Hitler's Annexation Of Austria: A Historical Overview

On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria to annex the predominantly German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. This event, known as the Anschluss, was the Nazi German regime's first act of territorial aggression and expansion. The idea of a unified Austria and Germany, or a Greater Germany, had been gaining support since the 1871 unification of Germany, which excluded Austria. In the early 1930s, Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis in a failed coup. His successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, attempted to assert Austrian independence by calling a referendum on the issue, but on March 11, 1938, Hitler threatened an invasion and demanded Schuschnigg's resignation. The next day, German troops crossed the border into Austria, encountering no resistance. Hitler himself joined the troops, visiting his birthplace and his parents' grave. On March 13, Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who had been appointed chancellor of Austria, signed the law known as the Reunification of Austria with Germany, formally incorporating Austria into Nazi Germany as the province of Ostmark.

Hitler's invasion of Austria

In the 1920s, the proposal for a union between Austria and Germany gained strong support in both countries, particularly from Austrian citizens of the political left and centre. However, over time, popular support for the unification faded. After 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.

Hitler, himself an Austrian German by birth, had written about his desire for an Austro-German union in his earliest writings and speeches. In his 1925 book, Mein Kampf, he wrote:

> "German-Austria must return to the great German motherland, and not because of economic considerations of any sort. No, no: even if from the economic point of view this union were unimportant, indeed, if it were harmful, it ought nevertheless to be brought about. Common blood belongs in a common Reich."

Hitler's plan for the invasion of Austria began in 1934, when he ordered the Austrian Nazis to wreak havoc in the country. This developed into an attempt to overthrow the government, in which Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated. However, the coup failed as the Austrian military intervened to back up the government.

Hitler's next step was to intimidate the new Austrian Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, into allowing members of the Austrian Nazi Party to hold official posts in his government. Schuschnigg eventually complied, and the Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart was made Minister of the Interior. Hitler then ordered the Austrian Nazis to continue creating chaos in Austria, so that he could justify marching German troops into Vienna to restore peace.

On March 9, 1938, Schuschnigg attempted to preserve Austrian independence by announcing a referendum, to be held on March 13, in which the Austrian people would decide for themselves if they wanted to be part of Hitler's Germany. Furious, Hitler threatened to invade Austria immediately to prevent the vote from taking place. On March 11, Schuschnigg cancelled the referendum and offered to resign to avoid bloodshed. Hitler demanded that the president of Austria, Wilhelm Miklas, appoint Seyss-Inquart as the new chancellor. When Miklas initially refused, Hitler ordered that the invasion begin at dawn on March 12.

On the morning of March 12, German troops invaded Austria, encountering no resistance. Hitler arrived later that day, visiting his birthplace and his parents' grave. On March 15, he gave a speech in Vienna, declaring that Austria was now part of the German Empire. Austria had become a German province, and Hitler had achieved his goal of uniting Austria and Germany.

A referendum was held on April 10, in which more than 99% of the Austrian population voted in favour of the union. However, the vote was not anonymous, and opponents did not dare to vote against. The takeover allowed the Austrian Nazis to openly express their antisemitism, and many Austrian Jews tried to flee the country.

The Austrian chancellor's assassination

On 25 July 1934, Engelbert Dollfuss, the Chancellor and Dictator of Austria, was assassinated by a group of Austrian Nazis, including Otto Planetta, Franz Holzweber, Ernst Feike, Franz Leeb, Josef Hackl, Ludwig Maitzen, Erich Wohlraab, and Paul Hudl. The assassination took place during a failed coup attempt by Nazi agents, who entered the Chancellery building and shot Dollfuss.

Dollfuss had been Chancellor since 1932 and was known for his authoritarian rule and opposition to the unification of Austria and Germany. He had banned the Austrian Nazi Party and established a one-party dictatorship, known as Austrofascism, which was modelled after Italian fascism. Dollfuss's policies had made him a target of the Nazis, who sought to unite all Germans under a single Nazi empire.

The assassination of Dollfuss was met with outrage by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who was a close ally of Dollfuss. Mussolini mobilised Italian troops on the Austrian border and threatened Hitler with war if Germany attempted to invade Austria. Hitler, realising he could not face a conflict with the Western European powers, denied any involvement in the coup and replaced the ambassador to Vienna.

Following Dollfuss's death, Kurt von Schuschnigg became the new Chancellor of Austria. Schuschnigg continued many of his predecessor's authoritarian policies and tried to maintain Austria's independence from Nazi Germany. However, he was unable to prevent the annexation of Austria in 1938, known as the Anschluss.

Hitler's public speech in Vienna

On March 15, 1938, two days after the annexation of Austria, Adolf Hitler gave a speech in Vienna's Heldenplatz square, also known as the Square of Heroes, from the balcony of the Hofburg, a former Habsburg palace.

Hitler's speech came at the end of a series of events organised by the Nazis to celebrate the annexation, including military parades and public appearances. The day before, German troops and SS formations had participated in military parades along the Ringstrasse, the heart of the capital, which was a place of great interest to a young Hitler during his time living in Vienna.

On the morning of March 12, German soldiers in tanks and armoured vehicles had crossed the Austrian border, encountering no resistance. Hitler arrived in Vienna on the evening of March 13 and was received with open arms by crowds of people.

On March 15, a huge crowd gathered in Heldenplatz to hear Hitler speak. In his speech, he celebrated the annexation of Austria, declaring that his birth country had been incorporated into the Third Reich. This event was known as the Anschluss, or "connection" or "joining" in German.

Hitler's speech was filmed and photographed, and these images appeared in German newsreels and newspapers. They served as propaganda to demonstrate Austrian enthusiasm for the Anschluss and thus justify the illegal takeover of another country.

The Austrian referendum

In early March 1938, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg announced a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty. This was to be held on the 13th of March 1938. Portraying this as defying the popular will in Austria and Germany, Hitler threatened an invasion and secretly pressured Schuschnigg to resign.

On the 11th of March, the day before the referendum, Schuschnigg gave in to Hitler's demands and resigned. He also cancelled the referendum, pleading with Austrian forces not to resist a German “advance” into the country. The next day, Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where enthusiastic crowds met them.

Hitler's forces suppressed all opposition. Before the first German soldier crossed the border, Heinrich Himmler and a few Schutzstaffel (SS) officers landed in Vienna to arrest prominent representatives of the First Republic, such as Richard Schmitz, Leopold Figl, Friedrich Hillegeist, and Franz Olah. During the few weeks between the cancellation of the referendum and the German annexation of Austria, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists, other potential political dissenters, and Austrian Jews, imprisoning them or sending them to concentration camps. Within a few days of the 12th of March, 70,000 people had been arrested.

The referendum was eventually held on the 10th of April 1938, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the annexation. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

The persecution of Austrian Jews

The Nazis and their Austrian followers forced Jews to perform humiliating and menial tasks, such as cleaning public toilets and scrubbing the streets of Vienna. They were no longer allowed on public transport, and many regular Austrians joined the Nazis in terrorizing Jews. In one instance, a group of Jews was rounded up on the Sabbath and forced to eat grass at the Prater, a popular Viennese amusement park. Jewish faculty members of the Medical University of Vienna were dismissed.

During Kristallnacht in November 1938, anti-Jewish pogroms took place throughout Germany and Austria. Synagogues were desecrated and destroyed, and Jewish homes and shops were looted. The Nazis seized Jewish property as part of the Holocaust, transferring homes, businesses, real estate, financial assets, and artworks from Jews to non-Jews. This machinery of plunder involved various institutions, including the Gestapo, the Vugesta, and the Dorotheum auction house.

The Central Office of Jewish Emigration was established under the leadership of Adolf Eichmann, who, like Hitler, was a native of Austria. Eichmann set up a system to evict Jews and confiscate their assets. He demanded a high emigration figure of 20,000 Jews without means for the period from April 1, 1938, to May 1, 1939. The price of escape was heavy, with special taxes imposed on those seeking to leave. Most emigrants left everything behind.

The first deportations of Austrian Jews began in October 1939, with about 1,500 Jews sent to Nisko. Systematic deportations to death camps began in February 1941 and continued until March 1945. As a result of the Holocaust, between 60,000 and 65,000 Austrian Jews lost their lives.

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