
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the
annexation
Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...
of the
Federal State of Austria
The Federal State of Austria (; colloquially known as the "") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and politi ...
into
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "
Greater Germany") arose after the
1871 unification of Germany excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
. It gained support after the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
fell in 1918. The new
Republic of German-Austria
The Republic of German-Austria (, alternatively spelt ), commonly known as German-Austria (), was an unrecognised state that was created following World War I as an initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking and ethn ...
attempted to form a union with Germany, but the 1919
Treaty of Saint Germain and
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria" (); they also stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...
. This left Austria without most of the territories it had ruled for centuries and amid economic crisis.
By the 1920s, the proposal had strong support in both Austria and Germany, particularly to many Austrian citizens of the political left and center. One vehement supporter was prominent Social Democrat leader
Otto Bauer
Otto Bauer (; 5 September 1881 – 4 July 1938) was an Austrian politician who was one of the founders and leading thinkers of the Austromarxists who sought a middle ground between social democracy and revolutionary socialism. He was a member of t ...
, who served as Austria's Foreign Minister after the war. Support for unification with Germany came mainly from the belief that Austria, stripped of its imperial land, was not viable economically. Popular support for the unification faded with time, although it remained as a concept in the contemporary Austrian political discourse.
After 1933, when
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
rose to power in Germany, desire for unification could be identified with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi "" ("back home to the realm") concept, which sought to incorporate as many (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "
Greater Germany". Nazi Germany's agents cultivated pro-unification tendencies in Austria, and sought to undermine the Austrian government, which was controlled by the
Fatherland Front, which opposed unification. During an
attempted coup in 1934, Austrian chancellor
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss (alternatively Dollfuß; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Federal State of Austria, Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and ...
was assassinated by Austrian Nazis. The defeat of the coup prompted many leading Austrian Nazis to go into exile in Germany, where they continued their efforts to unify the two countries.
In early 1938, under increasing pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian chancellor
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty to be held on 13 March. Portraying this as defying the popular will in Austria and Germany, Hitler threatened an invasion and secretly pressured Schuschnigg to resign. A day before the planned referendum, the
German Army
The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...
crossed the border into Austria on 12 March, unopposed by the Austrian military.
A plebiscite was held on 10 April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval.
Historical background
Before 1918
The idea of grouping all
Germans
Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
into one nation-state had been the subject of debate in the 19th century from the
dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred on 6 August 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated his title and released all Imperial estate, Imperial s ...
in 1806 until the break-up of the
German Confederation
The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...
in 1866. Austria had wanted a ''
Großdeutsche Lösung'' (greater Germany solution), whereby the German states would unite under the leadership of the Austrian
House of Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful Dynasty, dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout ...
. This solution would have included all the German states (including the non-German regions of Austria), but Prussia would have had to accept a secondary role. This controversy, called
dualism
Dualism most commonly refers to:
* Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another
* P ...
, dominated
Prusso-Austrian diplomacy and the politics of the German states in the mid-nineteenth century.
In 1866 the feud finally came to an end during the
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...
in which the Prussians defeated the Austrians and thereby excluded the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
and German Austrians from Germany. The Prussian statesman
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
formed the
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation () was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated state (a ''de facto'' feder ...
, which included most of the remaining German states, aside from a few in the southwestern region of the German-inhabited lands, and further expanded the power of the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
. Bismarck used the
Franco-Prussian war
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
(1870–1871) as a way to convince southwestern German states, including the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...
, to side with Prussia against the
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...
. Due to Prussia's quick victory, the debate was settled and in 1871 the "''Kleindeutsch''"
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
based on the leadership of Bismarck and Prussia formed—this excluded Austria. Besides ensuring Prussian domination of a
united Germany, the exclusion of Austria also ensured that Germany would have a substantial
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
majority.
The
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (, ) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereign ...
, the ''Ausgleich'', provided for a dual sovereignty, the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
and the
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
, under
Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...
. This diverse empire included various different ethnic groups including Hungarians, Slavic ethnic groups such as Croats, Czechs, Poles, Rusyns, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, as well as Italians and Romanians ruled by a German minority. The empire caused tensions between the various ethnic groups. Many Austrian pan-Germans showed loyalty to
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
and only to Germany, wore symbols that were temporarily banned in Austrian schools and advocated the dissolution of the empire to allow Austria to rejoin Germany, as it had been during the German Confederation of 1815–1866. Although many Austrians supported pan-Germanism, many others still showed allegiance to the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...
and wished for Austria to remain an independent country.
Aftermath of World War I
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff (; 9 April 1865 – 20 December 1937) was a German general and politician. He achieved fame during World War I (1914–1918) for his central role in the German victories at Battle of Liège, Liège and Battle ...
wrote to the
Federal Foreign Office
The Federal Foreign Office (, ; abbreviated AA) is the Foreign minister, foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, a federal agency (Germany), federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign policy and its relationship with ...
on 14 October 1918 about the possibility of conducting an Anschluss with the German areas of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
as its
dissolution removed the problem of the country's numerous ethnic groups. Secretary
Wilhelm Solf opposed the proposal, stating that it "would provide the
Entente with justification for demanding territorial compensations". During the
Paris Peace Conference the French sought to forbid a union between Austria and Germany, with French Minister of Foreign Affairs
Stephen Pichon stating that they "must see that Germany is not given an opportunity to rebuild her strength by utilizing the Austrian populations which remain outside of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Jugoslavia". A compromise was reached and Article 80 of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
stated that "Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria, within the frontiers which may be fixed in a Treaty between that State and the Principal Allied and Associated Powers; she agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the Council of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
."
Elite and popular opinion in the rump
Republic of German-Austria
The Republic of German-Austria (, alternatively spelt ), commonly known as German-Austria (), was an unrecognised state that was created following World War I as an initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking and ethn ...
after 1918 largely favored some sort of union with Germany. An Austrian provisional national assembly drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a component of the German Republic" (Article 2). Later plebiscites in the Austrian border provinces of
Tyrol
Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...
and
Salzburg
Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favor of a unification with the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
. Further plebiscites were then forbidden. However,
Erich Bielka notes that the plebiscites were marred by electoral fraud and voter manipulation, and therefore do not reflect what the general Austrian opinion was at that time:
In the aftermath of a prohibition of an Anschluss, Germans in both Austria and Germany pointed to a contradiction in the national
self-determination
Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage.
Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
principle because the treaties failed to grant self-determination to the ethnic Germans (such as German Austrians and
Sudeten Germans
German Bohemians ( ; ), later known as Sudeten Germans ( ; ), were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Before 1945, over three million German Bohemians constitute ...
) outside of the German Reich.
Hugo Preuss, the drafter of the German
Weimar Constitution
The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...
, criticized efforts to prevent an Anschluss; he saw the prohibition as a contradiction of the
Wilsonian principle of self-determination of peoples.
The constitutions of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
and the
First Austrian Republic
The First Austrian Republic (), officially the Republic of Austria, was created after the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end of World War I which ended the Habsburg rump state of ...
both included the political goal of unification, which parties widely supported. In the early 1930s, the Austrian government looked to a possible
customs union
A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a)
Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set u ...
with the German Republic in 1931. However, ultimately regional patriotism was stronger than pan-German sentiment.
In the Austrian Empire, each
Kronland had its own functional government and enjoyed a fair amount of autonomy from
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, with "each looking to their own capital" instead.
According to Jody Manning, the idea of unification with Germany was not overwhelmingly popular among the Austrian population in 1919, which is one of the reasons why no nationwide referendum was held, even before it was forbidden by the Entente:
The French attempted to prevent an Anschluss by incorporating Austria into a Danubian Confederation in 1927. German Minister of Foreign Affairs
Gustav Stresemann
Gustav Ernst Stresemann (; 10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German statesman during the Weimar Republic who served as Chancellor of Germany#First German Republic (Weimar Republic, 1919–1933), chancellor of Germany from August to November 1 ...
opposed it, as he saw it as an attempt to re-form the Austro-Hungarian Empire and offered to form a customs union with Austria. However, Austrian Chancellor
Ignaz Seipel, an Anschluss opponent, rejected the offer. Seipel was replaced in 1929 by
Johannes Schober, who pursued a pro-Germany policy and attempted to form a customs union. However, a political crisis led to Schober losing power and Seipel returning to the government as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Negotiations were restarted after
Otto Ender became chancellor and were finalized with German Foreign Affairs Minister
Julius Curtius on 5 March 1931, before being approved by Germany on 18 March. France opposed the customs union, stating that it was in violation of Article 88 of the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Nazi Germany and Austria
When the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
, led by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, rose to power in the Weimar Republic, the Austrian government withdrew from economic ties. Like Germany, Austria experienced the economic turbulence which was a result of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, with a high unemployment rate, and unstable commerce and industry. During the 1920s it was a target for German investment capital. By 1937, rapid
German rearmament
German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out by Germany from 1918 to 1939 in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which required German disarmament after World War I to prevent it from starting an ...
increased Berlin's interest in annexing Austria, rich in raw materials and labour. It supplied Germany with
magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...
and the products of the iron, textile and machine industries. It had gold and foreign currency reserves, many unemployed skilled workers, hundreds of idle factories, and large potential hydroelectric resources.
Hitler, an Austrian German by birth, picked up his
German nationalist ideas at a young age. Whilst infiltrating the
German Workers' Party
The German Workers' Party (, DAP) was a short-lived far-right political party established in the Weimar Republic after World War I. It only lasted from 5 January 1919 until 24 February 1920. The DAP was the precursor of the National Socialist ...
(DAP), Hitler became involved in a heated political argument with a visitor, a Professor Baumann, who proposed that
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
should break away from
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
and found a new
South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratorical skills and, according to Hitler, the "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat. Impressed with Hitler,
Anton Drexler
Anton Drexler (13 June 1884 – 24 February 1942) was a German far-right political agitator for the ''Völkisch'' movement in the 1920s. He founded the German Workers' Party (DAP), the pan-German and anti-Semitic antecedent of the Nazi Part ...
invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919, becoming the party's 55th member. After becoming leader of the DAP, Hitler addressed a crowd on 24 February 1920, and in an effort to appeal to wider parts of the German population, the DAP was renamed the
National Socialist German Workers' Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
(NSDAP).
As its first point, the 1920
National Socialist Program
The National Socialist Program, also known as the Nazi Party Program, the 25-point Program or the 25-point Plan (), was the party program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP, and referred to in English as the Nazi Party). Adolf ...
stated, "We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination. Hitler argued in a 1921 essay that the
German Reich
German ''Reich'' (, from ) 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 entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...
had a single task of, "incorporating the ten million German-Austrians in the Empire and dethroning the Habsburgs, the most miserable dynasty ever ruling." The
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
aimed to
re-unite all Germans who were either born in the ''Reich'' or living outside it in order to create an "all-German ''Reich''". Hitler wrote in ''
Mein Kampf
(; ) is a 1925 Autobiography, autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The book outlines many of Political views of Adolf Hitler, Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Nazi Germany, Ge ...
'' (1925) that he would create a union between his birth country Austria and Germany by any means possible.
The
First Austrian Republic
The First Austrian Republic (), officially the Republic of Austria, was created after the signing of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919—the settlement after the end of World War I which ended the Habsburg rump state of ...
was dominated from the late 1920s by the
Christian Social Party (CS), whose economic policies were based on the papal encyclical ''
Rerum novarum
''Rerum novarum'', or ''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor'', is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, which addressed the condi ...
''. The First Republic gradually disintegrated in 1933, when parliament was dissolved and power was centralized in the office of the
chancellor
Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
, who was empowered to
rule by decree
Rule by decree is a style of governance allowing quick, unchallenged promulgation of law by a single person or group of people, usually without legislative approval. While intended to allow rapid responses to a crisis, rule by decree is easily ab ...
. Rival parties, including the Austrian National Socialists, were banned, and government evolved into a
corporatist, one-party government that combined the CS and the paramilitary ''
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr (, ) or Heimatschutz (, ) was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group that operated in the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1936. It was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. The Heimwe ...
''. It controlled labor relations and the press. (''See
Fatherland Front''). The new regime emphasized the Catholic elements of Austria's national identity and staunchly opposed union with
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
.
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss (alternatively Dollfuß; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Federal State of Austria, Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and ...
and his successor,
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
, turned to
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
's
Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Th ...
for inspiration and support. Mussolini supported the independence of Austria, largely due to his concern that Hitler would eventually press for the return of Italian territories which had once been ruled by Austria. However, Mussolini needed German support in Ethiopia (''see
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...
''). After receiving
Hitler's personal assurance that Germany would not seek territorial concessions from Italy, Mussolini entered into a client relationship with Berlin that began with the formation of the
Berlin–Rome Axis in 1937.
Austrian Civil War to ''Anschluss''
The
Austrian Nazi Party failed to win any seats in the
November 1930 general election, but its popularity grew in Austria after Hitler came to power in Germany. The idea of the country joining Germany also grew in popularity, thanks in part to a
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda was a tool of the Nazi Party in Germany from its earliest days to the end of the regime in May 1945 at the end of World War II. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amou ...
campaign which used slogans such as ''
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer'' ("One People, One Empire, One Leader") to try to convince Austrians to advocate for an ''Anschluss'' to the German Reich. ''Anschluss'' might have occurred by democratic process had Austrian Nazis not begun a terrorism campaign. According to
John Gunther
John Gunther (August 30, 1901 – May 29, 1970) was an Americans, American journalist and writer.
His success came primarily by a series of popular sociopolitical works, known as the "Inside" books (1936–1972), including the best-sell ...
in 1936, "In 1932 Austria was probably eighty percent pro-''Anschluss''".
When Germany permitted residents of Austria to vote on 5 March 1933, three special trains, boats and trucks brought such masses to
Passau
Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.
Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...
that the
SS staged a ceremonial welcome. Gunther wrote that by the end of 1933 Austrian public opinion about German annexation was at least 60% against.
On 25 July 1934, chancellor Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis in a failed coup. Afterwards, leading Austrian Nazis fled to Germany but they continued to push for unification from there. The remaining Austrian Nazis continued terrorist attacks against Austrian governmental institutions, causing a death toll of more than 800 between 1934 and 1938.
Dollfuss's successor was
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
, who followed a political course similar to his predecessor. In 1935 Schuschnigg used the police to suppress Nazi supporters. Police actions under Schuschnigg included gathering Nazis (and Social Democrats) and holding them in
internment camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
s. Austria between 1934 and 1938 focused on the history of Austria and opposed the absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany (according to the philosophy Austrians were "superior Germans"). Schuschnigg called Austria the "better German state" but struggled to keep Austria independent.
In an attempt to put Schuschnigg's mind at rest, Hitler delivered a speech at the
Reichstag and said, "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss."
By 1936, the damage to Austria from the German boycott was too great. That summer Schuschnigg told Mussolini that his country had to come to an agreement with Germany. On 11 July 1936 he signed an agreement with German ambassador
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and army officer. A national conservative, he served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as Vice-Chancell ...
, in which Schuschnigg agreed to the release of Nazis imprisoned in Austria and Germany promised to respect Austrian sovereignty. Under the terms of the Austro-German treaty, Austria declared itself a "German state" that would always follow Germany's lead in foreign policy, and members of the "National Opposition" were allowed to enter the cabinet, in exchange for which the Austrian Nazis promised to cease their terrorist attacks against the government. This did not satisfy Hitler and the pro-German Austrian Nazis grew in strength.
In September 1936, Hitler launched the
Four Year Plan that called for a dramatic increase in military spending and to make Germany as
autarkic as possible with the aim of having the ''Reich'' ready to fight a world war by 1940.
The Four Year Plan required huge investments in the ''
Reichswerke'' steel works, a programme for developing
synthetic oil
Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially modified or synthesised. Synthetic oil is used as a substitute for petroleum-refined oils when operating in extreme temperature, in metal stamping to provide en ...
that soon went wildly over budget, and programmes for producing more chemicals and aluminium; the plan called for a policy of substituting imports and rationalizing industry to achieve its goals that failed completely.
As the Four Year Plan fell further and further behind its targets,
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
, the chief of the Four Year Plan office, began to press for an ''Anschluss'' as a way of securing Austria's iron and other raw materials as a solution to the problems with the Four Year Plan. The British historian
Ian Kershaw
Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's foremost experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is ...
wrote:
Göring was far more interested in the return of the former
German colonies in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
than Hitler was, believed up to 1939 in the possibility of an Anglo-German alliance (an idea that Hitler had abandoned by late 1937), and wanted all Eastern Europe in the German economic
sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity.
While there may be a formal a ...
. Göring did not share Hitler's interest in ''
Lebensraum
(, ) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch movement, ''Völkisch'' nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' beca ...
'' ("living space") as for him, merely having Eastern Europe in the German economic sphere of influence was sufficient. In this context, having Austria annexed to Germany was the key towards bringing Eastern Europe into Göring's desired ''Grossraumwirtschaft'' ("greater economic space").
Faced with problems in the Four Year Plan, Göring had become the loudest voice in Germany, calling for an ''Anschluss'', even at the risk of losing an alliance with Italy. In April 1937, in a secret speech before a group of German industrialists, Göring stated that the only solution to the problems with meeting the steel production targets laid out by the Four Year Plan was to annex Austria, which Göring noted was rich in iron. Göring did not give a date for the ''Anschluss'', but given that Four Year Plan's targets all had to be met by September 1940, and the current problems with meeting the steel production targets, suggested that he wanted an ''Anschluss'' in the very near-future.
End of an independent Austria

Hitler told Goebbels in the late summer of 1937 that eventually Austria would have to be taken "by force". On 5 November 1937, Hitler called a meeting with the Foreign Minister
Konstantin von Neurath
Konstantin Hermann Karl Freiherr von Neurath (2 February 1873 – 14 August 1956) was a German politician, diplomat and convicted Nazi war criminal who served as Foreign Minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938.
Born to a Swabian noble famil ...
, the War Minister Field Marshal
Werner von Blomberg
Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (2 September 1878 – 13 March 1946) was a German general and politician who served as the first Minister of War in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1938. Blomberg had served as Chief of the ''Truppenamt'', equivalent ...
, the Army commander General
Werner von Fritsch
Thomas Ludwig Werner Freiherr von Fritsch (4 August 1880 – 22 September 1939) was a German ''Generaloberst'' (Full General, full general) who served as Oberkommando des Heeres, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army fro ...
, the
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...
commander Admiral
Erich Raeder and the
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
commander Hermann Göring recorded in the
Hossbach Memorandum. At the conference, Hitler stated that economic problems were causing Germany to fall behind in the arms race with Britain and France, and that the only solution was to launch in the near-future a series of wars to seize Austria and
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
, whose economies would be plundered to give Germany the lead in the arms race. In early 1938, Hitler was seriously considering replacing Papen as ambassador to Austria with either Colonel
Hermann Kriebel, the German consul in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
, or
Albert Forster, the ''
Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
'' of Danzig. Significantly, neither Kriebel nor Forster was a professional diplomat, with Kriebel being one of the leaders of the
1923 Munich Beerhall ''putsch'' who had been appointed consul in Shanghai to facilitate his work as an arms dealer in China, while Forster was a ''Gauleiter'' who had proven he could get along with the Poles in his position in the
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...
; both men were Nazis who had shown some diplomatic skill. On 25 January 1938, the Austrian police raided the Vienna headquarters of the Austrian Nazi Party, arresting ''Gauleiter'' Leopold Tavs, the deputy to Captain
Josef Leopold, discovered a cache of arms and plans for a ''putsch''.
Following increasing violence and demands from Hitler that Austria agree to a union, Schuschnigg met Hitler at
Berchtesgaden
Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps. South of the town, the Be ...
on 12 February 1938, in an attempt to avoid the takeover of Austria. Hitler presented Schuschnigg with a set of demands including appointing Nazi sympathizers to positions of power in the government. The key appointment was that of
Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Public Security, with full, unlimited control of the police. In return Hitler would publicly reaffirm the treaty of 11 July 1936 and reaffirm his support for Austria's national sovereignty. Browbeaten and threatened by Hitler, Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and put them into effect.
Seyss-Inquart was a long-time supporter of the Nazis who sought the union of all Germans in one state. Leopold argues he was a moderate who favoured an evolutionary approach to union. He opposed the violent tactics of the Austrian Nazis, cooperated with Catholic groups, and wanted to preserve a measure of Austrian identity within Nazi Germany.
On 20 February, Hitler made a speech before the Reichstag which was broadcast live and which for the first time was relayed also by the
Austrian radio network. A key phrase in the speech which was aimed at the Germans living in Austria and Czechoslovakia was: "The German Reich is no longer willing to tolerate the suppression of ten million Germans across its borders."
Schuschnigg announces a referendum
On 3 March 1938, Austrian Socialists offered to back Schuschnigg's government in exchange for political concessions, such as legalising socialist press, returning confiscated funds and "the lifting of the ban on the wearing of Social Democrat badges, show Social Democrat flags and standards and singing Social Democrat songs." Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and was supported by the united front of socialists and communists, as well as the Heimwehr, monarchist groups and the majority of the Austrian police. The Social Democrats also declared their readiness to support Schuschnigg in the event of a plebiscite under the conditions that immediately after such a plebiscite a definite negotiation be begun to include them in the Government. This support led Schuschnigg to announce the referendum.
On 9 March 1938, in the face of rioting by the small, but virulent, Austrian Nazi Party and ever-expanding German demands on Austria, Chancellor
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann von Schuschnigg (; 14 December 1897 – 18 November 1977) was an Austrian politician who was the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor of the Federal State of Austria from the 1934 assassination of his predecessor Engelbert D ...
called a
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
(plebiscite) on the issue, to be held on 13 March. Infuriated, on 11 March, Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschnigg's resignation and the appointment of the Nazi
Arthur Seyss-Inquart as his replacement. Hitler's plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to Austria's aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of this threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled.
To secure a large majority in the referendum, Schuschnigg dismantled the one-party state. He agreed to legalize the
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
and their trade unions in return for their support in the referendum. He also set the minimum voting age at 24 to exclude younger voters because the Nazi movement was most popular among the young. In contrast, Hitler had lowered the voting age for German elections held under Nazi rule, largely to compensate for the removal of
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and other ethnic minorities from the German electorate following enactment of the
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law ...
in 1935.
The plan went awry when it became apparent that Hitler would not stand by while Austria declared its independence by public vote. Hitler declared that the referendum would be subject to major fraud and that Germany would never accept it. In addition, the German ministry of propaganda issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of the Austrian population were calling for German troops to restore order. Schuschnigg immediately responded that reports of riots were false.
Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March, demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazis or face an invasion. The ultimatum was set to expire at noon, but was extended by two hours. Without waiting for an answer, Hitler had already signed the order to send troops into Austria at one o'clock.
Nevertheless, the German Führer underestimated his opposition.
As journalist
Edgar Ansel Mowrer, reporting from Paris for
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
, observed: "There is no one in all France who does not believe that Hitler invaded Austria not to hold a genuine plebiscite, but to prevent the plebiscite planned by Schuschnigg from demonstrating to the entire world just how little hold National Socialism really had on that tiny country."
[CBS World Roundup Broadcast 13 March 1938 Columbia Broadcasting System retrieved from http://otr.com/ra/news/CBS_Roundup_3-13-1938.mp3 ]
Schuschnigg desperately sought support for Austrian independence in the hours following the ultimatum. Realizing that neither France nor Britain was willing to offer assistance, Schuschnigg resigned on the evening of 11 March, but President
Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At 8:45 pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, ordered the invasion to commence at dawn on 12 March regardless. Around 10 pm, a forged telegram was sent in Seyss-Inquart's name asking for German troops, since he was not yet Chancellor and was unable to do so himself. Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas resigned himself to the inevitable.
In the radio broadcast in which Schuschnigg announced his resignation, he argued that he accepted the changes and allowed the Nazis to take over the government "to avoid the shedding of fraternal blood
'Bruderblut''. Seyss-Inquart was appointed chancellor after midnight on 12 March.
It is said that after listening to
Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Hitler cried: "How can anyone say that Austria is not German! Is there anything more German than our old pure Austrianness?"
German troops march into Austria

On the morning of 12 March 1938, the
8th Army of the German ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
'' crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers. The "invasion" without shots fired was therefore dubbed the Blumenkrieg ("Flower War"). For the ''Wehrmacht'', the invasion was the first big test of its machinery. Although the invading forces were badly organized and coordination among the units was poor, it mattered little because the Austrian government had ordered the Austrian
Bundesheer not to resist.
That afternoon, Hitler, riding in a car, crossed the border at his birthplace,
Braunau am Inn, with a 4,000 man bodyguard.
In the evening, he arrived at
Linz
Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...
and was given an enthusiastic welcome. 250,000 Austrians gathered in Linz to meet Adolf Hitler and support ''Anschluss''. The enthusiasm displayed toward Hitler and the Germans surprised both Nazis and non-Nazis, as most people had believed that a majority of Austrians opposed ''Anschluss''. Many Germans from both Austria and Germany welcomed the ''Anschluss'' as they saw it as completing the complex and long overdue unification of all Germans into one state. Hitler had originally intended to leave Austria as a
satellite state
A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting a larger ob ...
with Seyss-Inquart as head of a pro-Nazi government. However, the overwhelming reception caused him to change course and absorb Austria directly into the Reich. On 13 March Seyss-Inquart announced the abrogation of
Article 88 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which prohibited the unification of Austria and Germany, and approved the replacement of the
Austrian states with ''
Reichsgaue''. The seizure of Austria demonstrated once again Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions, and, once again, the failure of the British and the French to take action against him for violating the Versailles Treaty. Their lack of will emboldened him toward further aggression.
Hitler's journey through Austria became a triumphal tour that climaxed in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
on 15 March 1938, when around 200,000 cheering German Austrians gathered around the ''
Heldenplatz
Heldenplatz () is a public space in front of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt borough, the President of Austria resides in the adjoining Hofburg wing, while the Federal Chancellery is on adjacent Ballhausplatz ...
'' (Square of Heroes) to hear Hitler say that "The oldest eastern province of the German people shall be, from this point on, the newest bastion of the German Reich" followed by his "greatest accomplishment" (completing the annexing of Austria to form a Greater German Reich) by saying "As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich." Hitler later commented: "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Austria with brutal methods. I can only say: even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier (into Austria) there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."
Hitler said as a personal note to the ''Anschluss'': "I, myself, as Führer and Chancellor, will be happy to walk on the soil of the country that is my home as a free German citizen."
Hitler's popularity reached an unprecedented peak after he fulfilled the ''Anschluss'' because he had completed the long-awaited idea of a Greater Germany.
Bismarck had not chosen to include Austria in his 1871
unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). I ...
, and there was genuine support from Germans in both Austria and Germany for an ''Anschluss''.
Popularity of the ''Anschluss''
Hitler's forces suppressed all opposition. Before the first German soldier crossed the border,
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...
and a few
Schutzstaffel
The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.
It beg ...
(SS) officers landed in Vienna to arrest prominent representatives of the First Republic, such as
Richard Schmitz,
Leopold Figl
Leopold Figl (2 October 1902 – 9 May 1965) was an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party (Christian Democrats) and the first Federal Chancellor after World War II. He was also the youngest Federal Chancellor of Austria after the w ...
,
Friedrich Hillegeist, and
Franz Olah. During the few weeks between the ''Anschluss'' and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists, other potential political dissenters, and
Austrian Jews
The history of the Jews in Austria starts after the Jewish diaspora, exodus of Jews from History of ancient Israel and Judah#Roman occupation, Judea under Roman occupation. There have been Jews in Austria since the 3rd century CE. Over the cour ...
, and imprisoned them or sent them to
concentration camps
A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploit ...
. Within a few days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The disused northwest railway station in Vienna was converted into a makeshift concentration camp. American historian Evan Burr Bukey warned that the plebiscite result needs to be taken with "great caution". The plebiscite was subject to large-scale Nazi propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around 360,000 people (8% of the eligible voting population), mainly political enemies such as former members of left-wing parties and Austrian citizens of Jewish or Romani origin.
The Austrians' support for the ''Anschluss'' was ambivalent; the Austrian population was given no choice and was subjected to extensive intimidation and suppression of the political opposition, as at the time of the plebiscite, the annexation of Austria was a 'fait accompli' as the German army had already occupied Austria and integrated it into Germany. American historian Evan Bukey argues that there was a genuine German nationalist feeling in Austria amongst at least a part of the population, and those holding antisemitic sentiments were more than ready to "fulfill their duty" in the "Greater German Reich". Bukey also states that since the
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
leader
Karl Renner
Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he ...
and the highest representative of the Roman Catholic church in Austria Cardinal
Theodor Innitzer
Theodor Innitzer (25 December 1875 – 9 October 1955) was Archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal of the Catholic Church.
Early life
Innitzer was born in Neugeschrei (Nové Zvolání), part of the town Weipert (Vejprty) in Bohemia, at that time ...
both endorsed the ''Anschluss'', approximately two-thirds of Austrians might have voted for it. However, Julie Thorpe notes that endorsements of people such as Renner "do not stand on their own as evidence for broad pan-German sympathies amongst Austria’s working population".
British historian
Donny Gluckstein notes that Austrian socialists reacted with "disgust" to Renner's endorsement of Anschluss, provoking a split in the
SPÖ
The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
. Austrian left circles vehemently opposed Anschluss, and Renner's declaration prompted many to defect to Revolutionary Socialists under
Otto Bauer
Otto Bauer (; 5 September 1881 – 4 July 1938) was an Austrian politician who was one of the founders and leading thinkers of the Austromarxists who sought a middle ground between social democracy and revolutionary socialism. He was a member of t ...
or the
KPÖ.
The relevance of Innitzer's endorsement is also disputed — he was reportedly "despised" by Austrian workers, and the Anschluss sparked Catholic protests in Austria under the slogan "Our Führer is Christ" (rather than Hitler).
According to the Austrian historian Alfred D. Low, one of the reasons why Germany did not allow the plebiscite to be held by the Austrian government was that the Nazi regime feared to be defeated at the polls; Low states that in 1938, there was "majority support to Austria's independence".
According to Hungarian historian
Oszkár Jászi, writing in 1938, the idea of ''Anschluss'' was opposed amongst most political circles in Austria. Jászi noted that "the annihilation of the German labor movement showed to Austrian socialism what it could expect from an Anschluss under Nazi rule", while "Austrian Catholicism realized what its fate would be under a system which crushed the great Catholic Party of Germany,
the Centrum
The DCU Center (originally Centrum in Worcester, formerly Worcester's Centrum Centre and commonly Worcester Centrum) is an indoor arena and convention center complex in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. The facility hosts a variety of events, ...
".
It was also opposed by other groups, such as the Austrian Jews as well as "old Hapsburgist officers and officials and by a considerable part of Austrian capitalism". Most contemporary writers estimated that about two-thirds of Austrians wanted Austria to remain independent.
How many Austrians behind closed doors were against the ''Anschluss'' remains unknown, but only one "unhappy face" of an Austrian in public when the Germans marched into Austria has ever been produced. According to some
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
reports, only a quarter to a third of Austrian voters in Vienna were in favour of the ''Anschluss''. In most rural areas, especially in Tyrol, the support for the Anschluss was even lower.
According to Evan Burr Bukey, no more than one-third of Austrians ever fully supported Nazism during the existence of Nazi Germany. According to the estimates of the Austrian government, with the
voting age
A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 year ...
of 24, about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve the Austrian independence. Czech-American historian
Radomír Luža estimated that between 65% and 75% of Austrians supported the continuation of Austrian independence.
About a quarter of the Austrian population was estimated to be supportive of the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
.
The newly installed Nazis, within two days, transferred power to Germany, and ''Wehrmacht'' troops entered Austria to enforce the ''Anschluss''. The Nazis held a controlled plebiscite (''Volksabstimmung'') in the whole Reich within the following month, asking the people to ratify the ''fait accompli'', and claimed that 99.7561% of the votes cast in Austria were in favor.
Although the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
were committed to upholding the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
and those of Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919), St. Germain, which specifically prohibited the union of Austria and Germany, their reaction was only verbal and moderate. No military confrontation took place, and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)#Fascism, Fascist Italy, Third French Republic, France, and Britain (the "Stresa Front") remained at peace. The loudest verbal protest was voiced by the government of Mexico.
Germany, which had a shortage of steel and a weak balance of payments, gained iron ore mines in the Erzberg and 748 million Reichsmark, RM in the reserves of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank, more than twice its own cash.
In the years that followed, some bank accounts were transferred from Austria to Germany as "enemy property accounts".
Persecution of the Jews

The campaign against the Jews began immediately after the ''Anschluss''. They were driven through the streets of Vienna, their homes and shops were plundered. Jewish men and women were forced to wash away pro-independence slogans painted on the streets of Vienna ahead of the failed 13 March plebiscite.
Jewish actresses from the Theater in der Josefstadt were forced to clean toilets by the Sturmabteilung, SA. The process of Aryanization (Nazism), Aryanisation began, and Jews were driven out of public life within months.
These events reached a climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna were destroyed, as well as in other Austrian cities such as Salzburg. The Stadttempel was the sole survivor due to its location in a residential district which prevented it from being burned down. Most Jewish shops were plundered and closed. Over 6,000 Jews were arrested overnight, the majority deported to Dachau concentration camp in the following days.
The
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws (, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. The two laws were the Law ...
applied in Austria from May 1938, later reinforced with innumerable antisemitic decrees. Jews were gradually robbed of their freedoms, blocked from almost all professions, shut out of schools and universities, and forced to wear the yellow badge from September 1941.
The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate. Their plans succeeded—by the end of 1941, 130,000 Jews had left Vienna, 30,000 of whom went to the United States. They left behind all of their property, but were forced to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all émigrés from Nazi Germany; some received financial support from international aid organisations so that they could pay this tax. The majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna eventually became victims of the Holocaust. Of the more than 65,000 Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, fewer than 2,000 survived.
Referendum

The ''Anschluss'' was given immediate effect by legislative act on 13 March, subject to ratification by a
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
. Austria became the province of Ostmark (Austria), Ostmark, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed governor. The 1938 Austrian Anschluss referendum, referendum was held on 10 April and officially recorded a support of 99.7% of the voters.
While historians concur that the votes were accurately counted, the process was neither free nor secret. Officials were present directly beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand (in contrast to a Secret ballot, secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a closed box). In some remote areas of Austria, people voted to preserve the independence of Austria on 13 March (in Schuschnigg's planned but cancelled referendum) despite the ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
''s presence. For instance, in the village of Innervillgraten, a majority of 95% voted for Austria's independence.
However, in the referendum on 10 April, 73.3% of votes in Innervillgraten were in favor of the ''Anschluss'', which was still the lowest number of all Austrian municipalities.
According to Peter R. Knaur, Germany believed that a defeat in a fair referendum was likely, and thus enforced a non-free and non-secret vote instead; Knaur wrote: "The Nazis supposedly admitted that they only had the following of twenty percent, of the potential votes of the country."
Austria remained part of Germany until the end of World War II. A provisional government in Allied-occupied Austria declared the ''Anschluss'' "null und nichtig" (null and void) on 27 April 1945. Henceforth, Austria was recognized as a separate country, although it remained divided into Allied-occupied Austria, occupation zones and controlled by the Allied Commission#Austria, Allied Commission until 1955, when the Austrian State Treaty restored its sovereignty.
Reactions
Austria in the first days of Nazi Germany's control had many contradictions: at one and the same time, Hitler's regime began to tighten its grip on every aspect of society, beginning with mass arrests as thousands of Austrians tried to escape; yet other Austrians cheered and welcomed the German troops entering their territory.
In March 1938 the local Gauleiter of Gmunden, Upper Austria, gave a speech to the local Austrians and told them in plain terms that all "traitors" of Austria were to be thrown into the newly opened concentration camp at Mauthausen-Gusen. The camp became notorious for its cruelty and barbarism. During its existence an estimated 200,000 people died, half of whom were directly killed.
The Anti-Romanyism, antigypsy sentiment was implemented initially most harshly in Austria when between 1938 and 1939 the Nazis arrested around 2,000 Romani men who were sent to Dachau concentration camp, Dachau and 1,000 Romani women who were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, Ravensbrück. Starting in 1939, Austrian Romani had to register themselves to local authorities. The Nazis began to publish articles linking the Romani with criminality. Until 1942, the Nazis had made a distinction between "pure Gypsies" and "Gypsy ''Mischlinges''" ("mixlings" or "half-breeds"). However, Nazi racial research claimed that 90% of Romani were of mixed ancestry. Subsequently, the Nazis ordered that the Romani were to be treated on the same level as the Jews.
After breaking off the negotiations regarding the position of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal
Theodor Innitzer
Theodor Innitzer (25 December 1875 – 9 October 1955) was Archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal of the Catholic Church.
Early life
Innitzer was born in Neugeschrei (Nové Zvolání), part of the town Weipert (Vejprty) in Bohemia, at that time ...
(a political figure of the CS) was intimidated into supporting the Anschluss after being assaulted.
Vatican Radio, however, broadcast a strong denunciation of the German action, and Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Vatican Secretary of State, ordered Innitzer to report to Rome. Before meeting the Pope, Innitzer met Pacelli, who had been outraged by Innitzer's statement. He told Innitzer to retract his statement; he was made to sign a new statement, issued on behalf of all the Austrian bishops, that stated: "The solemn declaration of the Austrian bishops... was clearly not intended to be an approval of something that was not and is not compatible with God's law". The Vatican newspaper reported that the German bishops' earlier statement had been issued without approval from Rome. The Vatican condemned Nazism in its newspaper ''L'Osservatore Romano'', and forbade Catholics from following their ideas or supporting Anschluss.
On 11 March 1938, one day before the occupation of Austria by the Wehrmacht, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna issued an appeal to Austrians: "As Austrian citizens, we stand and we fight for a free and independent Austria".
Robert Kauer, president of the minority Lutheran Church in Austria, greeted Hitler on 13 March as "saviour of the 350,000 German Protestants in Austria and liberator from a five-year hardship".
Karl Renner
Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he ...
, the most famous Social Democrat of the First Republic, announced his support for the ''Anschluss'' and appealed to all Austrians to vote in favour of it on 10 April.
The international response to the ''Anschluss'' was publicly moderate. ''The Times'' commented that 300 years before, Scotland had Acts of Union 1707, joined England as well and that this event would not really differ much. On 14 March, the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain spoke about the "Austrian situation" in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. He noted that the British ambassador in Berlin objected to the use of "coercion, backed by force" that would undermine Austria's independence. Within this speech Chamberlain also said, "The hard fact is that nothing could have arrested what has actually happened [in Austria] unless this country and other countries had been prepared to use force." Chamberlain informed the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Foreign Policy Committee that the Anschluss would not alter the National Government (1937–1939), National Government's European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry, European policy.
On 18 March 1938, the German government communicated to the Secretary General of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
about the inclusion of Austria. And next day in Geneva, the Mexican Delegate to the International Office of Labor, Isidro Fabela, voiced an energetic protest, stronger than that expressed by European countries, denouncing the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.
Legacy
Meaning of ''Anschluss''
The word ''Anschluss'' is properly translated as "joinder", "connection", "unification", or "political union". In contrast, the German word ''Annektierung'' (military annexation) was not used, and is not commonly used now, to describe the union of Austria and Germany in 1938. The word ''Anschluss'' had been widespread before 1938 describing an incorporation of Austria into Germany. Calling the incorporation of Austria into Germany an "Anschluss," that is a "unification" or "joinder", was also part of the propaganda used in 1938 by Nazi Germany to create the impression that the union was not coerced. Hitler described the incorporation of Austria as a ''Heimkehr'', a return to its original home. The word ''Anschluss'' has endured since 1938.
Some sources, like the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', describe the ''Anschluss'' as an "annexation" rather than a union.
Changes in Central Europe
The ''Anschluss'' was among the first major steps in Austrian-born Hitler's desire to create a German question#Later influence, Greater German Reich that was to include all ethnic Germans and all the Treaty of Versailles#Territorial changes, lands and territories that the
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
had lost after the World War I, First World War. Although Austria was predominantly ethnically German and had been part of the Holy Roman Empire until it dissolved in 1806 and the
German Confederation
The German Confederation ( ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved ...
until 1866 after the defeat in the
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...
, it had never been a part of the German Empire. The
unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). I ...
brought about by
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
created that
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n-dominated entity in 1871, with Austria, Prussia's rival for dominance of the German states, explicitly excluded.
Prior to annexing Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany had Remilitarization of the Rhineland, remilitarized the Rhineland, and the Saarland#History, Saar region was returned to Germany after 15 years of occupation through a plebiscite. After the ''Anschluss'', Hitler targeted Czechoslovakia, provoking an international crisis which led to the Munich Agreement in September 1938, giving Nazi Germany control of the industrial
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...
, which had a predominantly ethnic German population. In March 1939, Hitler then dismantled Czechoslovakia by recognising the independence of Slovakia and making the rest of the nation a protectorate. That same year, Memelland was returned from Lithuania.
With the ''Anschluss'', the Republic of Austria ceased to exist as an independent state. At the end of World War II, a Provisional Austrian Government under
Karl Renner
Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he ...
was set up by conservatives, Social Democrats and Communists on 27 April 1945 (when Vienna had already been occupied by the Red Army). It cancelled the ''Anschluss'' the same day and was legally recognized by the Allies of World War II, Allies in the following months. In 1955 the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state.
Second Republic
Moscow Declaration
The Moscow Declaration of 1943, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, included a "Declaration on Austria", which stated:
The governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, United States of America are agreed that Austria, the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression, shall be liberated from German domination.
They regard the annexation imposed on Austria by Germany on 15 March 1938, as null and void. They consider themselves as in no way bound by any changes effected in Austria since that date. They declare that they wish to see re-established a free and independent Austria and thereby to open the way for the Austrian people themselves, as well as those neighbouring States which will be faced with similar problems, to find that political and economic security which is the only basis for lasting peace.
Austria is reminded, however, that she has a responsibility, which she cannot evade, for participation in the war at the side of Hitlerite Germany, and that in the final settlement account will inevitably be taken of her own contribution to her liberation.
The Moscow Declaration is said to have a somewhat complex drafting history. The declaration was mostly intended to serve as propaganda aimed at stirring Austrian resistance. Although some Austrians aided History of the Jews in Austria, Jews and are counted as Righteous Among the Nations, there never was an effective Austrian armed resistance of the sort found in other German-occupied Europe, countries under German occupation.
Despite the declaration, the Nuremberg trials decided against classifying participation in planning of the Anschluss as a crime against peace, stating in the judgement of Ernst Kaltenbrunner (who was nonetheless convicted and sentenced to death for other war crimes) that "the Anschluss, although it was an aggressive act, is not charged as an aggressive war." In most cases this distinction proved a moot point, as the Nazis responsible for planning the Anschluss were either dead by the time of the Nuremberg trials, or were convicted for their roles in planning the invasions of other countries.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart and
Franz von Papen
Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, (; 29 October 18792 May 1969) was a German politician, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and army officer. A national conservative, he served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as Vice-Chancell ...
, in particular, were both indicted under count one (conspiracy to commit crimes against peace) specifically for their activities in support of the Austrian Nazi Party and the ''Anschluss'', but neither was convicted of this count. In acquitting von Papen, the court noted that his actions were in its view political immoralities but not crimes under its charter. Seyss-Inquart was convicted of other serious war crimes, most of which took place in Poland and the Netherlands, was sentenced to death and executed.
Austrian identity and the "victim theory"

From 1949 to 1988, many Austrians sought comfort in the idea of Austria as being the Austria — the Nazis' first victim, first victim of the Nazis (''Opferthese''). Although the Nazi party was promptly banned, Austria did not have the same thorough process of denazification that was imposed on Germany. Lacking outside pressure for political reform, factions of Austrian society tried for a long time to advance the view that the ''Anschluss'' was "only an annexation at the point of a bayonet".
This view of the events of 1938 has deep roots in the 10 years of Allied occupation and the struggle to regain Austrian sovereignty: the "victim theory" played an essential role in the negotiations for the Austrian State Treaty with the Soviets, and by pointing to the Moscow Declaration, Austrian politicians heavily relied on it to achieve a solution for Austria different from the division of Germany into separate Eastern and Western states. The state treaty, alongside the subsequent Austrian declaration of permanent Neutral country, neutrality, marked important milestones for the solidification of Austria's independent national identity during the course of the following decades.
As Austrian politicians of the left and right attempted to reconcile their differences to avoid the violent conflict that had dominated the First Republic, discussions of both Austrian Nazism and Austria's role during the Nazi-era were largely avoided. Still, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) had advanced, and still advances, the argument that the establishment of the Dollfuss dictatorship was necessary to maintain Austrian independence. On the other hand, the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) argues that the Dollfuss dictatorship stripped the country of the democratic resources necessary to repel Hitler; yet it ignores the fact that Hitler himself was a native of Austria.
It has also helped the Austrians develop their own national identity as before. After World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany the political ideology of Pan-Germanism fell into disfavor and is now seen by the majority of German-speaking people as taboo. Unlike earlier in the 20th century when there was no Austrian identity separate from a German one, in 1987 only 6% of the Austrians identified themselves as "Germans." A survey carried out in 2008 found that 82% of Austrians considered themselves to be their own nation.
Political events
For decades, the victim theory remained largely undisputed in Austria. The public was rarely forced to confront the legacy of Nazi Germany. One of those occasions arose in 1965, when Taras Borodajkewycz, a professor of economic history, made antisemitic remarks following the death of Ernst Kirchweger, a concentration camp survivor killed by a right-wing protester during riots. It was not until the 1980s that Austrians confronted their mixed past on a large scale. The catalyst for the ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' (struggle to come to terms with the past) was the Waldheim affair. Kurt Waldheim, a candidate in the 1986 Austrian presidential election and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, UN Secretary-General, was accused of having been a member of the Nazi party and of the Sturmabteilung (SA). He was later absolved of direct involvement in war crimes. The Waldheim affair started the first serious discussions about Austria's past and the ''Anschluss''.
Another factor was the rise of Jörg Haider and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the 1980s. The party had combined elements of the pan-German right with free-market liberalism since its foundation in 1955, but after Haider ascended to the party chairmanship in 1986, the liberal elements became increasingly marginalized. Haider began to openly use nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. He was criticised for using the ''völkisch'' (ethnic) definition of national interest ("Austria for Austrians") and his apologetics for Austria's past, notably calling members of the Waffen-SS "men of honour". Following a dramatic rise in electoral support in the 1990s that peaked in the 1999 Austria legislative election, 1999 elections, the FPÖ entered a coalition with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), led by Wolfgang Schüssel. This was condemned in 2000. The coalition prompted the regular ''Donnerstagsdemonstrationen'' (Thursday demonstrations) in protest against the government, which took place on the
Heldenplatz
Heldenplatz () is a public space in front of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt borough, the President of Austria resides in the adjoining Hofburg wing, while the Federal Chancellery is on adjacent Ballhausplatz ...
where Hitler had greeted the masses during the ''Anschluss''. Haider's tactics and rhetoric, often criticised as sympathetic to Nazism, forced Austrians to reconsider their relationship to the past. Haider's coalition partner, former Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, in a 2000 interview with ''The Jerusalem Post'', reiterated the "first victim" theory.
Literature
The political discussions and soul-searching were reflected in other aspects of culture. Thomas Bernhard's last play, Heldenplatz (play), ''Heldenplatz'' (1988), generated controversy even before it was produced, fifty years after Hitler's entrance to the city. Bernhard made the historic elimination of references to Hitler's reception in Vienna emblematic of Austrian attempts to claim its history and culture under questionable criteria. Many politicians called Bernhard a ''Nestbeschmutzer'' (damaging the reputation of his country) and openly demanded that the play should not be staged in Vienna's Burgtheater. Waldheim, still president, called the play "a crude insult to the Austrian people".
Historical Commission and outstanding legal issues
In the Federal Republic of Germany the ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' ("struggle to come to terms with the past") has been partially institutionalised in literary, cultural, political, and educational contexts. Austria formed a ''Historikerkommission'' ("Historian's Commission" or "Historical Commission") in 1998 with a mandate to review Austria's role in the Nazi plunder, Nazi expropriation of Jewish property from a scholarly rather than legal perspective, partly in response to continuing criticism of its handling of property claims. Its membership was based on recommendations from various quarters, including Simon Wiesenthal and Yad Vashem. The Commission delivered its report in 2003. Noted Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg refused to participate in the Commission and in an interview he stated his strenuous objections in terms both personal and in reference to larger questions about Austrian culpability and liability, comparing what he thought to be relative inattention by the World Jewish Congress to the settlement governing the Swiss bank holdings of those who died or were displaced by the Holocaust.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center continues to criticise Austria (as recently as June 2005) for its alleged historical and ongoing unwillingness aggressively to pursue investigations and trials against Nazis for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the 1970s onwards. Its 2001 report offered the following characterization:
Given the extensive participation of numerous Austrians, including at the highest levels, in the implementation of the Final Solution and other Nazi crimes, Austria should have been a leader in the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators over the course of the past four decades, as has been the case in Germany. Unfortunately relatively little has been achieved by the Austrian authorities in this regard and in fact, with the exception of the case of Heinrich Gross, Dr. Heinrich Gross which was suspended this year under highly suspicious circumstances (he claimed to be medically unfit, but outside the court proved to be healthy) not a single Nazi war crimes prosecution has been conducted in Austria since the mid-1970s.[Efraim Zuroff,]
Worldwide Investigation and Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, 2001–2002
," Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem (April 2002).
In 2003, the Center launched a worldwide effort named "Operation: Last Chance" in order to collect further information about those Nazis still alive that are potentially subject to prosecution. Although reports issued shortly thereafter credited Austria for initiating large-scale investigations, there has been one case where criticism of Austrian authorities arose recently: The Center put 92-year-old Croatian Milivoj Asner on its 2005 top ten list. Asner fled to Austria in 2004 after Croatia announced it would start investigations in the case of war crimes he may have been involved in. In response to objections about Asner's continued freedom, Austria's federal government deferred to either extradition requests from Croatia or prosecutorial actions from Klagenfurt, claiming reason of dementia in 2008. Milivoj Ašner died on 14 June 2011 at the age of 98 in his room in a Caritas Austria, Caritas nursing home still in Klagenfurt.
Sudetenland
The occurrence of the Sudetenland#Sudeten Crisis, Sudeten crisis in early 1938 led to the autumn Munich Agreement after which Sudetenland#Sudetenland as part of Germany, Nazi Germany occupied the Sudetenland. These events taken as a whole can be seen as a mimeograph of the Anschluss page in Hitler's playbook.
Austrian political and military leaders in Nazi Germany
* Franz Böhme
* Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
* Alois Brunner
* Karl Eglseer
* Adolf Eichmann
* Maximilian Felzmann
* Hans Fischböck
* Friedrich Franek
* Odilo Globocnik
* Amon Göth
*
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
* Alfred Ritter von Hubicki
* Ernst Kaltenbrunner
* Alexander Löhr
* Friedrich Materna
* Erhard Raus
* Hanns Albin Rauter
* Anton Reinthaller
* Lothar Rendulic
* Julius Ringel
*
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
* Otto Skorzeny
* Otto Wächter
* Mauritz von Wiktorin
* Alois Windisch
See also
* Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
* Austria–Germany relations
* Austria under Nazism
* Austrian Nazism
* German nationalism
* Pan-Germanism
* Völkisch movement
* Volksdeutsche
* ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'' – a fictional account of the failed Bordurian coup d'état and invasion of their democratic neighbour Syldavia, modeled on the ''Anschluss''
* Occupation of the Baltic states, Annexation of the Baltic States
* Disgrace of Gijón, a football match in the 1982 FIFA World Cup between West Germany and Austria, which was accused of being rigged and later fans mocked it as the "Anschluss" in reference to the infamous annexation in 1938.
* Karaganov Doctrine – an idea which states that the Russian Federation should pose as the defender of human rights of ethnic Russians living in the 'near abroad.'
Several scholars have found the Anschluss idea to be the progenitor to Karaganov's idea.
* ''On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians''
* Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Russian annexation of Crimea
* Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts
Notes
References
Sources
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*
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*
*
* Hildebrand, Klaus (1973) ''The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press
*
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*
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* Ozment, Steven (2005) ''A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People''. New York: Harper Perennial.
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* Steininger, Wolf (2008) ''Austria, Germany, and the Cold War: from the Anschluss to the State Treaty 1938–1955'' New York: Berghahn Books.
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Further reading
* Barnett, William P., and Michael Woywode. "From Red Vienna to the Anschluss: Ideological Competition among Viennese Newspapers during the Rise of National Socialism," ''American Journal of Sociology'' (2004) 109#6 pp. 1452–149
in JSTOR* Bukey, Evan Burr. ''Hitler's Hometown: Linz, Austria, 1908–1945'' (Indiana University Press, 1986) .
* Gehl, Jürgen. ''Austria, Germany, and the Anschluss, 1931–1938'' (1963), the standard scholarly monograp
online
*
* Luža, Radomir. ''Austro-German Relations in the Anschluss Era'' (1975) .
* Parkinson, F., ed. ''Conquering the Past: Austrian Nazism Yesterday and Today'' (Wayne State University Press, 1989). .
* Pauley, Bruce F. ''Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1981) .
* Rathkolb, Oliver. "The 'Anschluss' in the Rear-View Mirror, 1938–2008: Historical Memories Between Debate and Transformation," ''Contemporary Austrian Studies'' (2009), Vol. 17, pp. 5–28, historiography.
*
* Wright, Herbert. "The Legality of the Annexation of Austria by Germany," ''American Journal of International Law'' (1944) 38#4 pp. 621–63
in JSTOR
* George Eric Rowe Gedye, Gedye, George Eric Rowe. Betrayal in Central Europe. Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Fallen Bastions. New and revised edition. Harper & Brothers, New York 1939. Paperback reissue, Faber & Faber, 2009. .
* Schuschnigg, Kurt. ''The brutal takeover: The Austrian ex-Chancellor's account of the Anschluss of Austria by Hitler'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971) .
External links
The Crisis Year of 1934Buchner, A. From the Destruction of the Socialist Lager to National Socialist Coup Attempt (accessed 10 June 2005).
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Library Bibliography: AnschlussAustrian Historical CommissionEncyclopædia Britannica, ''Anschluss'' articleBBC article by Robert Knight, who served on the HistorikercommissionSimon Wiesenthal Center''Anschluss'' – a soundbite history of the German invasion into AustriaMap of Europe at time of ''Anschluss''at omniatlas.com
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Jewish Austrian history
Invasions by Germany
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Vergangenheitsbewältigung
March 1938 in Europe
Austria under National Socialism