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By Karl HaemersMost people in the US, Germany and swaths of the rest of the world conceive of Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany 1933-1945, as a psychopathic war-monger, flinging his military might

Featured History Philosophy and Insight Hitler’s Olive Branches – A Run-down of Germany’s Attempts to Make Peace renegade September 19, 2022 16 min read 15 By Karl Haemers Most people in the US, Germany and swaths of the rest of the world conceive of Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany 1933-1945, as a psychopathic war-monger, flinging his military might in every direction in a sadistic orgy of violence and blood, seeking domination of the entire world. The truth is stranger than fiction, and yet makes perfect sense. We will look primarily at the slim but dense book compiled by Dr. Friedrich Stieve, What the World Rejected: Hitler’s Peace Offers 1933-1940, which presents this truth in cogent form. Just three and a half weeks after he took office on January 30 1933, Chancellor Adolf Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag German Parliament on May 17 1933. In this speech the new Chancellor addressed his resolve to establish arms reduction terms with “neighbouring countries”, “armed nations” and “the rest of the world”. “Germany will be perfectly ready to disband her entire military establishment and destroy the small amount of arms remaining to her, if the neighbouring countries will do the same thing with equal thoroughness. …Germany is entirely ready to renounce aggressive weapons of every sort if the armed nations, on their part, will destroy their aggressive weapons within a specified period, and if their use is forbidden by an international convention. …Germany is at all times prepared to renounce aggressive weapons if the rest of the world does the same. Germany is prepared to agree to any solemn pact of non-aggression because she does not think of attacking anybody but only of acquiring security.” This speech proposed a total elimination of all military capacity, which might be considered a strategic move on Germany’s part, since Germany was limited by the Treaty of Versailles to no air force, and an army of only 100,000 men devoted to domestic activities only. Hitler’s previous political campaigns and those of the National Socialist German Labour Party, stated openly their rejection of the Versailles Treaty, and thus felt free to develop a stronger military if required by threats from surrounding nations. Hitler was prepared to expand the German military beyond Versailles’s limits, but proposed total disarmament. Short of this, he proposed elimination of “aggressive weapons” such as long-range bombers, poison gas and large artillery, capable of striking civilian targets. Adolf Hitler was a soldier of the prevailing ethos of the time, largely applied during World War 1, of Civilized Warfare that among other provisions spared civilians the effects of war as much as possible.1 The Response: No other nation offered a formal reply, but some such as Britain and France continued to increase their war munitions and troop strength. The League of Nations, from Germany’s perspective primarily established to enforce the Treaty of Versailles diktat, declared Germany must pass through a “probation period” before talk of disarmament of other nations could proceed.2 Germany had already complied with the Versailles diktat for fourteen years since 1919. Five months later on October 14 1933, Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nations. “This step on October 19 1933, was a response to the Simon disarmament plan of October 14th which denied Germany equality…”3 Two months later, on December 18, Hitler offered his second proposal for peace and disarmament in Europe. It contained six points, the first of which granted Germany “full equality of rights”, a provision Hitler considered necessary to ensure peace. A balance of military powers would deter aggression, while a weak Germany would encourage it. The second point imposed a freeze on all arms increases, and the third granted Germany freedom to restore a balance in her arms with neighbours. The fourth required “conducting war on humane principles” and again called for elimination of weapons that could harm civilians. The fifth provided for a monitoring system to ensure compliance, and the sixth stated: “The European nations guarantee one another the unconditional maintenance of peace by the conclusion of non-aggression pacts, to be renewed after ten years.” Soon after, Hitler requested approval to increase the German army to 300,000 men, in order to conduct a minimum defence according to the length of her perimeter (which featured few natural defences such as mountains, ice sheets, deserts, multiple wide rivers or oceans) and the strength of her neighbours’ armies. The response: a correspondence of official letters seeming to consider the proposal, leading to a clear “no” from France, accompanied by “tremendous increases” in the armaments in France, Britain and the USSR.4 By March 16 1935 Hitler felt the need to bring back conscription in Germany. Soon afterward however, he gave a speech on May 21 1935 which once again focused on eliminating weaponry that could harm “n...