Hitler's unopposed march into the Rhineland shifted European power toward Germany and emboldened Nazi expansionism by exposing Allied unwillingness to enforce Versailles.
Key Facts
- Date of remilitarisation
- 7 March 1936
- Troops deployed
- 20,000 soldiers
- Treaties violated
- Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaties
- Allied response
- No military intervention by France or Britain
- Demilitarised zone (east of Rhine)
- 50 km east of the Rhine
- Allied occupation ended
- June 1930
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following World War I, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) and the Locarno Treaties (1925) permanently forbade German military forces from the Rhineland and a 50 km zone east of the Rhine. After the Nazi regime took power in January 1933, Germany began systematic rearmament. Hitler used the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance as a pretext to justify the move as a defensive necessity.
On 7 March 1936, Hitler ordered 20,000 Wehrmacht troops to march into the Rhineland, directly violating both the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Treaties. France and Britain, unwilling to risk war and lacking prepared military forces or public support for intervention, took no action. The entry was met with celebrations across Germany.
The remilitarisation altered the European balance of power away from France and its allies toward Germany, enabling Nazi pursuit of aggression in Western Europe. The absence of Allied intervention convinced Hitler that neither France nor Britain would obstruct Nazi foreign policy, prompting him to accelerate German war preparations and plans for continental domination.
Political Outcome
German forces successfully occupied the Rhineland without Allied military response, nullifying the demilitarised provisions of Versailles and Locarno and shifting European power toward Nazi Germany.
France and its allies held strategic advantage through a demilitarised Rhineland buffer zone under Versailles and Locarno
Germany regained military control of the Rhineland, enabling further expansionist policy and accelerating preparations for war