What factors shaped German foreign policy?
- Legacy of Versailles
- November Criminals: People that signed the armistice. Blamed for surrender, led to "Stab-in-the-back" myth. Stab in the back myth undermined the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic
- Sparticist revolution in Jan 1919
- Freikorps 1920 Kapp Putsch
- Proportional Representation ==> created weak and indecisive coalition government
- Arguably the main reason to the rise of Hitler
- Racial Beliefs
- Consolidating power
- Domestic problems
- Nazi ideology
- Contemporary events
Intentionist: Hitler was evil. Had a plan for the war from the beginning. (Klaus Hildebrand)
Structuralist/Deteriminist: Just like any European statesman,n blundered into a war he didn't want in 1939. (AJP Taylor)
Intentionalist/Structuralist: Hitler was opportunist. (Allan Bullock)