ABSTRACT

Throughout the Second World War, the term ‘Europe’ featured prominently in National Socialist rhetoric. This book reconstructs what Europe stood for in National Socialist Germany, analyses how the interplay of its defining elements changed dependent on the war, and shows that the new European order was neither an empty phrase born out of propaganda, nor was it anti-European. Tying in with long-standing traditions of German European, völkisch, and economic thinking, imaginations of a New Order became a central category in contemporary political and economic decision-making processes, justifying cooperation as well as exploitation, violence, and murder.

chapter |11 pages

Introduction

A new Europe

part I|2 pages

Dreaming of a New Order

chapter 3|6 pages

The dream takes shape

German notions of Europe on the eve of the war

part II|2 pages

Planning a New Order

part III|2 pages

Creating a New Order

chapter 7|25 pages

From unlimited possibilities to the exigencies of war

State actors and the New Order

chapter 8|22 pages

From European expansion to reorientation

Economic actors and the New Order

chapter 9|18 pages

Conclusion

‘Anti-Europe’ revisited