Invasion ruhr hitler biography

  • How was the ruhr crisis resolved

    • Hitler's War

    1977 book by David Irving

    This article is about the book by David Irving. For other uses, see Hitler's War (disambiguation).

    Hitler's War is a biographical book by the British author David Irving. It describes the Second World War from the point of view of Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany.

    It was first published in April 1977 by Hodder & Stoughton and Viking Press. Avon Books reissued it in 1990. In 2002 Focal Point Publications published a revised illustrated edition, combined with Irving's The War Path, as a 1024-page hardcover.

    Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy Hitler's War generated, it was a best-seller in 1977. In particular, Hitler's War was a best-seller in Germany.

    Primary theses

    Irving's book Hitler's War, the first published instalment of his two-part biography of Adolf Hitler (the prequel The War Path was published in 1978), had originally been published in German as Hitler und seine Feldherren (Hitler and his Generals) in 1975. Irving's intention in Hitler's War was to clean away the "years of grime and discolouration from the facade of a silent and forbidding monument" to reveal the “real Hitler”, whose reputation Irving claimed had been slandered by historians. In Hitler's War Irving tries to "view the situation as far as possible through Hitler's eyes, from behind his desk". He portrays Hitler as a rational and intelligent politician whose only goal was to increase Germany's prosperity and influence on the continent, and who was constantly let down by incompetent and/or treasonous subordinates. Irving's book faults the Allied leaders, most notably Winston Churchill, for the eventual escalation of war, and claims that the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was a "preventive war" forced on Hitler to avert an alleged impending Soviet attack. Irving comments that in light of the "preventive war" that h

      Invasion ruhr hitler biography
  • Why did the french invade the ruhr in 1923

    • Adolf Hitler: 1919-1924

    After World War I

    In October 1918, toward the end of World War I, Hitler was partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. He was sent to the military hospital in Pasewalk and was there at the time of the armistice on November 11, 1918. Hitler returned to Munich on November 21, 1918, two days after his release from the hospital in Pasewalk, Pomerania. He was at that point a Private First Class in the 7th Company, 1st Reserve Battalion of the 2nd Regiment in the German Army.   

    During the next six months Hitler had an opportunistic association as soldiers’ council representative to the civilian authorities in Bavaria with the Independent Socialist-led coalition Bavarian state government of Kurt Eisner, which assumed power in November 1918. After Eisner’s assassination by the right-wing fanatic Count Anton von Arco-Valley in February 1919, he had a similarly opportunistic association with the Bavarian Soviet Councils Republic.  He played no part in the overthrow of the Councils Republic on May 2 by Freikorps units, or in the establishment of the military administration that governed Bavaria until a civilian government could be formed.   

    Recruited to the Information Office of the Military Administration

    At the end of May 1919, Hitler was recruited to work for the information office of the military administration commanded by Captain Karl Mayr.   Among its tasks were gathering intelligence on political movements potentially hostile to the Bavarian authorities and tending to the “political education” of the troops to counter alleged Bolshevik (Communist) influences.  

    Hitler excelled in a training course in early June, and in August 1919 became an instructor for a five-day course for Reichswehr (German Armed Forces) personnel at a base in Lechfeld near Augsburg.  Hitler stood out as an effective communicator, and made his first virulent antisemitic s

    War in Europe

    On 1 September 1939, the German army invaded Poland. Two days later, England and France, both allies of Poland, declared war on Germany. The Second World War had started, but after the German occupation of Poland, there was no fighting for some time. This period was called the ‘Phoney War', because it was clear to all parties that things would not end there.

    The Netherlands is neutral

    In 1940, the principle of Dutch foreign policy was neutrality, as it had been for a century. The Netherlands had avoided getting involved in international conflicts and would only take sides when attacked. The strategy worked fine during the First World War. The Netherlands remained neutral and the war passed the country by.

    The Dutch government was therefore careful not to take an official stand on the situation in Nazi Germany. It did not want to give cause for hostilities. This resulted in some awkward situations, with Dutch people who criticised the politics of Adolf Hitler being prosecuted for insulting a 'friendly head of state'.

    Strategic interest of the Netherlands

    The planned attack on the Netherlands was part of a larger plan of attack, of which the code name was Fall Gelb. The goal of the Germans was to conquer France. They wanted to bypass the French defence line at the eastern border by going through the Netherlands and Belgium. Their occupation of the Netherlands would also prevent England from setting up a base of operations on the European mainland.

    Germany planned to defeat Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg by catching them off guard in a swift attack, the so-called Blitzkrieg. The Germans used espionage to discover the weak points in the Dutch defence. Some German officers dressed up as tourists to map out the area, and they also received information from Germans living in the Netherlands.

    But not all German preparations were running smoothly. The Belgian army got hold of the German attack plans when a German aircraft made an emerg

    The Weimar Republic

    It was at this moment of crisis that Gustav Stresemann was elected as chancellor in September 1923. Stresemann was a politician of the DVP, the German People’s Party. In 1923 he formed a coalition of the DVP , SPD , DDP and Centre Party and became chancellor.

    To try and tackle the crisis gripping Germany, Stresemann followed a policy of ‘fulfillment’ whereby he aimed to improve international relations by attempting to fulfil the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. These improved relationships would then in turn help him to secure a reasonable revision to the treaty.

    Following this policy, Stresemann made the unpopular decision to start repaying the reparations and order the striking workers of the Ruhr to return to work.

    Stresemann also appointed Hjalmar Schacht , a banker, to tackle the issue of hyperinflation. In November 1923, Schacht introduced a new German currency, the Rentenmark, based on land values and foreign loans. One Rentenmark was worth 10,000,000,000,000 of the old currency.

    In April 1924, Stresemann’s policy of fulfillment paid off. An American economist named Charles Dawes was recruited to help to set a new, realistic, target for Germany’s reparations payments. This was called the Dawes Plan.

    Under this plan, the reparations were reduced to 50 million marks a year for the next five years, and then 125 million marks a year following that. The plan also recommended that the German National Bank was reorganised, and that Germany receive an international loan. This loan was for 800 million gold marks, financed primarily by America.

    These measures eased the economic pressure on Germany, and relations with other countries began to improve and then stabilise.

    This economic improvement, as well as improvements in foreign relations, led to the years between 1924 and 1929 becoming known as the ‘Golden Years’.