Perspectives on Hitler

Question 1

Intentionalist

Answer 1

Hitler was a planner.
Mein Kampf: he outlined his goals from the beginning (about wanting Germany to expand in the East)

Hossbach Memorandum (1940): planning for war (Hitler stated that the key aim of German policy was to secure and preserve the racial community and to enlarge it—>
showed an inclination for war in the early 1940s because rearmament was nearly
complete and that the situation in 1943­-45 would be less favorable for war as more
countries began to catch up.

counter: what he planned to do was very different from what he actually ended up doing
(in Mein Kampf, he wanted to be allies with Britain and fight the USSR but he ended up
allies with the USSR in fighting Britain.)

Question 2

Functionalist

Answer 2

Hitler was an opportunist

Hitler saw how weak the British+French were—> took opportunities to violate the TOV
as much as he could, but he was willing to withdraw if they took action (e.g. from the
Rhineland)— showed that he didn’t really plan it, but saw his chances and took them

Question 3

Long­-term

Answer 3

Hitler was a long­term planner, but flexible in the methods which he took to achieve
his aims.

German expansion in the East (not the West— Lorcano Pact guaranteed Germany’s Western borders but not Eastern, showing that Germany still hoped to
reverse/violate the terms of the TOV in that area. This was a pact made before Hitler came to power—> showed that Hitler was continuing long­term German aims, not just his own), Lebensraum, Greater Germany.
Early on (1933­-36), Hitler played the diplomat— he went to disarmament conferences,
made agreements with the British (Anglo-­German Naval Treaty)
Post ­1936: begins German rearmament, when its military got bigger Hitler started taking
more chances and got away with more and more (anschluss with Austria, takeover of
Sudetenland)