CHAPTER 9
The Treaty of Versailles
The four leaders of the ‘Allies’ who fought against Germany in the World War all came to the peace treaty with demands. The leaders and their demands were:
Georges Clemenceau the French Prime Minister: Germany must pay monetary damages for the cost of rebuilding physical assets destroyed by Germany during the war. He insisted on the return of Alsace-Lorraine taken by Germany during the war of 1871. France would take control of the Rhineland as a defensive shield against Germany. The Rhineland was an industrial area lying along the German border with France, Luxemburg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
David Lloyd George the British Prime Minister: Preferred a more lenient approach as he felt that harshness might only precipitate future revengeful action by Germany. He preferred that the Rhineland not return to French hands, but that it becomes a “demilitarized zone.”
Vittorio Orlando the Prime Minister of Italy: After a secret London treaty with Britain and France, Italy entered the war in 1915 on the promise that Italy’s reward would be the Adriatic Coast after the war.
Woodrow Wilson the President of the United States: He was against Italy having the Adriatic Coast as he did not favor the idea of Europe setting up internal empires. He also favored the formation of a “League of Nations” to settle future disputes, which history would prove was unworkable.
In essence, Germany had to accept blame for starting the war, substantially reduce their military capacity, had to pay 6.6 billion in reparations for damages, abandon the Saar coalfields to France for fifteen years, return Alsace-Lorraine to France, give Poland a corridor to the Baltic Sea, turn over German colonies to Great Britain or France, and make Danzig a free city. In addition, Germany was refused entry into the League of Nations, and forbidden to ever unite with Austria. All of this was intended to weaken Germany for as long as possible. The League of Nations was proposed by Woodrow Wilson in a speech given to the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1919. Wilson called for the formation of an association of nations that would guarantee political independence and territorial integrity for all regardless of size. The world eagerly accepted this treatise, but the United States whose congress, fearful of being drawn into European entanglements, soundly rejected Wilson’s proposed league.
The Peace Treaty of Versailles ending World War I was signed on the 28th of June 1919. Germany had no choice but to accept all of its harsh terms.
CHAPTER 10
Adolph Hitler political activity 1919
After the war, the German regime faced chaotic domestic conditions. The leadership recognized Hitler’s amazing record as a soldier and the strength of his devotion to German nationalism. Consequentially the vestigial German army hired him as a spy to investigate the many rising political parties—particularly Communistic—that could threaten the post-war regime.
On September 1919, Corporal Adolf Hitler was ordered to attend a meeting of a small group in Munich known as the German Workers Party. The use of the term “workers,”' often a part of Communist Party wording, attracted the attention of the German Army which was now actively working to crush Communist uprisings. On September 19, Hitler, dressed in civilian clothes, appeared in the back room of a Munich beer hall. There, he stepped into a group of twenty-five men who were engaged in an animated and noisy political discussion as they awaited a speaker’s presentation. The first speech was given by Gottfried Feder: “How and By What Means is Capitalism to be Eliminated?” After this speech, as Hitler took his leave, he overheard another speaker address the topic of Austria combining with the German state of Bavaria to form a new nation on Germany’s border. Hitler, the fervent nationalist, stopped cold in his tracks, listened intently and, taking to the speaker’s podium, forcefully decried the man’s theories for an impassioned fifteen minutes. Listening intently to Hitler’s speech, the organizer of the German Worker’s Party, Anton Drexler, was so impressed that he gave Hitler a pamphlet “My Political Awakening” and urged him to read it and return. When Hitler did, he found the same thinking as his: anti-Semitism, nationalism, pro-militarism, and a party consisting of working class people; Hitler’s thoughts exactly. He joined and would soon be its unopposed leader. This perhaps was a very early indicator of Adolph Hitler’s forceful personality. The world would never be the same. As the new leader of the party, Hitler developed his famous twenty-five points which became the foundation of his philosophy.
These points, which were unknown to most people at the time they were written, gave us an excellent idea of Hitler’s mentality, which as we see them now in 20-20 view, are clear precursors of what was to come if Hitler ever took power.
First point is a simple statement that demands that all Germans unite to form a “Greater Germany.” This is misleading because he fails to define “all Germans,” and on initial reading, one might conclude that it means all Germans regardless of race or religion. That, of course, would be the furthest thing from Hitler’s mind as he would exclude from the definition of “all Germans” Jews and other “inferior races defined as non-German Aryan.” This would be an early indication of Hitler’s future true intentions, but remained hidden behind the early and virtually unknown manifestations of the thoughts of an unknown political novice.
Historically. the term Aryan referred to the “white race” who spoke Indo-European languages and were intrinsically superior to other races including yellows, blacks and Semites. This concept was factually ridiculous, but Hitler seized upon it as a rhetorical mechanism to impress upon his own people, and everyone else, that the people of Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Sweden plus Germany were superior to all, because of their “Aryan derivation.” To Hitler “German Nordic Aryan implied a superiority expressed both racially and otherwise. His goal was to imbue such concepts into the public mind so as to instill the notion of superior ancestors, hence superior descendants. At the same time, Hitler, as the man responsible for discovering this heritage and as the evangelizer, advanced his own leadership agenda in his people’s minds. Hitler’s dual mind-set of anti-Jewish, Gypsy and Slavic hatred were a kind of twin brain washing of his followers to impress upon them their superior origins, thus their own superiority, and at the same time follow Hitler, the man responsible for discovering this heritage. Between Hitler’s mind set of anti-Jewish, Gypsy and Slavic hatred, plus the superiority of peoples descended from Nordic Aryans (Germans), this twin brain washing of his citizens would allow for their cooperation in establishing his master race in a “Greater Germany” encompassing all of Central and Eastern Europe. Brains so thoroughly washed could be exploited to assure citizen cooperation in establishing his master race in a “Greater Germany,” encompassing all of West, Central and Eastern Europe, also a virtually unknown concept in the early days of Hitler’s political ascension.
The second point demands the same rights for Germany as any other nation’s rights, and also demands the right to do away with the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties signed by Germany. This all requires reasonableness, but, as time would tell, in Hitler’s mind this “reasonableness” means lebensraum (living space) which no other nation “demands,” but to which superior races are entitled. No one had any concept of Hitler’s further thinking on this precept, which was that lebensraum would also require doing away with “inferior races” to make room for Aryans who would inherit the earth, bringing paradise to civilization.
In his third point, Hitler states that land and colonies are necessary for maintenance and settlement of Germany’s “surplus population.” What other country has demanded this before? What other country has spoken of this concept? One might ask, “How do you define surplus population.” Could it be Jews and other inferiors Hitler speaks about verbally? Is that his plan for these “undesirables”, or does he plan worse in store for them, and needs the extra land to be settled by an expanded German population composed of “superiors.” Whatever may be inferred, he unquestionably reinforces the “separation” of inferior and superior people.