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Adolf Hitler, an Austrian German by birth, wanted to annex Austria to Germany for several reasons. Firstly, he considered the postwar international borders unfair and illegitimate, and believed that Germans had been denied the right of self-determination. Secondly, Austria was rich in iron, which could help meet the steel production targets laid out by the Four Year Plan. Thirdly, the unification of Austria and Germany was a popular idea in both countries in the 1920s, and Hitler wanted to appeal to a wider part of the German population. Finally, Hitler's desire for unification stemmed from the Nazi Heim ins Reich (back home to the realm) concept, which aimed to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a Greater Germany.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Hitler's birthplace | Austria |
| Hitler's motivation | To unite all Germans in one state |
| To redraw the map of post-World War I Europe | |
| To annex Austria, which was rich in iron | |
| To incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "Greater Germany" | |
| To unite with his country of birth | |
| To appeal to a wider part of the German population | |
| Support for unification | Strong support in both Austria and Germany in the 1920s |
| Support faded over time | |
| Support was mainly due to the belief that Austria, stripped of its imperial land, was not economically viable | |
| Support was also driven by the economic crisis | |
| Propaganda | German newsreels and newspapers featured footage and photographs of crowds cheering the annexation |
| The Austrian working class and the Catholic Church were mobilised to support the referendum | |
| The referendum was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote | |
| The plebiscite was also used as propaganda to justify the illegal takeover of Austria | |
| Timing | Early 1938 |
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What You'll Learn
Hitler's Austrian background
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary in 1889. He was the son of a local customs official, Alois, and his much younger third wife. Hitler's father was harsh and distant, and his mother, with whom he had a closer relationship, died from cancer when he was 17. In 1892, when Hitler was three, his family moved to Passau, Germany, following his father's promotion to the customs administration there. In 1893, the family moved to Linz, Austria, but Hitler's mother and siblings remained in Passau. Hitler acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, which marked his speech throughout his life.
In 1894, the family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding, and Hitler attended a state-funded primary school in nearby Fischlham. In 1895, his father retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. During this time, Hitler began to develop German nationalist ideas, expressing loyalty only to Germany and despising the rule of the ethnically diverse Habsburg monarchy. He also began to use the greeting "Heil" and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem. In 1900, Hitler was sent to the Realschule in Linz, where he rebelled against his father's wishes and intentionally performed poorly in school. After his father's sudden death in 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated, and his mother allowed him to leave. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in 1904, where his behaviour and performance improved.
In 1905, Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice. In 1913, Hitler left Vienna and moved to Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army. As an Austrian citizen, he should have been returned to Austria, but he was allowed to serve due to an administrative error. During the war, he was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class.
After the war, Hitler remained in Munich, where he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) in 1919, which later became the Nazi Party. Hitler had been exposed to political and social ideas that would become key to Nazi ideology, including antisemitism and ethnic nationalism, during his youth in Austria. In 1920, he addressed a crowd and renamed the DAP the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). In his earliest writings and speeches, Hitler expressed his desire for an Austro-German union, and the first point of the Nazi Party Platform in 1920 called for "the union of all Germans in a Greater Germany".
Hitler rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. In 1938, he pressured Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to cancel a plebiscite on a possible union with Germany and resign, threatening an invasion. German troops crossed the border into Austria on March 12, 1938, unopposed by the Austrian military, and were welcomed by Austrians with cheers and flowers. On March 13, Austrian Nazi Chancellor Arthur Seyss-Inquart signed the "Reunification of Austria with Germany" law, formally incorporating Austria into Nazi Germany.
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Austria's economic weakness
Post-World War I Challenges
The end of World War I in 1918 had dramatic political consequences for the Habsburg Monarchy, leading to the disintegration of the multi-ethnic state. The Austrian economy faced significant challenges due to the loss of imperial land and the need to rebuild its infrastructure. The country's economic development was fragile, and it struggled to recover from the war's economic impact.
Currency Devaluation and Inflation
Austria experienced massive currency devaluation, with the "old Austrian" crown notes losing value in the winter/spring of 1919. This led to hyperinflation, with monthly inflation rates reaching 50% or more by autumn 1921. Inflation threatened financial collapse in 1922, and the country relied heavily on relief from the United States and Great Britain during this period.
Limited Internal Market and Trade Restrictions
During the interwar period, entrepreneurship struggled to flourish in Austria due to a small internal market and restricted foreign trade. The country lacked the necessary freedoms and confidence in domestic politics, resulting in a weak investment climate. Traditional arms companies faced challenges in transitioning to peace production, and their scope for action remained limited.
Global Economic Crisis
When the global economic crisis hit in the early 1930s, Austria's economy, which had been slowly recovering in the 1920s, collapsed. The bankruptcy of Creditanstalt, the country's most influential banking house, in May 1931, brought Austria to the brink of financial and economic disaster. The country faced high unemployment, and the Austrian Nazi Party exploited these economic anxieties in their propaganda campaigns.
Political Turmoil and Authoritarianism
The economic weakness of Austria in the 1930s was also accompanied by political turmoil. Engelbert Dollfuss, an Austrian politician, seized the opportunity to establish a right-wing authoritarian regime, disbanding parliament and governing by decree. The rise of the Austrian Nazi Party and its terrorist attacks against governmental institutions further destabilized the country.
In conclusion, Austria's economic weakness during this period was characterized by a combination of factors, including the aftermath of World War I, currency issues, inflation, global economic crises, and political instability. These factors created a vulnerable environment that contributed to the rise of authoritarianism and ultimately influenced Hitler's desire to annex Austria.
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Austria's iron resources
Austria is home to the world's largest deposit of siderite, an iron-carbonate mineral that has been mined at the Styrian iron ore mine in Eisenerz for over 1,300 years. Iron is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust and is considered a "mineral free for mining" in Austria, according to the Austrian Mineral Resources Act.
The country's iron industry has been a leading industry for a long time. In the past, Austria's iron and steel industries were heavily involved in construction abroad, providing plants and installations for construction projects in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. An important Austrian innovation in steelmaking was the basic oxygen process, or LD process, which is now used under license by steelworks around the world.
Austria's rich mineral resources, including iron, were one of the reasons why Hitler wanted to annex the country. Austria also supplied Germany with magnesium and the products of the textile and machine industries. The country had gold and foreign currency reserves, many unemployed skilled workers, and hundreds of idle factories. The idea of uniting Austria and Germany (Anschluss) gained support after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, and Hitler expressed his desire for this union in his early speeches and writings.
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria, annexing the country for the Third Reich. This was the first act of territorial expansion by Nazi Germany, and it violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which expressly forbade the unification of Austria and Germany.
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Nazi support in Austria
The idea of unifying Austria and Germany dated back to the 19th century, and by the 1920s, the proposal had strong support in both countries, particularly from Austrian citizens of the political left and center. However, popular support for unification faded over time. After Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, the desire for unification became associated with the Nazis and their "Heim ins Reich" ("back home to the realm") concept, which aimed to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "Greater Germany".
Hitler, himself an Austrian German by birth, expressed his desire for an Austro-German union in his earliest writings and speeches. The first point of the Nazi Party Platform (1920) stated: "We demand the union of all Germans in a Greater Germany (Großdeutschland) on the basis of the right of national self-determination." Hitler's autobiography and political treatise, Mein Kampf, also opened with his vision for the future relationship between Austria and Germany, declaring that "the reunification [of Germany and Austria] is a life task to be carried out by all means!"
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. Nazi propaganda campaigns used slogans like "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" ("One People, One Empire, One Leader") to convince Austrians to support the idea of unification with Germany (the Anschluss). Despite the Austrian Nazi Party being banned in Austria in June 1933, Nazi terrorists in Austria continued to receive financial, logistical, and material support from Germany.
In February 1938, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg met with Hitler to discuss a potential union with Germany. Hitler presented Schuschnigg with demands, including appointing Nazi sympathizers to positions of power in the Austrian government. Schuschnigg agreed to these demands under pressure from Hitler. However, when Schuschnigg later announced a referendum on the union, Hitler threatened an invasion and pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On March 12, 1938, German troops entered Austria unopposed, and a Nazi government headed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart was established.
On April 10, 1938, a plebiscite was held in Austria to approve the union with Germany. The vote was manipulated through threats and coercion, resulting in 99.7% approval. While the majority of Austrians were not Nazis, many supported Germany's wartime policies until the later phases of World War II. Approximately 950,000 Austrians fought for the Nazi German armed forces during the war, and others participated in the Nazi administration, including death camp personnel and senior Nazi leadership. However, there was also an Austrian resistance movement, albeit small, consisting of left-wing and conservative resistance groups.
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Hitler's nationalist ideology
Hitler expressed his desire for an Austro-German union in his earliest writings and speeches, including the first point of the Nazi Party Platform in 1920: "We demand the union of all Germans in a Greater Germany (Großdeutschland) on the basis of the right of national self-determination." He saw this unification as a "life task" to be achieved "by all means". In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler 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.
In the late 1930s, Hitler took steps to bring his nationalist ideology to fruition. In February 1938, he met with Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg and demanded that members of the Austrian Nazi Party be appointed to his cabinet, threatening an invasion otherwise. Schuschnigg attempted to maintain Austria's independence by calling for a plebiscite on March 13, 1938, to decide if Austria should remain independent or become part of the Third Reich. Hitler responded by invading Austria on March 12, 1938, and annexing it into Nazi Germany, an event known as the Anschluss.
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Frequently asked questions
Hitler wanted to annex Austria because he believed that all Germans should be united in one nation-state. He also believed that the international borders of post-World War I Europe were unfair and illegitimate.
Hitler bullied Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg into naming several Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. Hitler also demanded that the Austrian president, Wilhelm Miklas, appoint Arthur Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian Nazi, as the nation's next chancellor. When Miklas refused, Hitler ordered the invasion of Austria.
Austrians welcomed Hitler warmly when he travelled to Linz and Vienna. They met him with cheers and flowers, and no armed resistance was put up against the German army. A plebiscite held on April 10, 1938, resulted in 99.7% approval for unification with Germany, although between 300,000 and 400,000 Austrian citizens were forbidden to vote.
