What did Hitler do in response to the Treaty of Versailles?

In 1919,
many Germans voted for democratic parties and the country adopted the democratic Weimar
constitution. Thus, Germany abandoned traditional Prussian military authoritarianism, much to
the dismay of powerful conservative nationalists. When the allies forced the new democratic
government to sign the unequal and humiliating Versailles peace treaty, however, they dealt a
powerful blow to the prestige of German democracy and discredited it in the eyes of the majority
of the German population, which was furious. The German army especially resented the disarmament
measures, which deprived Germany of much of its navy, tanks, and airplanes, and dramatically
reduced the size of the armed forces.

To compensate for these measures, the
German army entered politics and associated itself with various emerging nationalistic
paramilitary organizations, such as the Stahlhelm. These organizations created anof nationalist
mobilization, which nourished right-wing extremism and benefited the Nazi movement.

Hitler and the Nazi party availed themselves of this opportunity to attack German
democracy as a helpless pawn in the hands of its the Western enemies. Hitler declared his
implacable opposition to the Versailles peace treaty and the disarmament and onerous financial
reparations that it entailed. He used his uncompromising stance on Versailles to appeal to the
German voters wounded sense of national honor.

In October 1934, Hitler
secretly violated the Versailles peace treaty by increasing the size of the army and starting a
rearmament. In March 1935, he announced that Germany would no longer abide by the limitations
imposed by the Versailles treaty. He argued that in order to find redress for the unjust
treatment of Germans under the Versailles international order, Germany needed an expansionist
policy in Central Europe. Many politicians, especially those in Britain, felt guilty about
Versailles, so they were now ready to appease Hitler by accepting many of his demands. The
culmination of this came at the Munich peace conference, when they forced the Czech government
to surrender much of its territory and defenses to Germany.