Hossbach Memorandum

The Hossbach Memorandum is a written record of a meeting held in Berlin on November 5, 1937, at which Adolf Hitler outlined his expansionist foreign policy to Germany's top military and political leaders. Colonel Friedrich Hossbach, Hitler's army adjutant, wrote the account from memory five days after the meeting, which was attended by Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, War Minister Werner von Blomberg, army commander Werner von Fritsch, navy commander Erich Raeder and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goring. In it, Hitler argued that Germany's economic difficulties required seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia within five to six years to secure Lebensraum, and that living standards could only be maintained through a policy of aggression pursued sooner rather than later. Historians dispute how far the memorandum represents firm advance planning for war as opposed to an improvised response to economic pressure, but it is widely read as marking a turning point toward a more radical and aggressive German foreign policy, including a marked hardening of Hitler's attitude toward Britain.