The Treaty of Versailles - Le Moyne College

Hitler was the culmination of what the German people wanted when he told a storm trooper “I’ll
get rid of Versailles…” 69 The German people believed that he would and on January 30, 1933,
Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. 70 Finally, the last step created by the Treaty of Versailles
on the road to World War II was complete.
The steps that Hitler took that actually started World War II were all attempts to reverse
what the Treaty of Versailles had created. The Treaty of Versailles had created economic
problems by demanding reparations, diminishing Germany’s necessary trade, taking away
resources and industry, and causing inflation and unemployment. The Treaty of Versailles
separated the German people by taking German territory, and an unpopular government was put
into place because of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler was working to fix all of these problems
when he took the actions that began World War II. He wanted to rid Germany of its democratic
government, he wanted to make Germany powerful economically, militarily, and geographically
again, and he wanted to unite the German people. He took the actions to do all of these things.
He got rid of the unpopular Weimar Republic when he became Chancellor in 1933. In March
1935 Hitler took steps to begin to restore the military power that the Treaty of Versailles had
taken away when he announced the restoration of enlistment and the expansion of the German
army. 71 He continued these efforts in June 1935 when he created the Naval Pact with Britain
which allowed German naval strength to be expanded until it was thirty-five percent of the
British naval establishment. 72 In March 1936 Hitler continued to expand Germany’s military
reach and reverse the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles when he ordered that the Rhineland
be re-militarized. 73 Hitler then worked to regain the German territory, resources, industries that
had been lost due to the Treaty of Versailles and reunite the German people, a problem that was
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