Editing Condor Legion (section)

===Motivation===
In the years after the Spanish Civil War, Hitler gave several possible motives for German involvement. They included providing distraction from [[German rearmament]], [[Cordon sanitaire (international relations)|preventing the spread of communism to Western Europe]], creating a state friendly to Germany to disrupt Britain and France, and creating possibilities for economic expansion.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=12}} Although the Nationalist offensive on Madrid was abandoned in March 1937, a series of attacks on weaker Republican-controlled areas was supported by the Condor Legion. Despite prolonging the Civil War, it helped distract the other Western powers from Hitler's ambitions in [[Central Europe]].{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=29}} The [[Biscay Campaign|offensive on Biscay]], a mining and industrial centre, helped to fuel German industry.{{sfn|Westwell|2004|p=30}} In a speech at [[Würzburg]] on 27 June 1937, Hitler said that he supported Franco to gain control of Spanish ore.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=459}}

Discussions about German objectives for intervention took place in January 1937. Germany was keen to avoid prompting a wider European war, which was a risk if it committed further resources to Spain.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=341}} There was no consensus among German officials; [[Ernst von Weizsäcker]] of the German Foreign Office suggested that it was a matter of graceful withdrawal, and Göring said that Germany would never recognise a "red Spain". A joint Italian–German agreement said that the last shipments would be made no later than early February.{{sfn|Thomas|1961|p=341}}

It has been speculated that Hitler used the Spanish Civil War to distract [[Benito Mussolini]] from Hitler's plans to [[Anschluss|annex Austria]]; the authoritarian, Catholic and anti-Nazi [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Vaterländische Front]] ran the government of Austria from 1933 to 1938, and had been allied with Mussolini. In 1934, the assassination of Austrian Chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]] had given rise to Italian military assistance to prevent a German invasion.<ref>[http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/learnpremium/hitler_foreign/AnschlusswithAu/FirstattemptatA/Default.htm www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk]</ref>

A December 1936 communiqué from German ambassador to Rome [[Ulrich von Hassell]] said that Italy’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War kept it out of the Western powers' camp:
<blockquote>
The role played by the Spanish conflict as regards Italy's relations with France and England could be similar to that of the [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War|Abyssinian conflict]], bringing out clearly the actual, opposing interests of the powers and thus preventing Italy from being drawn into the net of the [[Western world|Western powers]] and used for their machinations&nbsp;... All the more clearly will Italy recognize the advisability of confronting the Western powers shoulder to shoulder with Germany.{{cn|date=May 2024}}</blockquote>