Volta
Conflict7 March 1936

Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Also called: Rhineland remilitarization

Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, which the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno had made a demilitarized zone. Britain and France confined themselves to protests.

Map of the demilitarized Rhineland under the Treaty of Versailles
Map of the demilitarized Rhineland under the Treaty of Versailles

Soerfm · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

In January 1935 Hitler won back the Saar by plebiscite, and in March he reintroduced conscription, openly breaking the Versailles limits on armaments. Britain, France and Italy met at Stresa and agreed to stand together, but in June Britain signed a naval agreement accepting the rebuilding of the German navy, and Italy drifted away from both over Ethiopia.

On 7 March 1936, claiming that the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance treaty violated Locarno, Hitler marched German troops into the demilitarized zone along the Rhine. The force was small, but France, facing an election, and Britain, unwilling to fight, only protested. Hitler’s gamble paid off: he strengthened his support at home, fortified the western border, and Anglo-French appeasement became plain.

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States at the time
Germany
France
Great Britain

People

  • Adolf Hitler1889 – 1945

    leader · Nazi leader and Führer of Germany (1934–1945) who started the Second World War and perpetrated the Holocaust; he killed himself as Berlin fell

Before and after

Earlier
1935 Nuremberg Laws
Later
1936 Formation of the Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pact

Themes that include this event

  • The Great Depression and Totalitarianism1919 – 1939

    From the Washington Conference to the invasion of Poland — two decades in which the age of international cooperation collapsed in the Depression, fascism, Nazism and Stalinism rose, and the world slid into war again