Lebensraum

Lebensraum, literally meaning "living space" in German,[note 1] was a major policy of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. The basic policy was that the German people needed "living space" in Eastern Europe to repopulate the land with Germanic people. Lebensraum was the ideological motivation behind Hitler's territorial expansion eastwards. The eventual goal of the policy was to create a strong agrarian middle class of loyal Germans by granting veterans farmland in the new territories, simultaneously suppressing the local people and weakening the labor movement.

A lunatic Chaplin imitator
and his greatest fans
Nazism
First as tragedy
Then as farce
v - t - e

The policy led to the annexing of parts of Austria and Czechoslovakia. It is also a reason why Germany invaded Poland in 1939.

See also

Notes
  1. Amusingly, Lebensraum could even more literally be translated "living room", suggesting that Hitler embarked on his genocidal conquest of Eastern Europe out of a desire for a larger parlour. However, it should be noted that the Berghof, Hitler's private residence in Bavaria, had a very spacious and well-decorated living room, and his private apartment in Munich had a nice living room as well. Contrary to rumours that Hitler was asexual, he and Eva Braun liked to screw on the couch. Yes, really.
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