This research paper traces the evolution of German foreign policy during the first four years after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. In 1933 and 1934 German foreign policy was marked by a series of incremental, opportunistic and relatively low risk moves, which reflected the priority given to Hitler to the consolidation of his internal position and Germany's secret rearmament. They were designed to exploit disunity and weakness among the European powers which might otherwise jeopardize the achievement of Nazi (National Socialist) Germany's long-term expansionist goals. Germany diplomacy was implemented by a combination of traditional and revolutionary methods, which achieved remarkable success, despite a major setback in Austria. In 1935 and 1936 German foreign policy became more adventuresome. Its aims were to complete the destruction of the constraints on German power established under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles (Versailles) and to free Germany's hands to expand in Central and Eastern Europe. In those years, Germany, primarily as a result of Hitler's bold, shrewd and manipulative diplomacy, seized the initiative in European affairs and wreaked a significant shift in the strategic balance of power in its favor. These successes were achieved at minimum short-term cost but masked the more fundamental mismatch between Hitler's unsatiated territorial ambitions and Germany's limited resources.
Contrast between the Nazi Worldwiew and German Weakness in 1933
Hitler's Worldview. Hitler came to power with what Weinberg called "a clearly formulated set of ideas on major issues of foreign policy," which appeared in his mid-1920s autobiography Mein Kampf (1). He viewed politics and international affairs as a mortal struggle between the superior white Aryan or Nordic race, and inferior or non-European races, of which the lowest and most dangerous were the Jews, racially polluting parasites. The German volk ha...