ruveyn wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
Yes, Germany was left with sole responsibility of a war which they had been dragged into, leaving them humiliated, and especially broke when the depression hit. Looking for someone to blame, a charismatic leader - Adolf Hitler - harnessed the justifiable rage, German pride and nationalism, but also unlocked the festering Antisemitism deeply rooted within German society. Appealing to blind emotion, Hitler played up on notions that the Jews had betrayed the Fatherland in the last war, which unfortunately most Germans had bought into. Combine that with the fact that Hitler had turned Germany from an economic wreck back into an industrial powerhouse in a few years, the German people were ready to follow him to hell. And the Jews unfortunately were the recipients of the irrational hate Hitler had unleashed.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer
The German economy, as pumped up by Hitler, was ultimately a house of cards. It required loot to function. That is why Hitler opted for war, even after the territories wrongfully seized by France were gotten back. If Hitler had stopped with the return of the Rheinland and perhaps the union with Austria, he would have been hailed as the greatest German statesman ever born. But there was no way Hitler and his Nazi buddies could stop the expansion. Had Germany succeeded in seizing the Ukrane and some of the Russian farmland, it would have become the promised powerhouse. But that never came about. Hitler's fortunes had turned around badly with his failure to wreck the Soviet Union in 1942 and 1943.
ruveyn
That is absolutely true. The German economy was so geared for war, that without it, a new depression would have washed over the land in no time. It was for this reason why Anti-Nazis on the German General Staff had tried to stall Hitler, telling him that Germany would not be ready for war till the 1950's. But as we all know, Hitler took command of the armed forces himself, and forced the issue.
The funny thing is, Hitler only turned east toward the Soviet Union when his war with England had gotten stuck, and Rudolph Hess had convinced him that their "Aryan brothers" in England would join Germany in a racial war against the Slavs. Obviously, that didn't work, anymore than did nutty Rudy's secret flight to Britain to sue for peace.
-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer