104. Cit. Jonathan Wright and Paul Stafford, ‘Hitler, Britain, and the Hoßbach Memorandum’, Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 42 (1987), 94, from BA, ZSlg., 101. Nr. 31 (Dertinger report). The deteriorating relations between Britain and Germany during the second half of 1936 and in 1937 are thoroughly examined by Josef Henke, England in Hitlers politischem Kalkül, 1935–1939, Boppard am Rhein, 1973, 49–107 and — emphasizing the significance of the colonial question — Klaus Hildebrand, Vom Reich zum Weltreich. Hitler, NSDAP und koloniale Frage 1919–1945, Munich, 1969, 491 — 548. See also Dietrich Aigner, Das Ringen um England, Munich/Esslingen, 1969, 302–20.
105. Weinberg I, 264.
106. DGFP, C, V, 756–60, N0.446.
107. Weinberg I, 268–71. On the background to the Agreement, see Jürgen Geyl, Austria, Germany, and the Anschluss, 1931–1938, London/New York/Toronto, 1963, ch.V.
108. Geyl, 133–4.
109. Höhne, 364. Mussolini’s decision to intervene in Spain was independent of Hitler’s. The initial limited aid followed a similar pattern, though Italian involvement soon escalated to a level far greater than that of Germany. See Paul Preston, ‘Mussolini’s Spanish Adventure: From Limited Risk to War’, in Preston and Mackenzie, 21–51.
110. 110. See Preston, Franco, 243–4. 111. Treue, 205.
111. CP, 44, 47; Höhne, 364; Pierre Milza, Mussolini, Paris, 1999, 695–7.
112. Manfred Funke, ‘Die deutsch-italienischen Beziehungen — Antibolschewismus und außen-politische Interessenkonkurrenz als Strukturprinzip der “Achse”’, in Funke, 823–46, here 834–5; Höhne, 364. Mussolini had expressed his own approval of the agreement between Austria and Germany — one he had suggested to Schuschnigg — at his meeting with Frank on 23 September (CP, 45).
113. CP, 56.
114. CP, 59.
115. CP, 57.
116. CP, 56–60; Jens Petersen, Hitler-Mussolini. Die Entstehung der Achse Berlin-Rom 1933–1936, Tübingen, 1973, 491; Höhne, 364–5.
117. CP, 60; Petersen, 492; Elizabeth Wiskemann, The Rome-Berlin Axis. A History of the Relations between Hitler and Mussolini, New York/London, 1949, 68.
118. Treue, 205.
119. CP, 58.
120. Despite his racial disparagement of the Japanese as merely capable of ‘bearing’, not ‘creating’, culture, Hitler had encouraged Ribbentrop in 1933, according to the latter’s testimony at Nuremberg (IMG, x.271), to explore closer relations with Japan, predominantly on ideological grounds. See John Fox, Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis, 1931–1938. A Study in Diplomacy and Ideology, Oxford, 1982, 175–6; and Theo Sommer, Deutschland und Japan zwischen den Mächten 1935–1940. Vom Antikominternpakt zum Dreimächtepakt, Tübingen, 1962, 21–2; and, for Hitler’s race-views on Japan, MK, 319. The first soundings to Japan were made in January 1935 (Bernd Martin, ‘Die deutsch-japanischen Beziehungen während des Dritten Reiches’, in Funke, 454–70, here 460).
121. For the Dienststelle Ribbentrop, see Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, ‘Zur Struktur der NS-Außenpolitik 1933–1945’, in Funke, 137–85, here 162–4.
122. Fox, 182–3, suggests this was only in autumn 1935.
123. Martin, 459; Fox, 185; Hartmut Bloß, ‘Deutsche Chinapolitik im Dritten Reich’, in Funke, 407–29, here especially 409–11.
124. Martin, 460; Fox, 177.
125. Fox, 180–81.
126. Martin, 461–2 and n.34, 40; Weinberg I, 344–5; Fox, 199–204. The planned coup d’état by junior officers followed elections in February 1936 with an outcome which did not satisfy the army, engaged in conflict with the navy over allocation of resources and strategic planning for expansion. The conflict lasted into the summer before a compromise gave equal weight to the navy’s pressure for expansion to the south and the army’s strong preference for a continental policy looking to expand northwards. Eventually, adventurist elements in the government were able to advance towards a pact, but the disruption following the army revolt held matters up for some time.
127. Höhne, 368; Martin, 464 n.54 for Italy’s joining on 6 November 1937.
128. See Weinberg I, 347.
129. Domarus, 668.
130. IMG, xxv.404, 409, Doc. 386-PS.
131. Die kirchliche Lage in Bayern nach den Regierungspräsidentenberichten 1933–1943, vol.i, ed. Helmut Witetschek, Mainz, 1966, 193.
132. Domarus, 668; Nicolaus von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–1945, Mainz, 1980, 15.
133. Schmidt, 348.
