On March 12, 1938, Austria was annexed by Adolf Hitler's Germany. Though the government of Austria opposed the move, Hitler's bloodless invasion of its southern neighbor was largely welcomed by Austria's population.
During the Middle Ages and through the Renaissance, Germany was made up of more than a thousand small kingdoms and principalities. All of these small German states existed in the umbrella institution known as the Holy Roman Empire, which acted as a sort of medieval United Nations. The history of the Holy Roman Empire saw the slow degradation of the authority of the emperor over the centuries, as political and religious strife frequently tested the empire's power.
Theoretically founded by Charlemagne in A.D. 800, Napoleon Bonaparte dismantled the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 in order to make the German states easier to govern, creating around 40 small states. Throughout most of the empire, by far the most powerful German state had been Austria, with Vienna often acting as a de facto capital of the empire. After 1806, Vienna retained the vast Austrian empire, which ruled over many different ethnicities and languages outside of Germany, as well as Austria proper.
Following Napoleon's downfall in 1815, the Austrian empire took a leading role in Europe by enforcing conservatism and opposing revolutionary movements wherever they appeared. By mid-century, however, the north German state of Prussia was challenging Vienna for the leadership of Germany. When German liberals met to discuss the possibility of German unification in 1848, they rejected Austrian leadership because of Austria's vast empire outside of Germany. German liberals wanted a Germany for Germans and only Germans.
The king of Prussia rejected the liberals' call for him to lead the new unified German state. He would accept an imperial crown handed to him by his fellow monarchs, he told them, but he would never accept it “from the gutter.” Without strong leadership, the liberals' scheme fell apart and Germany remained disunited.
A series of wars followed in the 1860s, subsequently known as the Wars of German Unification. First, in 1864, Prussia and Austria were allied against the small and relatively weak Denmark. With Prussia gaining the most from the victory over Denmark, the kingdom then went to war with Austria. Led by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and General Helmut von Moltke (the Elder), Prussia soon soundly defeated Austria, though the peace terms were fairly lenient.
The Austrian empire soon refashioned itself as the Austrian-Hungarian empire in order to placate the large Hungarian minority. After another war with France in 1870-71, Prussia was able to unify the German states under Prussian leadership. The German empire that Bismarck forged lasted until 1918, when Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to resign under the pressures of World War I. At that point, Germany became a republic.
Austria fared little better in World War I. An ally of Germany, the various agreements that followed the war, such as the Treaty of Versailles, took away Austria's empire and left only a rump, ethnic Austrian republic in central Europe. Many of its constituent territories like Hungary and the Czech region became their own states.
With its empire torn from Vienna, the Austrian people voted for unification with Germany, only to have their desires curtailed by England, France, and the United States. After a bitter, four-year war with Berlin, the last thing the Allies wanted to do was reward Germany with expanded territory. Austria remained independent.
The Austrian government was not immune to the radical politics that plagued Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, and not long after the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they began agitating for a union (Anschluss) with Austria. By this time, however, many in Austria had come to accept and even support the idea of Austrian independence. The Austrian chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, ran Austria as a quasi-fascist state on the Italian model, with Austrians offering officials the stiff-armed salute.
Still, Dollfuss and other Austrian officials opposed Austrian absorption into the Third Reich. One major reason centered on fears that Austrian Catholicism would be degraded under north German Protestantism and the dubious Nazi record toward Christianity as a whole. Early 1934 saw street battles between ultra-nationalists and socialist elements in Vienna, and in July, Dollfuss was assassinated by members of the Austrian Nazi Party.
Dollfuss' successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, remained committed to Austrian independence, and continued to rule as a quasi-fascist dictator. Though Austria and Germany signed an agreement in 1936 that theoretically meant better relations, the two states remained at odds. In the book, “The Third Reich in Power,” historian Richard J. Evans wrote:
“Schuschnigg's government had grown steadily weaker since 1936. It had made almost no headway at all in trying to improve the economic situation, which remained sunk in the depths of the Depression. Years of grinding poverty and mass unemployment had left the majority of the population not only disillusioned with the government but also more convinced than ever that the small Austrian Republic would never become economically viable on its own.”
Just across the border from Salzburg, Hitler looked down from his mountain retreat with covetous eyes at the land of his birth. Born in Braunau am Inn in the Austrian-Hungary empire in 1889, Hitler had moved to Germany shortly before the outbreak of World War I and served in the German army during that conflict. Now, Hitler claimed to be motivated by pan-Germanism, the idea that all of the German speaking peoples should be brought under his protection in a greater German state. Certainly that was a consideration for Hitler, though he also needed Austria's population and resources for his planned wars of expansion — which included virtually all of Europe, German-speaking and not.
Accompanying the German ambassador, Franz von Papen, to meet with Hitler across the border in Germany on Feb. 12, Schuschnigg feared that he might be assassinated. In the book, “1938: Hitler's Gamble,” historian Giles MacDonogh wrote:
“Although the conversation was conducted behind closed doors, Hitler's rants could be heard from the floor below: 'I, an Austrian by birth, have been sent to Providence to create the Greater German State! And you stand in my way! I will crush you!' He, Hitler, was the better Austrian; he, Hitler, had no Slavic blood — an allusion to the chancellor's Slovenian name. According to one report, Hitler threatened to invade Salzburg. He told Schuschnigg that no one would come to his defense.”
Schuschnigg underwent hours of Hitler's rants, which were accompanied by demands that Schuschnigg include Austrian Nazis in his government. While Schuschnigg gave in to some of Hitler's demands, he continued to play for time, hoping he could draw on support from Italy, Austria's traditional ally, for help. Unknown to Schuschnigg, however, was that Hitler and Benito Mussolini, rivals in the early 1930s, would soon come to an agreement.
Schuschnigg hoped that an appeal to the Austrian people would help keep Hitler at bay. If a strong statement from the masses could convince the international community that Austria did not support unification with Germany, perhaps Hitler would back down. To that end, on March 9 the chancellor called for a plebiscite for the Austrian people, a simple yes/no vote to a straightforward question.
In his book, “Adolf Hitler,” biographer John Toland stated the question: “Are you in favor of a free and (ethnically) German, independent and social, a Christian and united Austria?” The vote was scheduled to take place on March 13.
Realizing he had been outmaneuvered and fearing what an overwhelming positive vote could do to his international prestige, Hitler phoned his top generals and informed them that they would soon march on Austria. On March 11, a hastily thrown together invasion plan was put into action. German military units crossed the border even as Austrian Nazis, taking orders from Berlin, stormed the streets in Vienna.
Later that day, Schuschnigg resigned in favor of Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who then promptly gave Hitler's invasion an air of legitimacy as he “requested” Germany's intervention in Austria to help put down a supposed communist insurrection.
On March 12, Hitler crossed the border to the land of his birth. Originally planning on maintaining Austria as an independent puppet state, Hitler changed his mind when he was greeted with enthusiasm by the Austrian people. As Evans wrote: “The reception accorded him by the (citizens of Linz, Austria), was so ecstatic that he was moved to tears. Indeed, the Austrian response to Anschluss surprised both Nazis and non-Nazis alike.” Hitler decided to fully incorporate Austria into the Third Reich that day.
While perhaps most in Austria initially liked the idea of joining their small, economically troubled state with the larger and more dynamic Germany, many were soon disillusioned. Vienna went almost overnight from a world capital to a provincial backwater. Additionally, Nazi violence toward Austria's Jews troubled many. Austria did, however, provide some of the most committed Nazis to Hitler's cause during the Third Reich. Noted Austrian Nazis included Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Otto Skorzeny, Amon Goeth, and the Austrian-raised Adolf Eichmann.
Schuschnigg spent much of World War II in German concentration camps before being liberated in 1945. He spent many years in the United States after the war, teaching political science at St. Louis University. He died in his native Austria in 1977.
Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com