Hitler's Austrian Roots: A National Secret?

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. 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 nationalism was not limited to Germany and Austria; he also had a fascination with German nationalism. Hitler considered himself ethnically German, and his goal was to unite all Germans under one German state.

Hitler's annexation of Austria, known as the Anschluss, was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. Nazi troops entering Austria in 1938 received the enthusiastic support of most of the population. Throughout World War II, 950,000 Austrians fought for the Nazi German armed forces. Other Austrians participated in the Nazi administration, from Nazi death camp personnel to senior Nazi leadership.

Hitler's ideology was racialist, not nationalist

Hitler's racial ideology was based on pseudoscientific and racist doctrines that placed the so-called Aryan race at the top of a racial hierarchy. This hierarchy deemed certain ethnicities, such as Jews, Romani, Slavs, and Black people, as racially inferior "sub-humans". Hitler believed that the Germanic peoples of Northwestern Europe belonged to a racially superior Nordic subset of the Aryan race. He referred to the supposed existence of an Aryan race, which he believed was a superior type of humanity.

Hitler's ideology was not based on nationalism, but on racialism. The distinction between the two is important, as nationalism emphasizes loyalty and pride in one's nation, while racialism emphasizes supposed biological differences between races and promotes the idea of a superior race. Hitler's ideology fell squarely into the latter category, as he believed in the inherent superiority of the Aryan race and sought to implement policies that would preserve and promote this supposed superiority.

Hitler's racial ideology was not just theoretical, but was put into practice through a range of policies and laws. These included the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews of their citizenship and rights, and the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, which established "Genetic Health Courts" to decide on compulsory sterilization. Hitler's racial ideology also influenced the Nazis' expansionist policies, such as the Generalplan Ost, which aimed to expel, enslave, and exterminate Slavic peoples to make way for German settlement.

In conclusion, Hitler's ideology was racialist, not nationalist. It was based on a belief in the superiority of the Aryan race and sought to implement policies that would preserve and promote this supposed superiority. This ideology had devastating consequences, leading to the persecution, sterilization, and extermination of millions of people during World War II.

Hitler was stateless before gaining German citizenship in 1932

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in 1889 as an Austrian citizen. He served in the Imperial German Army on the Western Front during World War I. In 1919, Hitler joined the DAP (German Workers' Party), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was appointed leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year of his sentence.

On April 7, 1925, Hitler applied to the High Magistrate of Linz to be released from his Austrian citizenship, stating that he had lived in Germany since 1912, served in the German army for almost six years, and intended to acquire German citizenship. After some weeks, the request was granted, and Hitler became stateless, declaring it clearly and officially wherever he went.

Hitler then began trying to acquire German citizenship in various ways, while also being involved in the rebuilding of the Nazi Party from the ground up. He attempted to gain citizenship through several different avenues, including through a government appointment, but these efforts proved unsuccessful.

Finally, on February 25, 1932, Hitler's wish was granted in the city of Braunschweig, and he officially became a German citizen. This came less than a year before Hitler became German chancellor. Hitler's new status allowed him to achieve his political goals. As a citizen, he could run for office, and by the middle of 1934, power in Germany was entirely his as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor).

The Anschluss was the first act of territorial aggression by Nazi Germany

The idea of a unified Germany and Austria, or Anschluss, was not new. Discussions about Austria's role in a German nation-state dated back to the 19th century. After the unification of Germany in 1871, which excluded Austria, the idea gained support, particularly among Austrian citizens of the political left and centre. However, it was the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in 1933 that truly brought the idea of unification to the forefront. For the Nazis, unification was an integral part of their "Heim ins Reich" concept, which aimed to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans) as possible into a "Greater Germany".

Hitler, himself an Austrian, had expressed his desire for an Austro-German union in his earliest writings and speeches. In January 1933, he became Chancellor of Germany and began to put his plans into action. By 1937, rapid German rearmament increased Berlin's interest in annexing Austria, which was rich in raw materials and labour. Hitler's plan was to eventually create an “all-German Reich”, and he wrote in Mein Kampf (1925) that he would achieve a union between his birth country, Austria, and Germany by any means possible.

In early 1938, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced a referendum on a possible union with Germany, to be held on March 13. Hitler, portraying this as defying the popular will, threatened an invasion and pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On March 11, Hitler gave the Austrian government a series of ultimatums, including the cancellation of the referendum, Schuschnigg's resignation, and the appointment of Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart as the new chancellor. Without waiting for an answer, Hitler signed the order to send troops into Austria.

On March 12, 1938, the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. Austrians welcomed Hitler and the German troops with Nazi salutes, flags, and flowers. Hitler rode in a car across the border at his birthplace, Braunau am Inn, and was given an enthusiastic welcome in Linz, where 250,000 Austrians gathered to meet him.

On March 13, 1938, Seyss-Inquart, who had been appointed chancellor the previous day, signed the "Reunification of Austria with Germany" law. This law, sometimes called the Anschluss law, formally incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany. Austria was now a province of Nazi Germany, initially referred to as the Ostmark. The Nazis wanted to erase any traces of a separate Austrian identity and get rid of the name Österreich, which means "eastern empire".

The Anschluss was widely popular in both Germany and Austria, and it transformed Austria almost overnight. Austrian Nazis, with the support of many Austrians, quickly carried out the Nazification of all aspects of Austrian life. They enacted Nazi policies, persecuted the country's Jewish population, and fought in World War II. The Anschluss was a watershed moment in Nazi Germany's foreign policy and a clear demonstration of Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions.

The Anschluss was widely popular in both Germany and Austria

The Anschluss was the annexation of Austria into the German Reich on March 13, 1938. The idea of 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.

Support for the Anschluss in Austria

The Anschluss was widely popular in Austria, particularly among Austrian citizens of the political left and center. The idea gained support after the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell in 1918. The new Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Versailles forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria". The treaties also stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the Sudetenland, leaving Austria without most of the territories it had ruled for centuries and amid an economic crisis.

By the 1920s, the Anschluss proposal had strong support in Austria, with many Austrians believing that their country could not survive economically without the lands previously held by Austria-Hungary. Popular support for the unification faded with time, although it remained a concept in contemporary Austrian political discourse.

The idea of the country joining Germany also grew in popularity, thanks in part to a Nazi propaganda campaign that 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.

Support for the Anschluss in Germany

The Anschluss was also widely popular in Germany, with Germans welcoming the unification as completing the complex and long-overdue unification of all Germans into one state.

Hitler, an Austrian German by birth, picked up his German nationalist ideas at a young age. He joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) in 1919, and after becoming its leader, he addressed a crowd in 1920, stating:

> "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 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 aimed to reunite all Germans who were either born in the Reich or living outside it to create an "all-German Reich".

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf (1925) that he would create a union between his birth country, Austria, and Germany by any means possible.

The international community did not intervene to stop the Anschluss

The Anschluss, which took place from March 11 to 13, 1938, was the first act of territorial aggression and expansion by Nazi Germany. It was also the first step in Hitler's takeover of Europe. The international community did not intervene to stop the annexation of Austria, nor did they punish Nazi Germany for violating international treaties. This non-intervention was a significant act of appeasement, which allowed Hitler to continue his expansionary policies unchecked.

There were several reasons why the international community did not intervene to stop the Anschluss. Firstly, the French government had resigned just two days before the invasion, leaving France in no position to oppose it. Britain was also facing its own political problems at the time, with the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, resigning over Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's decision to negotiate with the Fascist dictator of Italy, Mussolini. Chamberlain himself was determined to appease Hitler, and there was no political will in Britain to oppose Germany. The British population was against the idea of another European war, and the Anschluss was not seen as a threat to Britain. As both Austria and Germany were German-speaking nations, it was also believed that there was no good reason why they shouldn't unify.

However, not everyone in the international community supported the Anschluss. Anti-appeasers, such as Winston Churchill, were alarmed by Germany's annexation of Austria. They believed that if Hitler had a legitimate claim to Austria, he should have used negotiation and diplomacy rather than force. Despite these concerns, the international community's lack of intervention allowed the Anschluss to take place, with far-reaching consequences for Europe.

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