However, Hitler's confidence hit a hard wall here in Poland. Regarding Danzig, Poland's most important port, the Polish government was not willing to negotiate with Germany at all.
This made the German side very dissatisfied, because although Danzig is a free city, it is managed by Poland, and its garrison is also a Polish army. And the city is basically German. More importantly, East Prussia is completely separated from other German territories.
Separated, the closest distance between the two is only 40 kilometers.
It was also because of being separated from Poland that the development of East Prussia lagged behind the rest of Germany. This made the region eager to open a road channel between the two.
Is Hitler's request reasonable this time?
To be fair, it is very reasonable. This time Hitler only needs to return the port of Danzig and open the corridor to allow Germany to freely enter and leave East Prussia.
Initially, Hitler had no intention of attacking Poland, even though Poland had gained the largest piece of German territory after World War I. Poland, like Hungary, was useful to him in terms of threatening Czechoslovakia's rear, so he tempted Poland
Agreeing to his request, Poland also took the opportunity to seize a small piece of Czech territory.
Hitler was interested in temporarily accepting Poland as a junior partner, as long as Poland returned the German port of Danzig and allowed Germany free access to East Prussia through the "Polish Corridor". As far as Hitler was concerned, this was a very modest request.
However, after continuous negotiations, Hitler found that Poland was not only too stubborn to make such concessions, but also had unrealistic ideas about its own strength. Nonetheless, he still hoped that after further negotiations, they would change their minds. Until March
On the 25th, he also told the army commander that he was "unwilling to use force to solve the Danzig problem."
But after Britain and France gave Poland security guarantees, the nature of everything changed. Hitler discovered that Poland, which had received the support of Britain and France, became even more emboldened in the face of Germany's demands, and had no intention of negotiating with Germany (there was no value in winning over).
.This forced Hitler to think of new ways, and a military solution became possible.
However, in the face of Britain and France who were behind Poland, as well as Romania, a possible ally, Hitler knew that he had to find a way to break up the support behind Poland, so Ribbentrop visited Romania and paid a huge price to bring Romania to his side.
After the war, Hitler now felt that in terms of strength, Germany and its allies had gained an advantage over Poland and Britain and France behind it.
Therefore, he hoped that his tough statement would make Poland and the British and French countries behind it see the facts clearly. However, Hitler's speech was completely flattering to a blind man, and there was no response at all. Poland was so confident in its own strength that it did not
He believed that he was afraid of Germany after receiving support from Britain and France. Even after Romania fell to Germany, he still believed that he could withstand the attacks of the two countries.
This kind of iron-headed kid who doesn't listen to advice is very annoying. No matter how nice you say it, all kinds of threats will be used up. Then the solution by force will soon become the only possibility.
Some people may ask, can't Germany take a step back? Does it have to take Danzig?
The answer is that it cannot retreat. Now Germany cannot retreat even one step. If Hitler dares to retreat, Germany's domestic problems will explode. Moreover, rising nationalism is also a double-edged sword. It can not only gather people's hearts and make Germany stronger, but also can attack Germany.
Devoured by those who cannot satisfy their appetite.
Germany's economic miracle, in fact, is to use deficits to stimulate industrial production. However, Germany is mainly based on the military industry, and the emergence of military industry will inevitably bring about a sharp expansion of the military. This also makes Germany seriously biased.
The finances simply cannot support it.
At this time, the German government had no money to expand its arms and prepare for war. Hitler thought of two ways. One of them was to obtain wealth from the Jews to support Germany's financial expenditure. This was how Germany's massive anti-Semitism came about. Of course, it was only thanks to the Jews.
Even a little wealth could not support Germany's huge expenditure, so Hitler used another method, which was to strengthen his monopoly.
Germany encouraged mergers and small and medium-sized enterprises through legislation and other means, and hundreds of thousands of craftsmen and small businessmen were incorporated into military factories to serve. Through these means, resources were concentrated in the hands of monopolies, so that they could expand production, and then through
Controlling these monopolies controls the national economy.
At the same time, the German government began to build infrastructure and military facilities, and conduct large-scale military procurement. While creating orders for enterprises, the German government also stipulated that enterprises must use a certain proportion of profits to expand production and strictly stipulated the scope of investment. These
The measures did boost the economy and stimulate employment in the short term. However, they created huge fiscal deficits, and these deficits were a huge sum of money that the German government could never repay.
Faced with such a high fiscal deficit, Hitler was unwilling to issue more money to cause inflation and soaring prices again. Therefore, he could only use "white notes" such as bills to purchase goods from companies.
At the same time, in order to tighten currency, the Japanese government also issued a large number of bonds to consume the possible excessive Marks in the market. In other words, by allowing the German people to buy bonds, the currency was temporarily returned to the hands of the government. But in Germany at the time, this stimulated
As a result, government debt continues to rise.
At the same time, the serious imbalance between light and heavy industries in the German economy is difficult to change. When these bonds are returned to society, it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of promoting consumption. Then what awaits Germany is a serious economic crisis.
For this reason, at the beginning of 1939, the Reichsbank board of directors wrote in a letter to Hitler: "Endless state expenditure destroys attempts at an orderly budget. Even a substantial increase in the tax burden will put the state's finances at risk."
putting the exchange rate on the brink of collapse and thereby destroying the central bank's exchange rate."
The meaning of this passage is that Germany's finances are about to collapse and need to find a way to solve it.
Now there is only one way for Germany to go, and that is to use its huge military strength to find a solution for Germany's impending financial bankruptcy. War is inevitable.
This time is also the reason why Germany failed to integrate the strength of the occupying countries for its own use. Germany first needs to plunder enough materials and wealth from the occupying countries, fulfill those IOUs and promises, and relieve domestic pressure. The people do not care about national strategy.
Development, they will only see Germany winning, and then there should be spoils.
In order to satisfy their demands, the occupying country can only suffer losses. As for the plundered country, it will be extremely difficult for you to consolidate their strength.
So after Poland rejected Hitler's good intentions, the war was doomed.
It's just that Hitler is still waiting for a message, a message from the Soviet Union.
