CARTOONISTS and the IDEA OF A STUFENPLAN
DID HITLER PLAN THE SECOND WORLD WAR?
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There is an argument amongst historians about whether
Hitler intended war or not.
Immediately after the war, historians such as Alan
Bullock (Hitler, A Study in Tyranny,
1952) argued that Hitler had intended war from the beginning, and that he
had worked inexorably and determinedly towards it.
But that was not the only
explanation. Even during the
war, a group of Labour politicians led by Michael Foot had published
The Guilty Men (1941), which
blamed Chamberlain and the appeasers for allowing – even encouraging –
Hitler to move towards war. In
1961, A.J.P. Taylor’s The Origins of the Second World War (1961),
went even further.
Taylor
argued that Hitler was not an isolated madman, but simply continuing a
policy of German expansionism.
And he accused Western leaders, not just of
allowing Hitler, but of
causing the war – virtually
entrapping Hitler into war.
By contrast, German historians of the time were
accepting the blame for both world wars; in 1965, German historian Andreas
Hillgruber claimed that
Mein Kampf
(written by Hitler in 1924) contained Hitler's
Stufenplan (his
'step-by-step' plan)
for world domination.
The ‘intentionalists’ gradually won the argument.
By 1985, Ruth Henig, in The Origins of the Second World War could claim ‘general agreement’
that ‘the ambitions of Hitler constitute the major element in the outbreak
of war’.
There are still ‘functionalist’ historians such as
Ian Kershaw who argue that general underlying forces were more important
than Hitler’s personal role, but nowadays most historians seem to accept
Hitler’s responsibility in causing the war.
In 2004, Christian Leitz, in
Origins of World War two –
Responsibility of the Powers: Nazi Germany,
argued that Hitler possessed ambitious plans for the domination of
Western Europe … with a ‘diabolical’ racial twist.
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The Cartoonists’
Contribution
But was it obvious
at the time that Hitler had a
Stufenplan for world domination?
If he had, it is a remarkable fact that Hitler continually seemed to
be taking the rest of the world by surprise!
David Low
One contemporary who consistently argued that Hitler
intended to go on and on, and that he would not stop until he was stopped,
was cartoonist David Low. Low
hated Hitler, and the feeling was returned with such intensity that Hitler
tried to get Low’s cartoons proscribed – so it is arguable that his cartoons
‘touched a nerve’.
But did even Low spot a Hitler
Stufenplan? Many of
Low’s cartoons carry the idea of ‘sequence’, and it is instructive to see
the idea developing in his cartoons, but it is hard to argue that Low had
‘rumbled’ Hitler:
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26
June 1933
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This cartoon from the beginning of Hitler’s
chancellorship, is entitled: ‘All blown up and nowhere to go’.
The paper on the ground reads: ‘Total absence of any
constructive policy so far’.
Far from an evident Stufenplan,
if Hitler had a strategy, it was not evident to anyone yet.
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3
July 1936
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We then hear nothing that even sniffs of a
‘sequence’ until this cartoon: ‘Waiting for Windfalls’, four months
after Hitler had remilitarised the Rhineland. In
the cartoon, Western Leaders sit precariously in the ‘Non-Nazi Europe’
tree, pursuing a policy of ‘Shaky Statesmanship’, while Hitler waits
below for the apples (some with the names of different countries) to
fall into his baskets.
This is the first of many cartoons which
became a well-worn theme for Low: if you fail to stand up to Hitler,
then other countries will fall to Nazism.
However, Low clearly did not think that Hitler
had a ‘sequence of acquisition’ in his mind.
The naming of the apples is random (from left to right:
Czechoslovakia, Danzig,
Holland, Austria,
Sweden, Denmark, of which the two nearest to the baskets
are Denmark and Danzig), and certainly not in the sequence which Hitler’s
foreign policy ultimately took them.
Indeed, the whole concept of the cartoon is that the apples will fall
randomly (as apples do), and that Hitler is merely ready to collect
any that do, as they do.
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8
July 1936
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Five days later, Low’s famous ‘Stepping Stones
to Glory’ showed Hitler marching towards his goal (‘Boss of the
Universe’) along a carpet laid across the backs of the ‘spineless
leaders of democracy’.
Here at last is a clear claim that Hitler is
travelling down a ‘road’, and Low has even identified the first two
steps correctly – ‘Rearmament’ and ‘Rhineland’.
But Low was able to do so because those were
the two steps Hitler had already taken.
He guesses Hitler’s next step (Danzig) incorrectly, and the rest of the steps are marked
with question marks.
Low was claiming that Hitler was heading down a road, but he had no
idea where he was going.
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19
November 1937
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Here again, a year later, we see the idea of a
sequence of ‘killings’, but the victims this time are the post-war
settlements Hitler has wrecked – Weimar, Versailles and Locarno – not
countries-to-conquer.
Again, Low is unable to guess where Hitler
will go next – there ARE plinths ready for future gains, but they are
simply labelled ‘reserved’.
Low was claiming that Hitler was heading down a road, but he had no
idea where he was going.
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8
July 1938
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As the Sudetenland
crisis began, Low warned again of the implications of allowing Hitler
to win. In this famous
cartoon, ‘What’s Czechoslovakia to me anyway?’, he portrays a British
public unbothered by the fact that the stone labelled ‘Czechoslovakia’
is just about to be pulled out, unaware that this will bring down a
sequence of others.
But what of the sequence?
The stones Low names here are: ‘Poland’,
‘Rumania’, ‘etc.
etc.’, ‘French alliances in eastern Europe’ and ‘Anglo-French security
system’.
The message is not that Hitler has a planned sequence of acquisition
(and if he did, Low has not a clue what it might be), but that
allowing him to win in Czechoslovakia will – ‘down the line’ –
compromise Britain’s
security.
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9
September 1938
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As the Sudeten
crisis escalated, this cartoon delivered the same warning whereby, as
Hitler demands control of all Germans everywhere, the ghosts of
‘crises-to-come’ stand ready to come forward.
Again, the cartoon is a general warning about the consequences of not
saying no to Hitler, rather than a prediction of where Hitler will go
next – the crises are labelled: Polish, Hungarian, Rumanian, Danish,
Swiss, Alsace,
British Empire…
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10
October 1938
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Not until after Munich was Low able to predict
with any degree of correctness where Hitler was going to go next as,
in this famous cartoon, he listed the ‘Ex-French-British family’ along
the bed-head – Austria (gone), ‘Czechoslovakia’ (being ‘bagged’), with
Poland next in line.
By this time, however, fairly much everyone could see where Hitler was
heading, although it was February before the British government sought
assurances over the Czech republic, and March before they guaranteed
Poland.
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12
December 1939
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Finally, after war had broken out, and when
Low had the benefit of hindsight, he drew this cartoon of the
League of Nations’ ‘Let-Down Bus’ going nowhere.
As the ‘route’, Low listed the following
sequence: Corfu, Manchuria, Abyssinia, Czechoslovakia,
Poland
and ‘What-have-you’.
It is relevant that Low depicted the cause of war, not as a
Stufenplan by Hitler, but as
a progression of failures by the League?
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19
September 1939
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Shortly after war
broke out, the British cartoonist Sidney
‘George’ Strube drew this cartoon, entitled: ‘The Fruit-Gathering
Season’.
The cartoonist can see that Hitler
has acquired the Saar, the Rhineland, the Sudetenland,
and Memel, and he sees him as gaining Danzig and Warsaw.
This, however, is not a very perceptive insight almost three weeks
after Hitler had invaded Poland, and – as far as I am aware – there is
no other Strube cartoon which (as Low) accused Hitler of beating a
path to war.
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15
March 1940
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Similarly, the British
cartoonist Illingworth, in this cartoon of early 1940, suggests a
‘sequence of acquisition’ – but, again, only after the war had broken
out.
Here, he depicts
Rumania, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Holland lined up and ready to be swallowed.
Yet even now – six months into the war – he is able only to predict
that Hitler WILL strike again ... but he hasn’t a clue where.
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