Westland (Nazi propaganda)
Encyclopedia
This article is about the Nazi propaganda
term used for the Netherlands. For other uses, see Westland (disambiguation).
Westland is the name which the government of Nazi Germany
intended to replace that of the Netherlands
(Dutch
: Nederland; German
: Niederlande) with during its 1940-1945 occupation of that country. The name refers to the fact that the Netherlands lies directly to the west of Germany
, hence "the land of the West". Compare Ostmark
, the name adopted for Austria
after the Anschluss
by the Nazi movement.
Nazi race theory
stressed the supposed "Aryan
" status of the Dutch people
(and thus their racial kinship with the Germans
themselves), as a result of which the occupying Nazi authorities desired to annex
the Netherlands into a greatly enlarged version of the (already-expanded) German Reich, the Greater Germanic Reich
. Early political plans proposed transforming the country in its entirety into a Gau Westland, or even a Gau Holland. More detailed plans suggested its outright dissection into five different Gaue, all of which remained unnamed:
During this period the name was also adopted by the Nazis for, amongst others:
In a wider political context the term was also prominently used by a number of Nazi scholars in the above-mentioned Westland journal to describe the entire frontier area between Central Europe
(the "Germanic world
") and Western Europe
(France
and Great Britain
), which they referred to as the Westland. This region was considered to be bounded by the watersheds of the Meuse
and the Seine
rivers in the west and that of the Rhine in the east. They held that throughout the previous ages of history the French had tried to "hammer away at this territory in a futile Drang Nach Osten
" by trying to extend to extend its dominion all the way to the Rhine river, but failed in its attempt due to the territory's "natural and racial connection to the Germanic realm". It was further purported that England
subsequently tried to exploit Franco-German hostility by turning the area into "an instrument in its balance of power politics
". It was thus deemed that one of Nazi Germany's main purposes in the present conflict
would be to "restore the Westland for all time to its position dictated by natural law
as the Westmark of the Germanic center of Europe", and to "once again take up its watch" at the mouths of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt
rivers.
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
term used for the Netherlands. For other uses, see Westland (disambiguation).
Westland is the name which the government of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
intended to replace that of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
(Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Nederland; German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Niederlande) with during its 1940-1945 occupation of that country. The name refers to the fact that the Netherlands lies directly to the west of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, hence "the land of the West". Compare Ostmark
Ostmark (Austria)
Ostmark was the name used by Nazi propaganda to replace that of the formerly independent Austria after the Anschluss annexation of that country by Nazi Germany in 1938....
, the name adopted for Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
after the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
by the Nazi movement.
Nazi race theory
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
stressed the supposed "Aryan
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
" status of the Dutch people
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
(and thus their racial kinship with the Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
themselves), as a result of which the occupying Nazi authorities desired to annex
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
the Netherlands into a greatly enlarged version of the (already-expanded) German Reich, the Greater Germanic Reich
Greater Germanic Reich
The Greater Germanic Reich , fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation is the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany tried to establish in Europe during World War II...
. Early political plans proposed transforming the country in its entirety into a Gau Westland, or even a Gau Holland. More detailed plans suggested its outright dissection into five different Gaue, all of which remained unnamed:
- FrieslandFrieslandFriesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...
, Groningen, and DrentheDrentheDrenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...
, capital: Groningen; - GelderlandGelderlandGelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...
and OverijsselOverijsselOverijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...
, capital: ArnhemArnhemArnhem is a city and municipality, situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland and located near the river Nederrijn as well as near the St. Jansbeek, which was the source of the city's development. Arnhem has 146,095 residents as one of the...
; - North-Holland and UtrechtUtrechtUtrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
, capital: AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
; - South HollandSouth HollandSouth Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.South Holland is one of the most densely populated and industrialised areas in the world...
and ZeelandZeelandZeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
, capital: The HagueThe HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
; - North BrabantNorth BrabantNorth Brabant , sometimes called Brabant, is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country, bordered by Belgium in the south, the Meuse River in the north, Limburg in the east and Zeeland in the west.- History :...
and LimburgLimburg (Netherlands)Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
, capital: Eindhoven.
During this period the name was also adopted by the Nazis for, amongst others:
- One of the main Waffen-SSWaffen-SSThe Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
units composed primarily of Dutch volunteers, the Standarte Westland. - Uitgeverij Westland, a "folkishVölkisch movementThe volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...
" (Dutch: Volksche) new book publisher established by the occupation government which was responsible for disseminating Nazi, fascist, and pro-German propaganda. - A political-scientificPolitical sciencePolitical Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
periodical journal edited by Arthur Seyss-InquartArthur Seyss-InquartArthur Seyss-Inquart was a Chancellor of Austria, lawyer and later Nazi official in pre-Anschluss Austria, the Third Reich and for wartime Germany in Poland and the Netherlands...
, the senior administrator of the civilian occupation regimeReichskommissariat NiederlandeThe Reichskommissariat Niederlande, literally "Reich Commissariat of the Netherlands", was the civilian occupation regime set up by Nazi Germany in the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II. Its full title in German was the Reichskommissariat für die besetzten niederländischen Gebiete...
in the Netherlands.
In a wider political context the term was also prominently used by a number of Nazi scholars in the above-mentioned Westland journal to describe the entire frontier area between Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
(the "Germanic world
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
") and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
), which they referred to as the Westland. This region was considered to be bounded by the watersheds of the Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
and the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
rivers in the west and that of the Rhine in the east. They held that throughout the previous ages of history the French had tried to "hammer away at this territory in a futile Drang Nach Osten
Drang nach Osten
Drang nach Osten was a term coined in the 19th century to designate German expansion into Slavic lands. The term became a motto of the German nationalist movement in the late nineteenth century...
" by trying to extend to extend its dominion all the way to the Rhine river, but failed in its attempt due to the territory's "natural and racial connection to the Germanic realm". It was further purported that England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
subsequently tried to exploit Franco-German hostility by turning the area into "an instrument in its balance of power politics
Balance of power in international relations
In international relations, a balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces. The concept describes a state of affairs in the international system and explains the behavior of states in that system...
". It was thus deemed that one of Nazi Germany's main purposes in the present conflict
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
would be to "restore the Westland for all time to its position dictated by natural law
Appeal to nature
An appeal to nature is a type of argument that depends on an understanding of nature as a source of intelligibility for its claims, and which relies on that understanding for its outcome...
as the Westmark of the Germanic center of Europe", and to "once again take up its watch" at the mouths of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt
Scheldt
The Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...
rivers.
See also
- Ostmark (Austria)Ostmark (Austria)Ostmark was the name used by Nazi propaganda to replace that of the formerly independent Austria after the Anschluss annexation of that country by Nazi Germany in 1938....
- Reichskommissariat NiederlandeReichskommissariat NiederlandeThe Reichskommissariat Niederlande, literally "Reich Commissariat of the Netherlands", was the civilian occupation regime set up by Nazi Germany in the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II. Its full title in German was the Reichskommissariat für die besetzten niederländischen Gebiete...
- Greater Germanic ReichGreater Germanic ReichThe Greater Germanic Reich , fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation is the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany tried to establish in Europe during World War II...
- History of the Netherlands (1939-1945)