Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Documents on Nazism 1919-1945 ,(London, 1974), pp.522-523.
Berlin, 10 November 1937
Minutes of the Conference in the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 5 November 1937, from 4.15 to 8.30 p.m.
Present: The Fuehrer and Chancellor; Field-Marshal von Blomberg, War Minister; Colonel-General Baron von Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief, Army; Admiral Dr R. C. Raeder, Commander-in-Chief, Navy; Colonel-General Goering, Commander-in-Chief, Luftwaffe; Baron von Neurath, Foreign Minister Colonel Hossbach
The Fuehrer began by stating that the subject of the present conference was of such importance that its discussion would, in other countries, be a matter for a full Cabinet meeting, but he, the Fuehrer, had rejected the idea of making it a subject of discussion before the wider circle of the Reich Cabinet just because of the importance of the matter. His exposition to follow was the fruit of thorough deliberation and the experiences of his four-and-a-half years of power. He wished to explain to the gentlemen present his basic ideas concerning the opportunities for the development of our position in the field of foreign affairs and its requirements, and he asked, in the interest of a long term German policy, that his exposition be regarded, in the event of his death, as his last will and testament. The Fuehrer then continued: The aim of German policy was to make secure and preserve the racial community [Volksmasse] and to enlarge it. It was therefore a question of space. The German racial community comprised over 85 million people and, by reason of their number and narrow limits of habitable space in Europe, it constituted tightly packed racial core such as was not to be found in any other country and such as implied the right to a greater living space than in the case of other peoples. German racial core, that was a consequence of centuries of historical developments, and in the continuance of these political conditions by the greatest danger to the preservation of the German race at its present peak. To arrest the decline of Germanism [Deutschtum] in Austria and Czechoslovakia was as little possible as to maintain the present level in Germany itself. Instead of increase, sterility was setting in, and in its train disorders of social character must arise in course of time, since political and ideological ideas remain effective only so long as they furnish the basis for the realisation of the essential vital demands of a people. Germany's future was therefore wholly conditional upon the solving of the need for space, and such a solution could be sought, of course, only for a foreseeable period of about one to three generations. Before turning to the question of solving the need for space, it had to be considered whether a solution holding promise for the future was to be reached by means of autarky or by means of an increased participation in world economy.
