Humanities desk
< February 9	<< Jan \| February \| Mar >>	February 11 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 10[edit]

Foreign embassies in Welthauptstadt Germania[edit]

Hitler wanted to create a new capital city for the Reich called Germania. Which foreign nations were planned to receive an embassy there? It would be interesting if some were not to. Thank you! --79.32.129.66 (talk) 17:13, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

If I'm reading Germania (city) correctly, it was basically a remodeling of Berlin, which was already the capital, right? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:09, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Yes.--79.32.129.66 (talk) 20:24, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hitler planned to conquer the whole World and in every country he actually did take over he usually promoted high ranking Officers of the Wehrmacht or the SS, aka only very trusted own people, to reign these countries. So he canceled any prior government and diplomatic representation. Actually he even did that in Germany by excluding the german Royals like in the Prinzenerlass.

So only very few countries like allied Italy, Japan or neutral Switzerland may have gotten a permission for an embassy if Hitlers fantasies had come thru.

@Baseball Bugs: Yes, Berlin was the Capital during the Weimar Republic. See also Reichstag building which was opened 1894.--Kharon (talk) 20:27, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Kharon's post is a fact-free zone. You would do better to look over List_of_World_War_II_puppet_states#Germany for an idea of what actually happened in such countries. As for the claim that "Hitler planned to conquer the whole world" -- any very brief history of the war would give you an idea of the German war aims, but you could start with e.g. the interview with Ian Kershaw here. Henry ^Flower 22:51, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think Hitler literally planned to conquer the world, but he certainly wanted Germany to be the dominant nation in the region. He fell a little short of that goal. My main point, though, being that embassies are normally in the capital, so if countries had their embassies in Berlin pre-war, presumably they would have continued to, post-war. Maybe aside from the ones Hitler would have turned into satellite states. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:39, 10 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

One oddity: Would Hitler have literally called it "Germania"? Germans don't call their nation "Germany" except when speaking in English. Or was he referencing the Latin Magna Germania? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:29, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm having trouble finding anything specific, it may be in Speer's book, but I thought embassies would be among the buildings to be placed along the grand boulevards such as the Prachtallee.--Wehwalt (talk) 11:08, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Baseball Bugs in Germany Hitler always used the term "das deutsche Reich" for Germany and "die Reichshauptstadt" for the Capital Berlin. The other term Germania was not common. In fact it was just one of many future projects to rebuild Berlin.

@Henry Actually its disputed among historians. Konrad Heiden for example strongly believed that Hitler wanted world domination. --Kharon (talk) 16:02, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see how Hitler thought he could conquer the world, he couldn't even conquer Britain. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 20:49, 13 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Nor Russia. But he didn't figure that out until some time after he started the War. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:30, 13 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hitler was extremely successful with the Blitzkrieg and extremely stupid in trying to conquer Russia in a Winter. Fits perfectly into a picture of someone who wanted to conquer the World. Also the Nazi concept of the Herrenmensch or Aryan race which where assumed ultimately originated from the lost continent of Atlantis seems so "over the edge" glorious that conquering the world seemed the natural conclusion. --Kharon (talk) 05:02, 15 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Hitler didn't plan to fight in the winter in Russia, he planned for the country to collapse within a few weeks of the invasion. "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down". Not as unreasonable as it sounds, as that is exactly what happened to France, in 1939 the worlds greatest military superpower. Alansplodge (talk) 09:15, 15 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Paint it as you like but he never gave an order to draw back the troops. Worse anything beside victory was unthinkable for him. Even in his last days when the enemy troops took over central Berlin he ordered everyone to fight to the last "drop of blood". --Kharon (talk) 20:43, 16 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]