Under Nazi rule, the term "Lebensraum" or “living space," evolved from a romantic yearning for a return to eastern Europe, to an essential strategic component of Nazi Germany's imperial and racist visions. Eastern Europe represented the German people's “Manifest Destiny.” Ironically, Hitler and other Nazi thought leaders derived their vision for Germany's manifest destiny from that of the American's conquest of the west. Hitler proclaimed that “there's only one duty: to Germanize this country [Russia] by the immigration of Germans and to look upon the natives as Redskins” (USHMM, 2017).
Lebensraum accurately represents the dangerous power of ideas. In Hitler's second book, Hitler wrote that Germany should “[concentrate] all of its strength on marking out a way of life for our people through the allocation of adequate Lebensraum for the next one hundred years” and “the German people is today even less in a position than in the years of peace to feed itself from its own land and territory” (USHMM, 2017). This meant a grave outlook for Slavs and Jews alike. Hitler decreed that Germany would never again be defeated because of a lack of resources. The driving force behind Hitler's vision was the desire for “incalculable raw materials” located in the Urals and the “incalculable farmlands” located in the Ukraine (USHMM, 2017).
In Hitler's vision, the mass starvation of over 30 million people of inferior populations in Europe was part of the plan. An idea that could only be derived from a true madman.
Lebensraum accurately represents the dangerous power of ideas. In Hitler's second book, Hitler wrote that Germany should “[concentrate] all of its strength on marking out a way of life for our people through the allocation of adequate Lebensraum for the next one hundred years” and “the German people is today even less in a position than in the years of peace to feed itself from its own land and territory” (USHMM, 2017). This meant a grave outlook for Slavs and Jews alike. Hitler decreed that Germany would never again be defeated because of a lack of resources. The driving force behind Hitler's vision was the desire for “incalculable raw materials” located in the Urals and the “incalculable farmlands” located in the Ukraine (USHMM, 2017).
In Hitler's vision, the mass starvation of over 30 million people of inferior populations in Europe was part of the plan. An idea that could only be derived from a true madman.
USHMM. (2017). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Lebensraum. Retrieved from: https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008219