Page "Hossbach Memorandum" Paragraph 2

The conference of November 5, 1937 had been called in response to complaints from Admiral Raeder that the Navy ( Kriegsmarine ) was not receiving sufficient allocations of steel and other raw materials, and as a result, the entire Kriegsmarine building program was in danger of collapse.

Neither the Luftwaffe nor the Army were willing to see any reductions of their steel allocations, and as the conference had been called in response to resolve the dispute.

Hitler took the opportunity afforded by the conference to provide a summary of his assessment of the foreign policy situation.

Hitler stated that in the event of his death, the contents of the conference were to be regarded as his " political testament ".

In Hitler's view, the German economy had reached such a state of crisis that the only way of stopping a drastic fall in living standards in Germany was to embark on a policy of aggression sooner rather than later to provide sufficient Lebensraum by seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Moreover, Hitler announced it was imperative to act sometime within the next five or six years before " two hate-inspired antagonists ", Britain and France, closed the gap in the Arms race, in which, Hitler noted, Germany was already falling behind.