UNIV 3539 Blog

In 1936 Hitler broke yet another provision of the Treaty of Versailles: he moved token military forces into the Rhineland, the province of Germany west of the Rhine that had been demilitarized after 1918. Once again it seemed pointless to protest, or to take action. No other European country had demilitarized zones within its borders. To require that Germany maintain a demilitarized zone seemed likely to pointlessly inflame German nationalism. And to enforce the provision would presumably require an invasion of Germany, the deposition of Hitler, and the installation of a puppet government--for Hitler seemed genuinely popular: there was a substantial risk that new elections would simply return Hitler to power.