The thousand-mark ban was an economic sanction imposed on Austria by the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (lit. German Realm, German Empire, from german: Deutsches Reich, ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty ...

government on May 29, 1933, which came into effect on July 1, 1933. Henceforth, German citizens had to pay a fee of (equivalent to € in 2017) to the German Reich before any travel to or through Austria, except for local border traffic. The payment of the fee was noted in the passport and was therefore easy to check. Likewise, because of the widespread visa requirement in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

upon re-entry, a clandestine entry into Austria via

detour __NOTOC__ A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...

s can be recognized immediately. The aim was to weaken the Austrian economy, which was already heavily dependent on tourism at that time. The ban was lifted after the agreement of July 11, 1936.

History

Causes & consequences

The ban was intended to bring about the overthrow of Chancellor

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: ''Dolfuss'', ; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian clerical fascist politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he a ...

, who by then was already acting in a dictatorial manner. The pretended trigger was the expulsion of the Bavarian Minister of Justice

Hans Frank Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party ...

from Austria. Frank was one of the leading National Socialists in the German Reich and belonged to Hitler's Old Guard. His expulsion took place after he had threatened, in a speech in Graz on May 15, 1933, that the German government would actively interfere in Austrian domestic politics since Austria was a “part of Germany”. The financial hurdle proved effective. The percentage of German tourists in Austria for tourism in 1932 was around 40%. The total number of overnight stays fell from 19.9 million in 1932 to 16.5 million the following year. The lowest was reached in 1934 with 15.9 million overnight stays. In Tyrol alone, overnight stays fell from 4.4 million (in 1929/1933) to 500,000 (in 1933/38). The lockdown also had a massive impact on the university level and various Austrian establishments like the first cable car in Tyrol ( de:Tiroler Zugspitzbahn) which was developed by Dr.

Hermann Stern Hermann Stern (24 May 1878 – 24 August 1952) was an Austrian lawyer, local politician, and economic pioneer. Early life Born in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Hermann Stern was the seventh of the ten children of Johann Joachim Stern, a Jew who conver ...

. In more recent

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

, the effect of the ban is put into perspective. On one hand, the effects of the global economic crisis that began at the end of the 1920s reached their peak at the same time. On the other hand, the ban offered "a crystallization point at which the abstract problem of a fundamental economic crisis, which the average citizen cannot concretely understand, could be discussed."

References

{{Reflist 1933 in Austria International sanctions Austria–Germany relations