Drang nach Osten
The concept of "Drang nach Osten" was a core element of Nazi ideology. In "Mein Kampf" Adolf Hitler declares the idea to be an essential element of his reorganisation plans for Europe. On 7 February 1945 he stated: "It is eastwards, only and always eastwards, that the veins of our race must expand. It is the direction which nature herself has decreed for the expansion of the German peoples."