Austria's Historical Ties To Germany: A Complex Past

Austria and Germany share a history that dates back to the Duchy of Bavaria, ruled by the Germanic Baiuvarii (ancient German Bavarians) from 555 to 843. In 970, the territory that would become Austria was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria and became a sovereign state. From 1156 to 1806, Austria was part of the Holy Roman Empire, which was officially a German polity from 1512 and mostly led by Austria itself.

In 1866, Austria was separated from Germany and the German Confederation was dissolved. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established and led by Austria. In 1918, after World War I, Austria briefly renamed itself the Republic of German-Austria and sought union with Germany, but this was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1938, Nazi Germany, led by Austrian-born Adolf Hitler, annexed Austria into Germany in what was known as the Anschluss. Following World War II, Austria again became an independent republic in 1955.

The Anschluss: Germany occupies Austria

The Anschluss, which took place on March 12, 1938, was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich. The idea of a united Austria and Germany had been around since the 1871 unification of Germany, which excluded Austria.

In the early 1920s, the proposal for unification had strong support in both Austria and Germany, particularly from Austrian citizens of the political left and center. However, popular support for unification faded with time. After 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, the desire for unification was identified with the Nazis.

In early 1938, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany. 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 crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on April 10, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed 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.

Austria was part of the Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a large realm that, at various times, encompassed the bulk of present territories of Germany, Austria, Bohemia (Czech Republic), Slovenia, northern Italy and western Poland. The House of Habsburg became the ruling family of the Empire in 1440 and remained so until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.

The Duchy of Bavaria, ruled by the Germanic Baiuvarii (ancient German Bavarians), was established in 555 and included the March of Pannonia that would become Austria in c. 970. Later, the Bavarian Austria came under East Francia (Kingdom of Germany) from 843 to 962. It then separated from the Duchy of Bavaria to become a sovereign state in 1156.

In 1804, Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, proclaimed the Austrian Empire as the remaining German States had become clients of Napoleon's French Empire under the Confederation of the Rhine. The Holy Roman Empire came to an end during the Napoleonic Wars in the 1790s and 1800s.

Austria was a German province: the Ostmark

The name Ostmark was used to refer to the Margraviate of Austria, a medieval frontier march, and was also used in Nazi propaganda from 1938 to 1942 to refer to the formerly independent Federal State of Austria after the Anschluss with Nazi Germany.

Once Adolf Hitler completed the union between Austria and Germany (Anschluss), the Nazi government renamed the incorporated territory. The name Austria (Österreich in German, meaning "Eastern Realm") was at first replaced by "Ostmark", referring to the 10th-century Marcha orientalis. The change was meant to refer to Austria as the new "eastern march" of the Reich.

In August 1938, the Donau-Zeitung proudly referred to Passau as "the cradle of the new Ostmark".

According to the Ostmarkgesetz with effect from 1 May 1939, the former States of Austria were reorganized into seven Reichsgaue of the German Reich, each under the rule of a government official holding the dual offices of Reichsstatthalter (governor) and Gauleiter (Nazi Party leader):

• Carinthia, including East Tyrol; increased by Slovenian Carinthia and Upper Carniola as occupied territories after the 1941 Balkans Campaign
• "Lower Danube" (Niederdonau), name for Lower Austria, with its capital at Krems an der Donau, including the northern districts of Burgenland with Eisenstadt, the South Moravian territories around Znojmo (Deutsch-Südmähren) annexed with the Sudetenland according to the 1938 Munich Agreement and also the Bratislava boroughs of Petržalka (Engerau) and Devín (Theben)
• Styria, including the southern districts of Burgenland; increased by Lower Styria as occupied territory after the 1941 Balkans Campaign
• "Upper Danube" (Oberdonau), name for Upper Austria, including the Styrian Aussee region (Ausseerland) and the South Bohemian territories around Český Krumlov annexed with the "Sudetenland" according to the 1938 Munich Agreement
• Tyrol, i.e. North Tyrol, with the administrative district of Vorarlberg
• Vienna, i.e. "Greater Vienna", including several surrounding Lower Austrian municipalities incorporated in 1938.

A Reichsgau was a new, simple administrative sub-division institution which replaced the federal states in the otherwise completely centralized Third Reich. From April 8, 1942, as the term "Ostmark" was still too reminiscent of the old, independent state of Austria, the chosen official name for the seven entities was Alpen- und Donau-Reichsgaue ("Danubian and Alpine Reichsgaue"). In the course of the Allied occupation after World War II, the Austrian state was restored in its pre-1938 borders according to the 1943 Moscow Declaration.

Austria was annexed into Germany under the Nazi regime

The idea of a union between Austria and Germany, referred to as the Anschluss, had been supported by many Austrians and Germans since the unification of Germany in 1871, which excluded Austria. The concept gained further traction after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. The new Republic of German-Austria attempted to form a union with Germany, but this was forbidden by the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919.

In the 1920s, the idea of the Anschluss was supported by many Austrian citizens of the political left and center, including prominent Social Democrat leader Otto Bauer. Support for unification was largely based on the belief that Austria, stripped of its imperial land, was not economically viable.

The rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s brought the idea of the Anschluss to the forefront once more. For the Nazis, the unification of Austria and Germany was an integral part of the "Heim ins Reich" concept, which sought to incorporate as many ethnic Germans outside of Germany as possible into a "Greater Germany".

In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in an attempt to reassert his country's independence but was pressured into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. On 9 March, Schuschnigg called a national vote to resolve the question of the Anschluss once and for all. However, before the plebiscite could take place, Schuschnigg gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on 11 March.

The following day, 12 March, Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where they were met by enthusiastic crowds. Hitler appointed a new Nazi government, and on 13 March, the Anschluss was proclaimed. Austria existed as a federal state of Germany until the end of World War II, when the Allied powers declared the union void and reestablished an independent Austria.

Austria was part of the German Confederation

The Confederation had only one organ, the Bundesversammlung, or Federal Convention, which consisted of the representatives of the member states. The most important issues had to be decided on unanimously. The Convention was presided over by the representative of Austria, though this was a formality, as the Confederation did not have a head of state, since it was not a state.

The Austrian chancellor, Klemens von Metternich, was the architect of the Confederation and exercised a dominant influence in it through the Federal Diet at Frankfurt, whose members were instructed delegates of state governments. The Confederation was a strong alliance between its member states because federal law was superior to state law, and it had been established for eternity and was impossible to dissolve. However, it was weakened by its very structure and member states, partly because the most important decisions in the Federal Convention required unanimity and the purpose of the Confederation was limited to only security matters. The functioning of the Confederation depended on the cooperation of the two most populous member states, Austria and Prussia, which were often in opposition.

The German revolutions of 1848–1849 attempted to transform the Confederation into a unified German federal state with a liberal constitution. The Federal Convention was dissolved on 12 July 1848 but was re-established in 1850 after the revolution was crushed by Austria, Prussia, and other states. The Confederation was finally dissolved after the victory of the Kingdom of Prussia in the Seven Weeks' War over the Austrian Empire in 1866.

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