Why was Hitler able to openly ignore the treaty of Versailles?

Answer 1

Hitler's Violations of the Treaty of Versailles

• 1933: Germany ceased paying reparations altogether, though the original burden had been reduced twice in the 1920s and special provision had been made for only very small payments during the Great Depression. (I'd regard this as one of the less serious breaches).

• Began secret rearmament.

• 1934: Interference in the internal affairs of Austria.

• Germany began to build an air force.

• 1935: Re-introduction of compulsory military service for all able-bodied young men. Fivefold (!) increase in the size of the German armed forces. (Major breach of the treaty).

• 1936: Remilitarized the Rhineland, which had been remained German but been demilitarized under terms of the Versailles Treaty. (Major breach).

• 1938: Annexation of Austria - contrary to the treaty. (Major breach).

• 1939 (March): Annexed Memel.

In addition, there were the following actions, which weren't covered by the treaty:

• 1933 (October): Pulled Germany out of the League of Nations. In the 1920s Stresemann had managed to get Germany admitted and had ended Germany's international 'outcast' status.

• 1938 (September/October): Demanded (and got) the Sudetenland at Munich.

• 1939 (March): Occupied the rest of Bohemia and Moravia. Most of Slovakia set up as German puppet state. 1939 (July): Strident demands to Poland for Danzig and the Polish Corridor.

In 1926 when Germany joined the League of Nations it had solemnly accepted its western borders as final and had undertaken not to try to change it eastern borders by force.

Answer 2

Hitler merely scrapped the treaty of Versailles himself after the death of president hindenburgh and the rest of the world simply looked the other way and did nothing about it. this would prove to be very unfortunate in coming years.

But, there were many reasons that the Allies had made this decision:

1.) The allied countries were capitalistic (Britain, France, U.S.), and many viewed the Communist Soviet Union as a far greater threat than Fascism. They hoped that Nazi Germany would limit the spread of Communism to the West. Moreover, Hitler openly disdained Communism, so others hoped that Communist and Fascist countries would go at each other like pits in a dog fight. They'd exhaust each other, and Britain and France wouldn't have to get their hands dirty. (Hope of this actually happening, however, died with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact in 1939, which allowed Germany to focus all of its attention on conquering the west.)

2.) Politicians like Neville Chamberlain had increasingly come to believe that the Treaty had been too harsh. Many of Hitlers early acts of aggression were viewed as a simple reassertion of German strength. For example, when Hitler began rebuilding his army and weapons this was viewed as an attempt to correct an unfair term in the Treaty, which had forced Germany (alone) to reduce its armaments. When Hitler used his army to reclaim the Rhineland and Sudetenland (in Czechoslovakia), Allies argued that he was just taking back lands that were unfairly taken from Germany in the Treaty.

3.) After Britain and France had survived the horrors of World War I, the prospect of another Great War was enormously unpopular. In World War, I France had lost about 1,300,000 people, and the British had lost nearly 1 million. Russia, for that matter, had lost 1,700,000.

Answer 3

Hitler saw most or all provisions of the Treaty of Versailles as a barrier to his ambition of creating a vast German empire in Europe. Publicly, he said he wanted to restore 'German honour', by which he meant 'German prestige'.

Answer 4

Because Hitler wants to rise Germany back from the dead