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The meaning of LEBENSRAUM is territory believed especially by Nazis to be necessary for national existence or economic self-sufficiency.
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- Overview
- Origins
- Lebensraum in Hitler’s Germany
- Germany’s failed invasion of the Soviet Union
- Lebensraum and the Holocaust
Lebensraum, (German: “living space”) policy of Nazi Germany that involved expanding German territories to the east to provide land and material resources for the German people, while driving out Jewish and Slavic people.
The idea of Germanic peoples moving into territories in eastern Europe was not without historical precedent. Since the medieval period, people from German states had moved east as their homelands became overpopulated. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century, however, that the concept of Lebensraum, or “living space,” was formally defined...
The Treaty of Versailles, the peace document signed at the end of World War I, stipulated that Germany compensate the Allies for damages suffered in the war. The country was to repay roughly $33 billion in war damages. The treaty also required a large-scale reduction in German military power, including demilitarization of the Rhineland and restrictions on German armaments production. Finally, the treaty reduced the territory—and, in effect, the population—of Germany by about 10 percent and mandated the evacuation of Germans from Ober Ost. Germans found the terms of the treaty to be humiliating as well as both economically and militarily crippling.
Adolf Hitler railed against these measures. He blamed Germany’s misfortunes on Jews, liberals, and Germans who did not support the country’s aggressions during World War I. Hitler also faulted the British naval blockade, which had cut off supplies as part of a strategy to force German surrender. These arguments all contributed to his embrace of Ratzel’s concept of Lebensraum (especially as filtered through Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén).
While incarcerated in 1924 after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler, guided by political geographer and former general Karl Haushofer, read Ratzel’s writings. At the same time he was also writing Mein Kampf, in which he outlined his belief in the superiority of the “Aryan race” and in the German destiny for world domination. He described how Lebensraum would allow the German Volk, or “people,” to fulfill that role. Citing the importance of food, material resources, and room for expansion, he justified seizing territories in eastern Europe. In particular he coveted the raw materials in the Urals and in Siberia and the agricultural riches of Ukraine.
In addition to economic motives, Lebensraum had a racist component. Hitler likened Lebensraum to the American notion of Manifest Destiny. For him, the Slavic and Jewish residents of the East were Untermenschen (“subhumans”), whom he equated with Native Americans. In 1932 Hitler stated:
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Notwithstanding his ambitions in the East, Hitler negotiated the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in 1939, intent on subjugating western Europe before turning his attention to the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, wary of Soviet advances in the Baltic states, Bessarabia, and northern Bukovina, he sped up his timetable in the East, and in June 1941 Hitler...
As the German forces pushed eastward in pursuit of Lebensraum, the count of the people they exterminated multiplied, contributing greatly to the Holocaust and resulting in monumentally tragic consequences. Intent on fulfilling Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy, the Nazis targeted not only Jews but also other ethnic, social, political, and religiou...
Lebensraum (German pronunciation: [ˈleːbənsˌʁaʊm] ⓘ, living space) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s.
Lebensraum definition: additional territory considered by a nation, especially Nazi Germany, to be necessary for national survival or for the expansion of trade.. See examples of LEBENSRAUM used in a sentence.
masculine noun. (Pol) Lebensraum; (Biol) habitat. Declension Lebensraum is a masculine noun. Remember that, in German, both the spelling of the word and the article preceding the word can change depending on whether it is in the nominative, accusative, genitive, or dative case.
Lebensraum is the land or territory that a country's leaders believe it requires in order to grow and flourish. The word lebensraum has almost always been used to talk about Germany's strategy in World War II.
Mar 23, 2020 · Key Takeaways: Lebensraum. In Nazi ideology, Lebensraum meant the expansion of Germany to the east in search of a unity between the German Volk and the land (the Nazi concept of Blood and Soil). The Nazi-modified theory of Lebensraum became Germany's foreign policy during the Third Reich.
