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This article is about Germany as it appears in The War That Came Early series. For other versions, see Germany

Nazi Germany Flag

Under the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, Germany had spent the period from 1933-1938 pursuing an aggressive, racially-based foreign policy designed to restore German military greatness and the unification of all German peoples. By 1938, Germany had began rearming, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, had formally annexed Austria, and began demanding the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. In addition, Germany and Italy had been men and arms to the Nationalist faction of the Spanish Civil War. Hitler viewed Nationalist leader Marshal José Sanjurjo as a kindred spirit.

While the other powers of Europe were alarmed by Nazi Germany's aggression, there was little will to confront Hitler in Britain and France. The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin seemed more inclined to fight. Stalin supported the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War openly, whereas France and Britain paid the Republicans lip-service and little else.

In September 1938, it appeared that once again, Germany would be appeased, as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Edouard Daladier met in Munich with Hitler and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (one of Hitler's main foreign allies) to enter into an agreement which would give Germany the Sudetenland. The meeting was interrupted by news that Konrad Henlein, a political leader of the Germans in the Sudetenland, had been assassinated by a Czech nationalist named Jaroslav Stribny. Hitler, who had actually wanted a war, not this handover of territory, announced his intention to declare war on Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain and Daladier could not believe that Hitler was innocent of Henlein's death (he was in fact, innocent) and so saw no other option but war.

While Germany had been rearming, in truth it was only marginally more prepared for war than its enemies. German strategy involved bluffing the Western Allies, to help slow down their advance into Germany, while Germany subdued Czechoslovakia. After 30 days, French troops had a fragile toe-hold on German territory and British troops hadn't left France, each convinced that Germany was in a far better position for war than it was. Again, the Soviet Union was willing to directly confront Germany, landing troops in Czech territory, and launching aerial attacks. But geography thwarted a direct land engagement: Poland and Romania acted as buffers between the USSR and Czechoslovakia proper. Thus, after ferocious fighting on both sides, Czechoslovakia fell completely to Germany in 30 days.

Flush with victory, Germany now turned West. In December, all French troops had been pushed out of German territory, and German forces invaded France. Simultaneously, Germany launched an invasion of the Netherlands, then Luxembourg. An invasion of Belgium was clearly in the offing, but King Leopold III was unwilling to allow Allied forces into Belgian territory until far too late. Belgium fell, and Germany had another route into France.

After the German advance was halted at Beauvais, east of Paris, the Germans had difficulties. British Empire, French, African, and Czech troops held the line, and forced back the Wehrmacht. Soon, German troops were beginning to fall back. In the east, the tenacity of the Poles stymied the Soviets. Despite this, Hitler remained defiant, and ordered an invasion of Denmark (which, completely taken by surprise, fell in days) and then Norway (which immediately fought, with help from Britain and France).

By the end of the year Scandinavia and the East were more or less secure, but the situation continued to worsen in France where the German troops were pushed almost to the border with Belgium. Another coup attempt was launched, prompting the SS to conduct a second, more violent crackdown on the Wehrmacht that took the shooting to Germany itself and made civilians reminisce about the collapse of the Kaiser's Empire in 1918.

Hitler still stood defiant, and conducted a massive rally in Münster despite being aware that the city was a recurrent target of the RAF and the French Air Force.  He refused an offer from United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to negotiate an end to the war with a return to the status quo ante bellum, but he was careful not to anger the U.S., no mean task, as a German u-boat had sunk the luxury liner SS Athenia in January, 1939. While Germany was able to successfully blame Britain for the sinking, Hitler took additional steps, including helping American tourist Peggy Druce, trapped in Europe since the outbreak of war, to go first to Denmark and then on to neutral Sweden after Denmark fell to Germany.    

In 1940, Hitler's fortunes changed dramatically (albeit temporarily) for the better when he sent his deputy, Rudolf Hess into Britain. Here, Hess was able to convince the governments of both Britain and France to end their war and arrange a new alliance where in Britain and France joined Germany in its war against the Soviet Union. Hungary and Slovakia also joined the alliance, as did Romania early the following year. Concurrently, Hitler announced plans to force the Jews in the former Czechoslovakia into ghettos.

While the coalition made substantial gains into Soviet territory in the following year, discontent in the British military led to an unprecedented coup the Spring of 1941 which deposed the pro-appeasement government of Horace Wilson. Britain then withdrew from the Soviet Union. As France remained a German ally, the British could not return ground troops to Europe, and concentrated on aerial bombings. Britain also engaged Italian forces in North Africa. As Britain gained the upper hand in the closing days of 1941, Germany's Afrika Korps entered the fray, opening a new front for Germany. In December, 1941, France, which had been seeking to exit the German alliance, completed negotiations with Britain and the USSR, and withdrew from Russia. Now Germany was again fighting in both the east and the west.

Discontent with Hitler began to grow throughout 1941. Münich was a center, led in part by Bishop Clemens August von Galen, who was critical of the Nazis' euthanasia programs. Finally, Hitler overplayed his hand when the government arrested von Galen, prompting a round of demonstrations in Münster. In the spring of 1943, another demonstration in the square outside of Münster's cathedral erupted into violence when police officers fired on the crowd. While several protesters were shot, other were able to charge the line of police, inflicting damage in return.[1] In response, the German government sent the SS into Münster, who fortified the cathedral.[2] While the people of Münster publicly accepted martial law, resentment boiled just below the surface.[3]

Hitler also grew more reckless with regards to the U.S., which had been attacked by Japan in January 1941. Despite this war, the U.S. continued to ships arms to Britain, France, and the USSR. Hitler issued an ultimatum that the U.S. would suffer consequences. He further ordered that German troops were no longer to retreat on any front.

Things continued to go poorly for Germany throughout the remainder of 1943 and into 1944. Münster continued to fester. Despite fortifications in the Low Countries, the Allies continued to press German positions in Belgium, and Soviet troops continued to move into Ukraine and Poland. Marshal Sanjurjo was killed by a sniper in Fall 1943.[4] Despite efforts to maintain his cult of personality, Hitler's popularity waned.[5]

Hitler's downfall came after a series of blunders. In the Winter of 1943, Münster began an open revolt, prompting marshal law.[6] Further, after months of tension, Hitler decided to initiate war with the United States when U-boats attacked several American merchant ships in March, 1944.[7] This prompted several military leaders to form the Committee for the Salvation of the German Nation, with General Heinz Guderian as their leader. When Hitler decided to broadcast a speech from Münster in an attempt to regain the country's trust, the group successfully assassinated him with a bomb, despite the heavy security measures the SS put into place.[8]

A civil war broke out almost immediately. Several of Hitler's would-be successors were arrested or killed. Ultimately, Guderian and the Committee triumphed.[9] Ironically, while Germany withdrew from the Low Countries, Denmark, Norway, France, and the USSR, Guderian was able to keep many of the territorial gains Hitler had made early on, including Austria, the Sudetenland, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.[10]

Thus, unlike in 1918, Germany had not been defeated. The war ended with a draw, and with some German territorial gains as compared to the pre-1938 situation. Germany remained a major military power, with its armed forces battered but intact, and no restrictions on its further building up armaments. The German Navy embarked on producing a new and vastly improved model of U-Boat, which had not come into operation during the war. Over in the US, Albert Einstein was concerned that the far more rational military government of Germany could develop atomic bombs before everybody else, and made great efforts to get President Roosevelt to resume the halted American bomb program.

Domestically, the Committee loosened the more restrictive policies of the Nazis. News broadcasts included uncomplimentary reports about Germany and emphasized the crimes and cruelty of the SS and SD. It also quietly revoked the Reich Citizenship Law of 1935 and effectively restored citizenship to Jews, rather than treating them as residents without rights. It also removed the requirement that Jews have the yellow star of David on their clothing in public.[11]

Germany 1870

When the Committee abolished the Nazi flag of Germany, it was replaced by the pre-1918 flag of the German Empire, rather than that of the short-lived Weimar Republic.

References[]

  1. Two Fronts, pg. 358.
  2. Ibid., pg. 386-387.
  3. Ibid., pg. 387.
  4. Last Orders, pg. 144-146.
  5. Ibid., pgs. 108-109.
  6. Ibid., pgs. 116-119.
  7. Ibid., pgs. 269-70.
  8. Ibid., pg. 300.
  9. Ibid., pg. 382.
  10. Ibid., pgs. 318-320.
  11. Ibid, pgs. 382-383.
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