Hitler's Welcome In Austria: A Complicated History

On 12 March 1938, German troops crossed the Austrian border and were met with cheering crowds and flowers. The Austrian government had ordered the Austrian Bundesheer not to resist, and so Austria was absorbed into the Third Reich without a fight.

Many Austrians were sympathetic to the idea of joining Germany, and the annexation was widely popular in both countries. However, there were also those who knew their sovereignty would be lost for as long as Hitler was in power.

Hitler was attracted to occupying Austria because the Anschluss would give him access to new resources, such as manpower for the military, raw materials, and large quantities of cash and gold.

The Anschluss was the Nazi regime's first act of territorial aggression and expansion. It was a significant breach of the post-World War I international order and demonstrated Nazi disdain for the European status quo.

Hitler's popularity in Austria

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler's popularity in his native Austria was mixed. On the one hand, he was greeted by cheering crowds when he arrived in Vienna in 1938, and more than 200,000 Austrians gathered before him in Heroes Square. On the other hand, there was widespread dissent, discontent, and noncompliance with the Anschluss regime.

Hitler's promise of greatness and jobs also appealed to many Austrians. In addition, Hitler's plan for a Greater Germany resonated with many Austrians, who saw no future as an independent country and wanted Austria to join Germany. The post-war peace treaties, which forbade union between Austria and Germany and saw Austria lose parts of its core German-speaking territories, made Austrians angry and upset. They saw Hitler as someone who would correct these injustices.

However, it is important to note that Hitler's popularity was not universal in Austria. The Austrian fascists, for example, put down the leftists before the German Nazis took over in 1938. In addition, while the April 1938 plebiscite showed 99% of Austrians voting in favour of the Anschluss, this result was heavily biased due to Nazi terror. It is estimated that only about a quarter to a third of Austrians were pro-Nazi, with the remaining undecided and mostly ready to back the ruling government, whether independent or Nazi.

The Austrian Nazi Party

In February 1938, Hitler met with Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg and threatened to invade Austria if he did not implement a range of measures favourable to Austrian Nazism. Schuschnigg agreed to these demands, but Hitler continued to pressure him to hold a referendum on the unification of Austria and Germany. On March 9, 1938, Schuschnigg announced that a referendum on the issue would be held on March 13. Infuriated, Hitler threatened to invade Austria and demanded Schuschnigg's resignation. Schuschnigg resigned on March 11, and the following day, German troops crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military.

On March 13, 1938, the "Reunification with Germany Law" was passed, and Austria officially became a part of Nazi Germany. A referendum to ratify the annexation was held on April 10, preceded by a major propaganda campaign. Official records show that 99.73% of Austrians voted in favour of the annexation. However, it is important to note that about 8% of Austrian voters, including Jews and people with both Jewish and "Aryan" parents, were excluded from the referendum.

The Austrian Civil War

The socialists' defeat led to arrests, executions, and the banning of the Social Democratic Party. In May 1934, Austria's democratic constitution was replaced by an Austrofascist constitution, with the Fatherland Front as the only legal party. The First Austrian Republic had formed as a parliamentary democracy after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in October 1918, with socialists and conservatives dominating politics. However, the polarised political situation was exacerbated by paramilitary units, and by the late 1920s, the Home Guard on the right and the Republican Protection League on the left had emerged.

The Anschluss

After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, the new Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Versailles forbade this. The treaties also stripped Austria of some of its territories, leaving it without most of the lands it had ruled for centuries and amid an economic crisis. By the 1920s, the idea of unification had strong support in both countries, particularly from Austrian citizens of the political left and centre. However, support for unification faded over time.

When Hitler rose to power in 1933, the desire for unification became associated with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of their ideology. Nazi Germany's agents cultivated pro-unification tendencies in Austria and sought to undermine the Austrian government, which was controlled by the Austrofascist Fatherland Front, which opposed unification. In 1934, Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis during an attempted coup. 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, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austrian sovereignty, to be held on the 13th of March. Hitler threatened an invasion and secretly pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On the 12th of March, the German army crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on the 10th of April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were used to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the Anschluss. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

Hitler's journey through Austria became a triumphal tour, which climaxed in Vienna on the 15th of March 1938, when around 200,000 German Austrians gathered to hear him declare the completion of the annexation of Austria to form a Greater German Reich. The seizure of Austria demonstrated Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions, and the failure of the British and French to take action emboldened him towards further aggression.

The Austrian Resistance

One notable resistance group was led by priest Heinrich Maier. This group sought to re-establish a Habsburg monarchy after the war and played a significant role in providing intelligence to the Allies. Another group, the Austrian Freedom Front, was led by Communist leader Franz Honner and established close cooperation with Tito's partisans, with two Austrian battalions fighting alongside them.

In addition to these organised groups, there were also individuals who resisted the Nazi regime in their own ways. For example, footballer Matthias Sindelar used football as a form of protest, with his goal celebration during the Anschluss-Spiel being a political statement against the Nazis.

While the Austrian Resistance was unable to prevent the annexation of their country, their efforts nonetheless played an important role in providing information to the Allies and aiding those persecuted by the Nazi regime.

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