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Germany Under Hitler
In 1938, Germany was a total dictatorship under the Nazi Party and Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I had imposed strict disarmament terms on Germany, by the late 1930s, Hitler had dropped all pretense of observing the terms of the treaty. He began not only to rebuild his military rapidly, but also to speak openly of Germany’s need for lebensraum, or “living space.”
Anschluss and Appeasement
In March 1938, offering little in the way of justification, Nazi troops took control Austria, which put up no resistance. (Many Austrians, in fact, welcomed the move.) Hitler claimed that the annexation was supported by his doctrine of Anschluss, or natural political unification of Germany and Austria. Though gravely disturbed, Britain and France took no action. Shortly thereafter, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia cede to Germany the Sudetenland, a territory along the German-Czech border. Hitler accused the Czechs of repressing the large German population there and asserted that the territory rightly belonged to Germany.
The September 1938 Munich Conference was called to address the situation. Ironically, Czechoslovakia was not present. After several rounds of negotiation, and despite their own treaties with Czechoslovakia, Britain and France agreed to give in to Hitler’s demand, as long as he agreed not to seize any further European territory. Hitler did sign an agreement to that effect, promising no further invasions. After taking the Sudetenland, however, Hitler ignored the agreement and proceeded to occupy most of western Czechoslovakia, along with several other territories in eastern Europe. Britain and France again took no action. The attempted appeasement of Hitler, which was advocated primarily by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, has been much criticized in retrospect.
The German Invasion of Poland
Several months after Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland, on August 23, 1939, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop met in Moscow with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Afterward, they announced publicly that Germany and the USSR had signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact to prevent hostilities between the two countries. The ministers kept secret the fact that Germany and the USSR had also agreed to overrun the countries that lay between them. Specifically, they had agreed that Germany and the USSR would each take over one half of Poland, with a further provision that the USSR would take over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia without German interference.
Germany’s invasion of Poland came quickly and with overwhelming force. The attack began on September 1, 1939, with heavy air strikes followed by a rapidly advancing ground invasion. Popular media on both sides dubbed this style of attack blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” The object was to shock the opponent so severely that there would be little resistance, allowing the country to be overrun quickly, with minimal German losses.
The primary obstacle to the German invasion force proved to be the Polish capital of Warsaw, which did not surrender until September 27, after a prolonged siege. By this time, all of western Poland was firmly under German control.
The Soviet Invasion of Poland
Just two weeks after the German invasion began, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east, on September 17, 1939. It took them only two days to push far enough to meet German troops advancing from the west. By this time, Germany had already taken most of Poland except for Warsaw, which was under siege. Upon meeting the Russian troops, the Germans handed over large numbers of prisoners and promptly pulled back to the line agreed upon in the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Retreating Polish armies, unaware that the USSR was part of Germany’s occupation plan, fled directly into Russian hands.
The “Phoney War”
Britain and France—which were soon labeled the Allied Powers, just as they had been in World War I—both declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, just two days after Germany began its invasion of Poland. However, aside from basic defensive preparations, neither country took significant action for several months. Germany likewise took little action after the invasion of Poland was complete, aside from several small naval attacks on Allied shipping vessels. Initially, the British press sarcastically called this period of relative calm the “Sitzkrieg,” or sitting war—a play on blitzkrieg. The term that eventually caught on, however, came from America: the “Phoney War.” Rather than make an offensive move of their own, the Allies waited for the expected German attack on Belgium and France. It would not come for many months, until the late spring of 1940.
The one active hot spot during this “Phoney War” was Finland, which the USSR invaded on November 30, 1939, with the goal of seizing the eastern Finnish territory of Karelia. Though vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the Finns fought back with determination and innovation, even employing troops on bicycles and skis. The invasion, which was expected to end quickly, instead lasted until March 13, 1940, when Finland finally capitulated, ceding Karelia to the Soviet Union, along with the major port of Viipuri (present-day Vyborg). Although Finland lost territory, the victory cost the USSR more than 100,000 lives, at least five times the number it cost the Finns.
Events Timeline
March 13, 1938
Germany annexes Austria
October 7–10
Germany takes Czech region of Sudetenland
August 23, 1939
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
September 1
Germany invades Poland
September 3
Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 17
USSR invades Poland from the east
September 19
German and Soviet forces meet in central Poland
September 28
Warsaw falls to Germany
November 30
Soviet forces invade Finland
Key People
Adolf Hitler
Chancellor of Germany; pursued aggressive territorial expansion in the late 1930s
Neville Chamberlain
British prime minister; favored a policy of appeasement that allowed German territorial annexations in 1938
Joachim von Ribbentrop
German foreign minister; signed German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
Vyacheslav Molotov
Soviet foreign minister; signed German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
