The
Ural Mountains played a prominent role in
Nazi planning.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
and the rest of the Nazi German leadership made many references to them as a strategic objective of the Third Reich to follow a decisive victory on the
Eastern Front against the
Soviet Union.
As a geographic concept
In 1725,
Philip Johan von Strahlenberg
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
first used the
Ural Mountains as part of the eastern demarcation of Europe. Since c. 1850 most
cartographers
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
have regarded the Urals and the
Ural River to the south of them as the eastern boundary of
Europe,
geographically recognized as a
subcontinent
A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
of
Eurasia.
The
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
rejected the notion that these mountains demarcated the border of Europe, at least in a
cultural if not in a geographic sense.
Nazi propaganda
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation o ...
and Nazi
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
s repeatedly labelled the Soviet Union as an "Asiatic state" and equated the
Russians both with the
Huns[Hitler, 5–6 January 1942] and with the
Mongols, describing them as ''
Untermenschen'' ("sub-humans"). German media portrayed the German campaigns in the east as necessary to ensure the survival of European culture against this "Asian menace".
[Volume 7. Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 Excerpt from Himmler's Speech to the SS-Gruppenführer at Posen (October 4, 1943).](_blank)
German History in Documents and Images. Retrieved 11 June 2011. In a major conference on 16 July 1941, where chief aspects of German rule in the
occupied territories of
Eastern Europe were laid out, Hitler emphasized to the attendees (
Martin Bormann,
Hermann Göring,
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head of ...
, and
Hans Lammers
Hans Heinrich Lammers (27 May 1879 – 4 January 1962) was a German jurist and prominent Nazi politician. From 1933 until 1945 he served as Chief of the Reich Chancellery under Adolf Hitler. During the 1948–1949 Ministries Trial, Lammers was f ...
) that "the Europe of today was nothing but a geographical term; in reality
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
extended up to our frontiers".
[Martin Bormann's Minutes of a Meeting at Hitler's Headquarters (July 16, 1941).](_blank)
German History in Documents and Images. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
Hitler also expressed his belief that in
ancient times
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
the concept of "Europe" was limited to the southern tip of the
Greek peninsula
Greece is a country of the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey, and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and the Libyan Seas, an ...
, and was then "brought into confusion" by the expanding borders of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
. He stated that if Germany won the war, the boundary of Europe "would extend eastward to the furthest
German colony".
In an attempt to influence Nazi policy, the Norwegian fascist politician
Vidkun Quisling produced a memorandum for the Germans - "
Aide-mémoire
Aide-mémoire (, "memory aid") is a French loanword meaning "a memory-aid; a reminder or memorandum, especially a book or document serving this purpose".
In international relations, an aide-mémoire is a proposed agreement or negotiating text c ...
on the Russian Question" (''Denkschrift über die russische Frage'') - which expressed his own ideas on the "Russian question", which he described as "the main problem in world politics today".
[Dahl, Hans Fredrik (1999). ''Quisling: A Study in Treachery'', p. 294. Cambridge University Press.] He advocated the
Dnieper River as a general division-line between
Western Europe ("Germania") and Russia. This would necessitate the division of
Ukraine, but he argued that this "could be defended from geographical and historical perspectives".
Planning for a border
Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, h ...
recounted a 1941 episode in his
post-war memoirs wherein he observed Hitler's early ruminations about the Urals.
[Speer, Albert (1970). ''Inside the Third Reich'', p. 257. Macmillan Company, New York.] The
Soviet Foreign Minister
The Ministry of External Relations (MER) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (russian: Министерство иностранных дел СССР) was founded on 6 July 1923. It had three names during its existence: People's Co ...
,
Vyacheslav Molotov,
traveled to Berlin in mid-November 1940 to discuss
German–Soviet relations with Hitler and
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
. By then, Hitler had made up his mind that he would attack the Soviet Union the following spring, having already issued orders for a
military plan which would later become
Operation Barbarossa. A few months later, an army adjutant pointed out to Speer an ordinary
pencil line which Hitler had drawn on
his globe at the
Berghof, running north-south along the Ural mountains, signifying the future boundary of Germany's
sphere of influence with that of
Japan.
Hitler also mentioned the Urals in his recorded
table talks several times; on one occasion he recounts how others questioned him if they were a sufficiently eastward boundary for the Germans to advance to.
[Hitler (2000), 5–6 July 1941.] He confirmed this objective, but emphasized that the primary goal was to "eradicate
Bolshevism
Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, f ...
", and that, if necessary, further military campaigns would be carried out to ensure this.
He later stated that
Joseph Stalin would be prepared to lose
European Russia if he did not succeed at "solving its problems" and thereby "risked losing everything".
[Hitler (2000), 12–13 July 1941.] He expressed his belief that it would be impossible for Stalin to retake Europe from
Siberia, comparing it to himself hypothetically retaking Germany if he were driven back to
Slovakia, and that the
German invasion of the Soviet Union which was then under way would "bring about the
downfall of the
Soviet Empire".
In a discussion with the Danish Foreign Minister
Scavenius on 2 November 1942, German Foreign Minister
Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
stated that the Germans expected
Asian Russia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
to eventually split up into several harmless "peasant republics" after Germany had occupied the country's European parts.
On 16 September 1941, Hitler mentioned to
Otto Abetz, the German ambassador in Paris, that "the new Russia as far as the Urals" would become Germany's
India, but that due to its geographic proximity to Germany was far more favorably located for the Germans than India was for Britain.
In the above-mentioned conference of 16 July 1941, it was codified as policy that in order to "secure the safety of the
Reich">hirdReich" no non-German military power would ever again be allowed west of the Urals (including non-Russian native
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
s), even if it meant war for the next hundred years.
Hitler's future successors were to be instructed of this, if necessary.
This was to be done to prevent any western powers hostile to Germany from conspiring against it with its eastern neighbors in the future, like
the French had supposedly done with the Turks, and which
the British were alleged to be doing with the Soviets.
[Hitler, 27 July 1941.] No organized Russian state would also be allowed to exist west of this line, which Hitler clarified as actually meaning a line 200–300 km east of the mountains,
approaching the
70° east longitude line the Japanese had proposed as the westernmost limit
of their own influence.
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
went into some effect about how he envisaged the mountains during the 1943
Posen speeches
The Posen speeches were two speeches made by Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS of Nazi Germany, on 4 and 6 October 1943 in the town hall of Posen (Poznań), in German-occupied Poland. The recordings are the first known documents in which a m ...
.
He stated that the "Germanic race" would have to gradually expand to this border so that after several generations this "
master race
The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative "Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans").
T ...
", as the leader of Europe, would again be ready to "resume the battles of destiny against Asia", which were "sure to break out again".
He stated that Europe's defeat would mean "the destruction of the creative power of the earth".
The Urals were noted as a distant objective of ''
Generalplan Ost'', the overall Nazi colonization scheme of
Eastern Europe.
"Living wall"
Hitler later rejected the mountains as an adequate border, calling it absurd that "these middle-sized mountains" represented the boundary between the "European and Asiatic worlds", stating that one might as well accord that title to one of the large
Russian rivers
Russia can be divided into a European and an Asian part. The dividing line is generally considered to be the Ural Mountains. The European part is drained into the Arctic Ocean, Baltic Sea, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea. The Asian part is drained int ...
.
[Hitler (2000), 23 September 1941.] He explained that only a "living
acialwall" of Aryan fighters would do as a frontier, and that keeping a
permanent state of war present in the east was necessary to "preserve the vitality of the race".
The theme of a "living wall" was used by Hitler as early as ''
Mein Kampf'' (published 1925–1926).
In it he presented the future German state under
National Socialist
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
rule as a "father's house" (''Vaterhaus''), a safe place which would keep in the
"right human elements", and keep out those which were undesirable.
This metaphorical building was to have solid and supportive foundations (''Fundamente'') and walls (''Mauern''), and could only be protected by a living wall (''lebendige Mauer'') of
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
and
fanatically devoted German people.
The idea became more prominent in Hitler's mind as the war went on.
[Mineau, André (2004). ''Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethic against Human Dignity'', p. 36. Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York. .] On 10 December 1942 (as the
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later r ...
was turning unfavourably against the Germans), he told
Anton Mussert
Anton may refer to: People
* Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Anton (surname)
Places
* Anton Municipality, Bulgaria
** Anton, Sofia Province, a village
* Antón District, Panama
** Antón, a town and capital ...
, a
Dutch Nazi collaborator, that the "Asiatic waves were threatening to overrun Europe and exterminate the higher races", and that this threat could only be countered by wall-building and long-term fighting.
On 20 April 1943 (Hitler's birthday), he had a discussion with
Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, h ...
and
Karl-Otto Saur on a design he had personally drawn for a six-person
bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...
that was to be used in the
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall (german: link=no, Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticip ...
, featuring
machine guns, an
anti-tank gun
An anti-tank gun is a form of artillery designed to destroy tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, normally from a static defensive position. The development of specialized anti-tank munitions and anti-tank guns was prompted by the appearance ...
, and
flame thrower
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in Wor ...
s.
[Speer, Albert (1976). '' Spandau: The Secret Diaries'' Macmillan Company, p. 58] He indicated that this design was also to be used for defence purposes at Germany's "ultimate eastern border deep within Russia"
— if the Axis had completely defeated the Soviets, there might have existed the possibility of any remnant Soviet forces or Japanese forces from the northwesterly mainland Siberian-located extremities of Imperial Japan's
Co-Prosperity Sphere attempting to cross such a frontier westwards.
Related plans
Various German agencies assumed a number of different boundaries in the east.
The administrative planning carried out by
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head of ...
from April to June 1941 in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for the Central Treatment of Questions of the Eastern European Space (basis of the future
Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories) for the territories that were to be conquered in the Soviet Union based the envisaged civil districts of the
''
Reichskommissariate'' to a large extent on the borders of the pre-existing Soviet
oblasts
An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom ...
and
autonomous republics
An autonomous republic is a type of administrative division similar to a province or state. A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. Ma ...
, particularly in
Reichskommissariat Moskowien
Reichskommissariat Moskowien (RKM; russian: Рейхскомиссариат Московия, Reykhskomissariat Moskoviya , Reich Commissariat of Muscovy) was the civilian occupation-regime that Nazi Germany intended to establish in central an ...
.
[(German) Dallin, Alexander (1958). ''Deutsche Herrschaft in Russland 1941–1945: Eine Studie über Besatzungspolitik'', p. 67. Droste Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf.] This included even territory to the east of the mountains, such as the
Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) region.
The German
Wehrmacht assumed an eastern boundary at the
A-A line
The Arkhangelsk–Astrakhan line, or A–A line for short, was the military goal of Operation Barbarossa. It is also known as the Volga–Arkhangelsk line, as well as (more rarely) the Volga–Arkhangelsk–Astrakhan line. It was first mentioned ...
(a limit along the
Volga river between the cities of
Archangelsk
Arkhangelsk (, ; rus, Арха́нгельск, p=ɐrˈxanɡʲɪlʲsk), also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near ...
and
Astrakhan
Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the C ...
), which was the military objective of Operation Barbarossa.
In the
later treaty with Japan, the Japanese proposed allocating all of
Afro-Eurasia
Afro-Eurasia (also Afroeurasia, Eurafrasia or the Old World) is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Its mainland is the largest and most populo ...
west of the
70th meridian east to the Germans and
Italians in the case of a total Soviet collapse, but after negotiations the boundary was changed to the
Yenisey river.
See also
*
A-A line
The Arkhangelsk–Astrakhan line, or A–A line for short, was the military goal of Operation Barbarossa. It is also known as the Volga–Arkhangelsk line, as well as (more rarely) the Volga–Arkhangelsk–Astrakhan line. It was first mentioned ...
*
*
East Wall (defensive line)
*
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
* ''
Lebensraum
(, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imperi ...
''
*
Ural bomber
The Ural bomber was the initial aircraft design program/competition to develop a long-range bomber for the Luftwaffe, created and led by General Walther Wever in the early 1930s. Wever died in an air crash on June 3, 1936, and his successor Alber ...
, a mid-to-late 1930s design competition for a ''Luftwaffe'' strategic bomber with the Urals as its maximum range.
References
{{reflist
Military of Nazi Germany
Ural Mountains
Soviet Union in World War II
Axis powers