The reasons for these radical changes fell well within the Nazi ideology implemented in many occupied territories. The destruction of the city was to be a symbolic show of power over the Poles by liquidating their centre of culture, history and politics. Indeed, one of the first orders given to the new German mayor of Warsaw in 1939 from the German Government was "...to do everything possible to deprive Warsaw of its character as the main centre of the Polish Republic". The new town was to be built in the style of a typical German country town as a final demonstration of power over the conquered Polish people.