Text Version


  -9-
 
          From the historical aspect Germany had existed as an empire five hundred years before 
 
Columbus had discovered the western world. The German people had every right to demand that 
 
their historical position of a thousand years should be restored to them; Germany had no ambition 
 
and no aim other than the return by the German people to the territorial position which was 
 
historically theirs.
 
          Germany's political aims were coordinate. Germany could not tolerate the existence of a 
 
State such as Czechoslovakia which constituted an enclave created by Versailles solely for 
 
strategic reasons, and which formed an ever-present menace to the security of the German people; 
 
nor could Germany tolerate the Separation from Greater Germany of German provinces by 
 
corridors, under alien control, and again created solely for strategic reasons. No great power 
 
could exist under such conditions.  Germany, however, did not desire to dominate non-German 
 
peoples, and if such peoples adjacent to German boundaries did not constitute a military or 
 
political threat to the German people, Germany had no desire permanently to destroy, nor to 
 
prejudice, the lndeoendent lives of such peoples.
 
          From the economic standpoint, Germany must claim the right to profit to the fullest extent 
 
through trade with the nations close to her in Central and Southeastern Europe. She would no 
 
longer permit that the western powers of Europe infringe or impair Germany's preferential 
 
situation in this regard.
 
          In brief, the Geman people intended to maintain the unity which he had now achieved for 
 
them; they intended to prevent any Btate on Germany's eastern frontier from constituting
 
 
View Original View Previous Page View Next Page Return to Folder IndexReturn to Box Index