Present at this conference were; German War Minister, Werner von Blomberg, Commander in Chief of the Army, Werner von Fritsch, Commander in Chief of the Navy, Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, Foreign Minister, Constantin von Neurath, and Colonel Friedrich Hossbach who took the minutes of the conference. The meeting has thus come to be known as the Hossbach Conference or Hossbach Memorandum.
Hitler began by swearing the men to secrecy, then told them that in the event of his death the following exposition should be regarded as his last will and testament.
He proceeded to explain that Germany had “a tightly packed racial core” and was entitled to acquire “greater living space than in the case of other peoples…”
“The history of all ages – the Roman Empire and the British Empire – had proved that expansion could only be carried out by breaking down resistance and taking risks…there had never been spaces without a master…the attacker always comes up against a possessor,” Hitler said. “The question for Germany ran: where could she achieve the greatest gain at the lowest cost?”
He pointed out two big problems, “…two hate inspired antagonists, Britain and France, to whom a German colossus in the center of Europe was a thorn in the flesh…”
“Germany’s problem could only be solved by means of force,” but “there remain still to be answered the questions ‘when’ and ‘how’…”
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