Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
World War II
hroughout the 1930s the Nazis made
preparations for war
, expanding the army and
gearing the economy for war readiness by 1940, to dovetail with Hitler's foreign policy
of obtaining
Lebensraum
(“living space”) from neighbouring countries by intimidation.
From 1936 onwards Hitler even spent much time with his favourite architect,
Albert
Speer
, drawing up extensive plans for a remodelled and grandiose Berlin, to be called
“Germania”, that would reflect a postwar role as world capital of the “housand Year
Reich”. His megalomania inspired hours of brooding on how future generations might
be awed by Germania's monumental ruins, in the way that contemporaries venerated
the ruins of ancient Roman and Middle Eastern civilizations - hence the need to build
with the finest materials on a gigantic scale.
he road to war was swift. In 1936 the German army occupied the Rhineland
(demilitarized under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles) to token protests from the
League of Nations. he
Anschluss
(“annexation”) of Austria in 1938 was likewise carried
off with impunity, and a few months later Britain and France agreed to dismember
Czechoslovakia. Encouraged by their appeasement, Hitler made new demands on Polish
territory in 1939, probably hoping for a similar collapse of will by the western powers,
the more so since he had pulled off the spectacular coup of signing a nonaggression pact
with his ultimate enemy, the Soviet Union, thus ensuring that Germany could avoid a
war on two fronts. But two days after the German invasion of Poland began on
September 1, Britain and France declared war in defence of their treaty obligations.
Outbreak and early success
he outbreak of
World War II
was greeted without enthusiasm by Berliners, despite
German victories in Poland. here were few signs of patriotic fervour as the troops
marched off to war through the streets, and Hitler cancelled further parades out of
pique. Only the spectacle of the military parade to mark the fall of France (July 18,
1940), when German troops marched through the Brandenburg Gate for the first time
since 1871, really attracted the crowds.
Initially, Berlin suffered little from the war. Although citizens were already
complaining of meagre rations, delicacies and luxury goods from occupied Europe
gravitated towards the Reich capital. What remained of the diplomatic and foreign press
community and all the Nazi bigwigs continued to maintain chic lifestyles. Open dissent
seemed impossible, with Gestapo informers believed to lurk everywhere, while much
wartime misery was softened by Nazi welfare organizations and a blanket of propaganda.
Air raids
Göring had publicly boasted that Germans could call him “Meyer” (a Jewish surname)
if a single bomb fell on Berlin. Notwithstanding, the British RAF dropped some for the
first time on August 23, 1940, and a further night raid on August 28-29 killed ten people
- the first German civilian casualties. hese raids had a marked demoralizing effect on
Berliners, who had counted on a swift end to the war, and Hitler had to reassure the
populace in a speech at the Sportpalast. Holding up a Baedeker travel guide to Britain,
he thundered that the Luftwaffe would raze Britain's cities to the ground one by one.
However, these early
bombing raids
on Berlin caused little real damage and it wasn't
until March 1, 1943 - when defeat in the Western Desert and di
culties on the
1928
1933
British novelist Christopher Isherwood arrives
in Berlin.
Adolf Hitler comes to power shortly after a fire
devastates the Reichstag.
