Roosevelt's desire to help the UK, despite the objections of the influential US isolationist lobby, and legal impediments imposed by Congress which prevented direct involvement in the war, brought the US to push hard against the traditional boundaries of neutrality. US destroyers escorting American supply vessels bound for the UK were already engaged in an undeclared de facto war with German U-boats. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement, Lend-Lease, the Atlantic Charter, the hand-over of military control of Iceland from the United Kingdom to the United States, the extension of the Pan-American Security Zone, and many other results of the special relationship which had developed between the two countries had put a strain on relations between the US, still technically a neutral country, and Nazi Germany. The course of relations between Germany and the United States had deteriorated since the beginning of World War II, inevitably so given the increasing cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom. See also: Consequences of the attack on Pearl HarborĪdolf Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), chancellor, and Führer und Reichskanzler of Germany, was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century.

declared war on Germany, with Germany's action having eliminated any remaining meaningful domestic isolationist opposition to the U.S.

Morris by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the latter's office. Publicly, the formal declaration was made to American Chargé d'Affaires Leland B. It has been referred to as Hitler's 'most puzzling' decision of World War II. The decision to declare war was made by Adolf Hitler, apparently offhand, almost without consultation. was still officially neutral during World War II.

On 11 December 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war against the Japanese Empire, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States, in response to what was claimed to be a series of provocations by the United States government when the U.S. Hitler announces the declaration of war against the United States to the Reichstag on 11 December 1941

German text to speech free