"Volk ohne Raum" (German pronunciation:[fɔlkˈʔoːnəˈʁaʊm]; "people without space") was apolitical slogan used in theWeimar Republic andNazi Germany. The term was coined by the nationalist writerHans Grimm with his novelVolk ohne Raum (1926). The novel immediately attracted much attention and sold nearly 700,000 copies.[1]
The slogan was used in a political context to suggest that theGermans had become a people without living space (Lebensraum), struggling with poverty, misery, hunger and overpopulation as a result of to theTreaty of Versailles which served to depriveGermany of hercolonial empire.[2] Closely linked to this idea was the claim that theearth was divided unfairly among theGreat Powers, leaving the Germans possessing little land compared to the less populous European nations.[2]
The best-known usage of the slogan is by theNazis. In Nazi propaganda, the slogan was repeatedly used to justify or legitimize the German conquest ofPoland and theSoviet Union. Nazi Germany also used it to justify the massive territorial expansion into Eastern Europe to ensure GermanicAryanHerrenvolk ("Aryan master race") rule overSlavs who the Nazis considered "non Aryan" andsubhuman. Slavs were to be ethnically cleansed and exterminated, and their territories settled by Germans.
From the early days of the Nazi party, the notion that the Germans were people without living space and that they had a right to expand was widespread among German nationalists and right-wing organisations. On February 24, 1920,Hitler proclaimed the party program and one of the 25 points of theNational Socialist Program stated: "We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population."[3] In order to justify theirDrang nach Osten ("desire to push East"), the Nazis amended the slogan ofVolk ohne Raum by declaring the vast, sparsely populated lands of Russia aRaum ohne Volk (a "space without people") which had to be conquered by Germany, the "nation without space".[citation needed]