Volk ohne Raum
"Volk ohne Raum" (English: People without Space) was a political slogan used in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. The term was coined by the nationalist writer Hans Grimm with his novel Volk ohne Raum (1926). The novel immediately attracted much attention and sold nearly 700,000 copies.[1]
The slogan was used in a political context to suggested that due to the Treaty of Versailles depriving Germany of her colonial empire, the Germans had become a people without living space (Lebensraum), struggling with poverty, misery, hunger and overpopulation.[2] Closely linked to this idea was the claim that the earth was divided unfairly among the Great Powers, leaving the Germans possessing little land compared to the less populous European nations.[2]
The Nazis used the slogan to justify the German conquest of Poland and the Soviet Union. The National Socialist Program stated: "We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population."[3]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Wistrich, Robert Solomon (2002). Who's who in Nazi Germany. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 0-415-26038-8.
- ^ a b Carsten, Francis Ludwig (1985). Essays in German history. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 309. ISBN 0-907628-67-2.
- ^ "25-Punkte-Programm der NSDAP". DHM (in German). Retrieved 9. April 2009.
