it would only take back particular regions that had once been taken from them then end its aggressive tactics. Behind the scenes, however, Hitler’s plan was to first control Europe and knew that he eventually would have to defeat the U.S. if his grand design to rule the world could ever come to fruition. However, the Nazi’s foreign ambition extended beyond conquering nations, land and people. Hitler believed that art helped define a country’s culture therefore the art of conquered countries must be consumed along with the territory so as to achieve total domination. Existing art perceived to be in opposition to Nazi ideologies was destroyed while new paintings and other art forms faced censorship. Art was a tool of propaganda used to define the Nazi ideal and was also used by elite members of the Nazi Party as a measurement of status and power. They stole or otherwise procured art from other countries to help identify the expansion of the empire and traded art to increase social status and ranking within the Third Reich hierarchy. In addition, the Nazis attempted to eradicate those they considered of an inferior race from occupied countries. The ‘Final Solution’ as the Nazis termed the mass killing of Jews, was as much a part of the foreign policy strategy as was the conquering of nations and claiming its people, property and art. Hitler and the Third Reich rose to power based largely on their successful campaign to evoke feelings of nationality within the German population. They believed that only by employing all of these tactics could it achieve genuine global dominion. This discussion will provide evidence that Nazi foreign policy ambition prior to 1939 extended to not only regional military conquests but to total cultural, racial and ideological domination on a global scale. It will examine the Aryan Nazi desire to be the world’s dominant power in terms of acquiring territory beyond simply Russia and Europe. No greater example of this is the Nazis plans to ultimately invade the U.S. In addition, the discussion will examine the importance of eradicating the Jewish race so that the Aryan race would dominate the world and the Nazi’s connections with art and the symbolic importance of controlling the world’s artworks so as to control the world’s collective culture. The Nazi state was not focused on production and preserving Germany’s economic circumstances but rather on its capacity to prey upon other societies. The end result of the Nazi ‘slash-and-burn’ and ‘blitzkrieg’ approaches to not only military matters but within activities of the government was the disintegration of judicial law. Nazi rule was oppressive even within Germany as they rationalized total governmental authority and power. Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. The rise to power of his National Socialist Workers Party (Nazis) brought an end to the democratic establishment of the Weimar Republic. Guided by racist and authoritarian political theories, the Nazis quickly abolished basic freedoms in an attempt to create a ‘Volk’ community. According to Nazi ideals, a ‘volkish’ community united all social classes and regions of Germany behind a supreme leader or Führer, Adolf Hitler. Once his regime was consolidated, Hitler took little interest in domestic policy, his sole concern being that Germany become sufficiently strong to realize his long-term geopolitical ambitions. Following the 1936 Olympics held in Munich, Germany, Hitler unveiled his plans to build an Olympic Stadium designed to host the Games permanently. Hitler was quoted as saying, “In 1940 the Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo. But thereafter they will take place in Germany for all time to come.” This statement, in addition to overt military and inhumane actions, indicated that Hitler’s plan was for Germany to be the dominant nation of the world. In a first step toward this goal, Hitler made a de facto revision to the Treaty of Versailles in 1935 by ceasing to heed its restrictions on German rearmament (“The Aftermath”, n.d.). Hitler had long assumed a war with the U.S. was inevitable. His writings of 1928 demonstrated that he had long considered this eventuality necessary for the advancement of the Third Reich. In the 1928 book, not discovered and published until well after the war ended, Hitler admitted that the U.S. would not be an easy country to conquer because of its geographic size, larger population and the ability to mass-produce war machinery, but for Germany to dominate the entire globe, it would be someday necessary (Weinberg, 1995). Hitler, a World War I veteran along with much of Germany, was still upset that the Americans claimed victory in that war. The Germans had characterized the Armistice of World War I as a mutual lying down of arms and that the German army came home victorious because it didn’t allow the enemy to enter German territory. The Americans, in their opinion, contributed only after both sides had become severely depleted and could only hold the lines, not push Germany back, thus, a German victory. Yet, Americans claim that they won a convincing and legendary victory of great historical significance. Hitler saw this as an emotional sentiment that was still a fresh wound in Germany and could be used as a rallying point and catalyst to gain public support for an invasion of the U.S. This, along with deep feelings of nationalism, the indoctrinations techniques of the Third Reich and military successes, which added to Germany’s economic gains, would yield the backing needed for what would be a formidable plan. Hitler believed that because Americans were racially impure, they therefore could not defeat Germany. It is anyone’s guess if Hitler changed his mind regarding ‘inferior’ Americans when the black American Jesse Owns won most of the track events in front of Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games. The problem in defeating the U.S. was that is was an ocean away and that it had a large naval fleet (Weinberg, 1995). After becoming Chancellor of Germany, Hitler began building up the German Navy with the intention of matching or exceeding the American fleet. He also planned the development of the long-range ‘Amerika’ bomber plane prior to 1939 which would have the capability to make a round trip to the east coast of the U.S without having to refuel (Weinberg, 1995). The push for building massive battleships in massive numbers began in Germany following the French surrender and military bases began arising on the French coast, all planned years in advance. During the late 1930’s, Hitler anticipated that Japan, who was at that time intent on dominating East Asia, would eventually clash with the U.S. on the seas (Weinberg, 1995). By 1939, he had ships docked with the specific purpose of engaging the U.S. as soon as war was declared between the two countries. Because it takes a considerable amount of time to build a naval force large enough to engage the Americans, Hitler attempted to postpone a declaration of war for as long as possible. He would get his wish when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and, believing he had the upper hand, Germany immediately declared war on the U.S. A fatal flaw in Hitler’s plans for world domination was not underestimating the U.S., it was miscalculating the British resolve not to be conquered (Weinberg, 1995). His planning took for granted that England would fall much the same as would Poland, Austria or France. His prediction was correct except for the Soviet and English invasion attempts. The horrific actions of the Third Reich are well documented. The end result of the Nazi’s evil ideologies included the occupation of most European nations and the ‘final solution,’ the annihilation of over six million Jews. Throughout history, many nations have conquered others for various reasons while oppressing its people but why were a particular race of people systematically killed? How could such a fervent hatred of Jews infect an entire national conscience causing such unconscionable acts to be perpetrated? In spite of popular opinion, it didn’t happen because the people of Germany fell into a hypnotic trance and all of a sudden felt compelled to murder innocents simply from hearing Hitler’s speeches (Dawidowicz, 1986: 3). Many citizens of Germany were unaware of the Concentration Camps, including the residents of the towns where the camps were located. The executions were carried out by the German army with SS troops in charge of the operations. The unknowing German people and the most fervent of Nazi’s did have a nationalistic idealism in common, however, which was the underlying reason for the extermination of the Jewish race. This common idealism was developed from the culmination of centuries of German cultural bonding through the ideas of Volkism, with roots that had begun the century before. The idea of Volk became not simply the people of a country, but a unifying spiritual force of a peoples traditions and customs. Literature, music, art, folklore, and religion are all manifestations of the spirit of the people, or the volkgeist (Iggers, 2000). This draw to unify inspired a considerable interest in the German people’s common culture, myths, legends and folksongs. For the Nazis, the Volk could only be described as the Aryan race, thus the concept of excluding the Jews. Anti-Semitism propaganda under the Third Reich fulfilled its objective to represent the combination of older, culturally stereotyped perceptions of the Jewish people with the racialism in the Nazi curriculum (Iggers, 2000). Germans were constantly encouraged by the Reich to view the Aryan people of Germany as part of the Volk and to envision themselves as a superior and eternal collection of people worthy of ruling the world. The influence of the ideology of the Volk was motivating in the 1920’s and 30’s to Germany. It supported regaining a sense of nation broken in their WWI defeat. Widespread confusion and discontent ruled Germany immediately after the WWI surrender. Volkish groups of that time frequently held Jews responsible for the loss of World War I (Florida Holocaust Museum, 2003). They maintained that Jews joined forces with socialists and communists to defeat Germany. The anti-semitic ideas of the right wing volkish faction opposed the democratic principles of the leftwing liberal parties. The volkish groups showed contempt for the Weimar Republic, condemning its willingness to sign the Treaty of Versailles (Florida Holocaust Museum, 2003). From the perspective of extreme rightwing groups, the Weimar Republic was equated with the ‘Jew’ Republic. One of the many volkish groups that existed in 1919 was the German Workers’ Party, precursor to The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (The organization that launched Hitler’s accent to power) (Florida Holocaust Museum, 2003). What Volkish thinking and the Nazi movement both shared was a sense of cultural superiority along with intolerance for people or cultures within their borders that did not fit their cultural ideal. This sense of commonality of the people fit the objectives for Hitler and the Third Reich. For the Nazis, the Volk could only be described as the Aryan race, thus the concept of excluding the Jews. The concept of the Volk for the ‘German Race’ to remain pure was loudly voiced by the Third Reich. The two identities were in conflict, the German nationalistic influence of the Volk and the Jewish 2000 year persona as the Chosen People. Conflicts of the two strong national identities in Germany in the 1920’s and 30’s developed over time (Wegner, 2002: 1). The need for bloodline purity and the treacherous influence of the Jews was formed from the Volkish ideology regarding racial soul transmittal through bloodlines. “Julius Langbehn espoused the notion that the Aryans possessed the ‘life-force’ in a ‘life-fluid’ which flowed from the cosmos to the Volk. Jews did not possess this ‘life fluid’ because they had ‘long ago forfeited their souls” (Mosse, 1985: 97-99). Anti-Semitism propaganda under the Third Reich fulfilled its objective to represent the combination of older, culturally stereotyped perceptions of the Jewish people with the racialism in the Nazi curriculum (Iggers, 2000). Germans were constantly encouraged by the Reich to view the Aryan people of Germany as part of the Volk and to envision themselves as a superior and eternal collection of people. Nationalism and patriotism are generally regarded as honorable feelings that tie a land’s people together. The Third Reich’s quest for totalitarian control induced its leaders to turn their attention to the management of the nations cultural policy as it was perceived only through art could the minds of the people be completely controlled into the new society Hitler envisioned. The Department of Graphic Arts was created in October of 1934 during the cultural bureaucracy that took shape between 1933 and 1935. This creation was a manifestation of the character and administrative styles of the key Nazi ministers, Goebbels arising as the most influential. Hitler had more than a decade to produce art that he felt was to be the foundation on which a one thousand year culture could be built. The Nazi regime purged art from museums and eliminated art they deemed unacceptable in an effort to form the cultural definition of their party. This effort instead turned into a grab for egocentric and monetary purposes. “For it is an affair of the State – that means of the government to prevent a people from being driven into the arms of spiritual lunacy. For in lunacy such a development would end one day. For on the day that this kind of art were actually to correspond to the general conception, one of the most severe changes of mankind would have begun; the backward development of the human brain would have begun with this, but one would hardly be able to conceive the end” (Hitler, 1939: 354). In 1933, Hitler issued a five point manifesto describing what German artists would adhere to as a part of the Deutscher Kunstberich. These points included the following ideas: All works of a cosmopolitan or Bolshevist nature should be removed from German museums and collections, but first they should be exhibited to the public, who should be informed of the details of their acquisition and then burned. All museum directors who “wasted” public monies by purchasing “un-German” art should be fired immediately. No artist with Marxist or Bolshevist connections should be mentioned henceforth. No boxlike buildings should be built. All public sculptures not “approved” by the German public should be immediately removed (McAllister, 2001). Hitler used this assault on art to further German anti-Semitic feelings. Almost immediately upon seizing power, the Nazis closed the Bauhaus, the perceived haven of socialists, Bolsheviks and Jews. They began to restrain the expression of Modernism everywhere in Germany. Hitler viewed art as a tool to an idealized state as well as an organized and Aryan German population. Free expression was expressly forbidden as it first had to be demonstrated that it contained no degenerate ideas. The new German artist had to “portray the essence of the Aryan spirit through labored depictions which told unambiguous stories. Even the few Expressionist artists, most notably Emil Nolde, who were early party members were prevented from practicing because their abstractions subverted the needs of the state” (Heller, 1995). The role of the artist in Hitler’s Germany was to either portray the German world as peaceful, or as drawn into a struggle for survival to defend it. Artists within the conquered regions who did not glorify German citizens, soldiers, and Hitlers ideals risked their very lives. When not painting pastoral scenes or glorifying the war, the artists would turn their paint brushes against the Jew, depicting him as inhuman and inferior. Thus, art was to become one more weapon in the Nazi regimes arsenal. Museum directors of Germany that, prior to 1933, were free to and had bought and supported modern art were now dismissed. The art galleries that traded and showed modern art were closed and the faculty of the art institutes that taught or created modern art summarily fired (Steinweis, 1993: 72). The elaborate and violent ideological structure of Nazi propaganda was reinforced by the militant use of museums and exhibitions as vehicles for mass indoctrination and popular entertainment. Museums were turned into a surrogate university for mass education in racial politics. The Nazis took the educational responsibility of the museum very seriously; they rejected the traditional elitist view of museums as passive repositories of unique aesthetic objects collected independently from the community. Using the financial power of the state, the Nazis turned the traditional, somewhat austere, art museum into a circus of traveling media events that sacrificed the needs of art to ideology (Steinweis, 1993: 73). Authorities adopted a more violent and lawless cultural policy in 1938. After 1936, the lack of toleration developed into a more violent radicalism. Cultural bureaucrats exhibited little regard for domestic law or world opinion by disposing of modern art from state collections where the leaders both sold and destroyed the unwanted work (“Degenerate Art”, 2005). By 1938, this trend had increased to the point that the practice of seizing and/or destroying art was widespread among the privileged of the Nazi framework. “In that year the Nazi elite began to engage in widespread if clandestine corruption for their personal gain. Outside the cultural realm, state terror increased, foreign policy became more aggressive, and the government and military experienced the reorganization of personnel. “In brief, 1938 marked a break in the constitutional development of the Hitler state” (Petropoulos, 1996: 51). This year saw the beginning of a more lawless and harsh campaign against art deemed unacceptable. During this time of wonton thievery of classic artworks, the real trophy for the Nazis and the most fertile ground for reaping the harvest of artistic plunder lay in Western Europe, and especially, in France. The western portion of the continent offered the Nazis artworks that appealed to their largely traditional aesthetic sensibilities and provided them the opportunity to exorcise certain feelings of cultural inferiority. The Nazis exploited art in order to carry out their larger political and ideological programs, to seize power within Germany and to conquer the European continent. In an effort to expand the Nazi social agenda, they sought to control Europe’s artistic legacy by possessing its pertinent articulation, the artwork. Hitler and other party leaders were coming to view the acquisition of artworks as an important symbol of their expanding realm. “The plundering of Western Europe proved consistent with other aspects of the ideology of the National Socialists. Most notably, their attack on European Jewry included stealing their victims’ art as one part of the process of persecution, dehumanization, and eventual annihilation. The Nazis justified their confiscations of the property of western European Jews on the grounds that no armistice or peace treaty was ever concluded with the Jewish people as they were distinguishable as a nation within yet apart from other nations such as France and Italy” (Petropoulos, 1996: 123). Treaties signed with other countries and cultures that were subsequently plundered of its art by the Nazis were not addressed by the regime. During Hitler’s reign, the Germans robbed art in all the newly occupied territories. “The civil administration set up in the Netherlands almost immediately after the capitulation appeared especially malignant in its welcome of the chance to implement all the German looting measures passed by the Reichskommissar. When participating in these looting operations, Seyss-Inquart naturally made use of the Netherlands administration, then under Nazi control (Aalders, 2004: 11). From the Nazi perspective, the Rothschild Collections were the top of all prized art collections in France (Feliciano, 1997: 43). French government documents show that nearly 16,000 artworks were returned to France after the war. Of this number, 2,058 are currently being held in French museums, including the Louvre (“France”, 1998). Nazi propaganda fanned the flames of deep-rooted existing feelings of nationalism evoking strong emotions amongst the majority of German citizens. Though the average German citizen was not aware of the Holocaust, many shared the opinion that Jews were an inferior race and viewed the invasions of neighboring sovereign nations as patriotic conquests. It is impossible to know if the average German citizen had aspirations of global domination. Given the prevailing ‘superior race’ ideology, it doesn’t seem a far step that Germans might consider themselves to be both biologically and theologically predestined to dominate over all other cultures and races of the world. The Nazi’s, to their credit, were efficient and effective in their tactics. They spread mass fear and destruction by blitzkrieg tactics, confiscated thousands of priceless artworks that had been an important part of a country’s history for hundreds or thousands of years, confiscated property and eradicated or enslaved the local population. The total cultural, economic and military domination of surrounding countries was a cleverly calculated multi-pronged scheme that experienced early successes but did not achieve the intended eventual outcome of global dominion. References Aalders, Gerard. (2004). Nazi Looting: The Plunder of the Dutch Jewry During the Second World War. Trans. Arnold and Erica Pomerans. 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