The German Question, Part One Hundred Thirty

"Hitler Rules Germany" Part Two/B
"Foreign Policy & The German Question" Part Eight
"Memel Rejoins Germany"

Hitler used the "unification of Germans" as a potent issue, and I'm sure he essentially believed in it himself, given his history going back to his younger days among German nationalists in Austria.* It was not only a potent issue with Germans, but with many non-Germans, who sympathized with his attempts to put Germans living adjacent to, or near, Germany, under Germany's rule. This issue was, in my opinion, one of the reasons Britain and France did not act against him, up to that point;** they did not feel comfortable in risking war over issues where Hitler held sort of a "moral high ground." In the case of the occupation of the true Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia (German: Böhmen und Mähren; Czech: Čechy) by Hitler, he no longer held that moral high ground, as he could NOT justify it by saying he was just taking in Germans. In this case, he used the "historical connection" between these lands and Germany, as these territories had belonged to the Old German Empire, and later, as a possession of the Habsburgs, to the German Confederation in the 1800s. This position was far less defensible, and world opinion now took a serious turn against Hitler.

Just days after Germany occupied the Czech territory, the city of Memel (called "Klaipeda" by Lithuanians) and its environs entered the picture. The area had been detached from Germany and put under the League of Nations after World War One, but it had been taken over by Lithuania a couple of years later. The area had a population of about 140-150,000, about 27% of whom were Lithuanians, with the rest being German and "Germanized" Lithuanians, and it had been under some form of German rule for centuries (Prussia, German Empire, Weimar Republic). As Hitler's rule in Germany continued, pro-German unification elements increased their representation in elections to the local Memel legislative body to nearly 90%. These elements planned to vote for unification with Germany in a meeting in late March 1939. A Lithuanian representative met with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who verbally threatened Germany would militarily enter the region. The British and French, still stung by Hitler's move into Bohemia and Moravia, could offer no help to far off Lithuania and Lithuania signed an agreement ceding the region to Germany on March 23 and German troops entered, followed by Hitler, who came by ship.

* I say "he essentially believed in it," because he was first and foremost a politician. Being a politician obviously means he was subject to changes of opinion when it suited him.

** The Great Depression had caused many nations, including the United States, to turn inward in an attempt to solve their own economic problems. The German areas, those then outside of the German boundaries, were an exception. As Germany's unemployment dropped under Hitler, these Germans were drawn even more in their desires, beyond just being "Germans," to become a part of Germany. The British and French leaders, perhaps more in an effort to justify inaction against Hitler, also said they needed extensive rearmament programs before they could consider risking war to oppose Hitler. The problem was, early on in Hitler's aggressiveness, the German military was NOT all that strong, although the British and French "seemed" to have misjudged German strength, believing Hitler's "claims" of German military might. Certainly as time passed, the German military continued to strengthen, making British and French beliefs in German might closer to reality.

WORD HISTORY:
Horse-You would think this word is common in many Indo European languages, since the "horse" has been so important to humans. Well the forms of this word are not common, except in the Germanic languages, and even some of those languages do not use those forms any longer as their primary word for "horse." It goes back to Indo European "kers," with the meaning "run," a word base befitting of "horse," and which makes it related to "hurry." This then gave Old Germanic "(k)hursaz," or perhaps "(k)hrusaz," which meant "horse." No matter which form, some Germanic dialects transposed the "r" and vowel sounds. This gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "hors" (ah...no snickers!), before the modern spelling. German has "Ross" (obviously with the "h" sound gone), and with the more specific meaning "steed." In more modern times, German uses the word less and less, as they borrowed a word from Latin for their every day word for horse, that being "Pferd" (pronounced like 'pfairt'). West Frisian has "hoars," Dutch has "ros," Icelandic has "hross." The other Germanic languages, or dialects (from further back) had forms of the word, too, but they have either died out, or they are seldom used anymore.