Extracts from a speech to the Reichstag, on Germany's right to secure its territory (in the Rhineland) following the French-Soviet treaty, and stating that territorial disputes "cannot, in Europe, be solved by war"

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Adolf Hitler (Fuehrer, Reich Chancellor, Supeme Commander of Wehrmacht)

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Adolf Hitler

Austrian nationalized German politician, leader of the National Socialist party and dictator of Germany (1889-1945)

Image of Adolf Hitler
  • Born: 1889-01-01 1889-04-20 (Braunau am Inn) (country: Austria-Hungary; located in the administrative territorial entity: Archduchy of Austria above the Enns; statement is subject of: Adolf-Hitler-Geburtshaus)
  • Died: 1945-04-30 (Berlin Führerbunker) (country: Nazi Germany; located in the administrative territorial entity: Berlin; statement is subject of: death of Adolf Hitler)
  • Country of citizenship: Cisleithania (period: 1889-04-20 through 1918-11-11); First Republic of Austria (period: 1919-01-01 through 1925-04-30); Nazi Germany (end cause: death of Adolf Hitler; period: 1933-01-30 through 1945-04-30); Republic of German-Austria (period: 1918-01-01 through 1919-01-01)
  • Occupation: painter (statement is subject of: paintings by Adolf Hitler); political writer; politician (reason for preferred rank: generally used form); soldier
  • Member of political party: German Workers' Party (period: 1919-09-12 through 1921-07-11); Nazi Party (series ordinal: 556)
  • Member of: Nazi Party
  • Participant in: Aktion T4; Beer Hall Putsch; The Holocaust; ethnic cleansing
  • Significant person: Albert Speer; Benito Mussolini; Eva Braun; Joseph Stalin

Voelkischer Beobachter

Date: 07 March 1936

Literal Title: Excerpts, Page 1: The important speech of the Fuehrer in the Reichstag on 7 March reads as follows:

Total Pages: 1

Language of Text: English

Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)

Evidence Code: PS-2289

Citation: IMT (page 462)

HLSL Item No.: 450617

Notes:The speech was made on 7 March and published on 8 March 1936. For the memorandum mentioned in the speech, see document TC 46, 7 March 1936.

Trial Issues

Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) IMT count 2: crimes against peace (wars of aggression) (IMT) Wars of aggression

Document Summary

Red Series Doc Descriptions

PS-2289: Hitler’s Reichstag speech, 7 March 1936: denunciation of the Locarno' Pact and declaration of reoccupation of the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland '

VOELKISCHER BEOBACHTER Berlin edition No. 68 Berlin, Sunday, 8 March 1936
The important speech of the Fuehrer in the Reichstag on 7 March reads as follows:
Men of the German Reichstag! France has replied to the repeated friendly offers and peaceful assurances made by Germany by infringing on the Rhine Pact through a military alliance with the Soviet Union, exclusively directed against Germany. In this manner, however, the Locarno Rhine Pact has lost its inner meaning and ceased in practice to exist. Consequently, Germany regards herself for her part as no longer bound by this dissolved treaty. The German Government are now constrained to face the new situation created by this alliance, a situation which is rendered more acute by the fact that the Franco-Soviet Treaty has been supplemented by a Treaty of Alliance between
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Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, exactly parallel in form. In accordance with the fundamental right of a nation to secure its frontiers and insure its possibilities of defense, the German Government have today restored the full and unrestricted sovereignty of Germany in the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland.
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After a hard inner struggle I have, therefore, decided in the name of the German Reich Cabinet [Reichsregierung] to submit the following memorandum to the French Government and
the other signatory powers of the Locarno Pact today.
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We have no territorial claims to make in Europe. We know above all that all the tensions resulting either from false territorial settlements or from the disproportion of the numbers of inhabitants to their living spaces cannot, in Europe, be solved by war.