Germany and the Union of South Africa in the Nazi Period

This study examines Nazi German foreign policy towards the Union of South Africa from 1933-1939. Making use of unpublished primary source German documents, the author focuses on the activities of the German embassy and consulates within South Africa in order to answer four basic questions: what role did race and racial theory play in German foreign policy towards South Africa? Did Germany attempt to exploit South African yearnings from international respect, and, if so, how? Did the Germans seek to take advantage of deep divisions within South African society between British and Afrikaners? Finally, to what extent was the German foreign office "Nazified" in the 1930s? By concentrating on the policies and views of German diplomatic personnel within a single country - rather than on Hitler's proclamations and speeches on world afairs - the author offers a closer look at Nazi German foreign policy operations. This study is organized chronologically and begins with an overview of German-South African relations before 1933. Subsequent chapters review ealry tension and South African domestic developments in the years leading up to the outbreak of war. Specific topics covered include the role played by the former German colony of Southwest Africa in realtions between the two states, the hostile attitude of much of the South African press towards Germany, the boycott of German firms by the South African Jewish community, the Smuts-Hertzog fusion, the rise of Malan and his purified nationalist party, the growth of anti-Semitism in South Africa and the concurrent growth in Afrikaner national consciousness, and South African attitudes towards the major European crises of the 1930s. The author concludes by analyzing Germany's inability to keep South Africa neutral in 1939 and the entry of the Union into the war at England's side.