Anschluss

Anschluss (German: [ˈʔanʃlʊs] ( listen) 'joining') refers to the annexation of

Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.[1] The word's German spelling,
until the German orthography reform of 1996, was Anschluß[2] and it was also
known as the Anschluss Österreichs( pronunciation , German: Annexation of
Austria).

Prior to the Anschluss, there had been strong support from people of all
backgrounds – not just Nazis – in both Austria and Germany for a union of the
two countries.[3] The desire for a union formed an integral part of the Nazi
"Heim ins Reich" movement.[4] Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for
the Austrian National Socialist Party (Austrian Nazi Party) in its bid to seize
power from Austria's Fatherland Front government.

The idea of an Anschluss (a united Austria and Germany that would form a
"Greater Germany")[a] began after the unification of Germany excluded Austria
and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated German Empire in
1871. Following the end of World War I with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, in 1918, the newly formed Republic of German-Austria attempted to
form a union with Germany, but the Treaty of Saint Germain (10 September German and Austrian border police
dismantle a border post in 1938.
1919) and the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919) forbade both the union and the
continued use of the name "German-Austria" (Deutschösterreich); and stripped
Austria of some of its territories, such as theSudetenland.

Contents
Historical background
Austria during the First Austrian Republic 1918–1934
Nazi Germany and Austria
Austrian Civil War to Anschluss
End of an independent Austria
Schuschnigg announces a referendum
German troops march into Austria
Actions against the Jews
The territory of German Reich and
Plebiscite Austria (12 March 1938).
Banking and assets
Reactions to the Anschluss
Legacy
Anschluss: annexation or union?
Changes in Central Europe
Second Republic
Moscow Declaration
Austrian identity and the "victim theory"
Political events
Literature
Historical Commission and outstanding legal issues
 Austrian political and military leaders in Nazi Germany
See also
References
External links

Historical background
The idea of grouping all Germans into a nation-state
country had been the subject of debate in the 19th century
from the ending of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 until
the ending of the German Confederation in 1866. Austria
had wanted a Großdeutsche Lösung (greater Germany
solution), whereby the German states would unite under
the leadership of the German Austrians (Habsburgs). This
solution would have included all the German states
(including the non-German regions of Austria), but
Prussia would have had to take second place. This
controversy, called dualism, dominated Prusso-Austrian
diplomacy and the politics of the German states in the
mid-nineteenth century.[6]

In 1866 the feud finally came to an end during the

German war in which the Prussians successfully defeated
the Austrians and thereby excluded Austria and the
German Austrians from Germany. The Prussian
statesman Otto von Bismarck formed the North German
The German Confederation1815-1866
Confederation, which included the remaining German
states and further expanded the power of Prussia.
Bismarck used the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871) as a way to convince other German states, including the Kingdom of Bavaria, to
side with Prussia against the Second French Empire. Due to Prussia's quick victory, the debate was settled and in 1871 the
"Kleindeutsch" German Empire based on the leadership of Bismarck and theKingdom of Prussia formed - this excluded Austria.[7]

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Ausgleich, provided for a dual sovereignty, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom
of Hungary, under Franz Joseph I. The Austrian-Hungarian rule of this diverse empire included various different ethnic groups
including Hungarians, Slavic ethnic groups such as Croats, Czechs, Poles, Rusyns, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, as well
as Italians and Romanians ruled by a German minority.[8] The empire caused tensions between the various ethnic groups. Many
Austrian pan-Germans showed loyalty to Bismarck[9] and only to Germany, wore symbols that were temporarily banned in Austrian
schools and advocated the dissolution of the empire to allow an annexation of Austria to Germany.[10][11] Although many Austrians
agreed with pan-Germanism ideas, a lot of them still showed allegiance to the Habsburg Monarchy and wished for Austria to remain
an independent country.[12] After the Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933, they used propaganda to try to coerce Austrians into
advocating for an Anschluss to the German Reich by using slogans such as Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ("One People, One
Empire, One Leader").[13]

Austria during the First Austrian Republic 1918–1934

By the end of World War I, Austria had been excluded from internal German affairs for more than fifty years since the Peace of
Prague that concluded the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
Elite and popular opinion in Austria after 1918
largely favored some sort of union with Germany,
but it was explicitly forbidden by the peace
treaties.[14] The Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up
in 1918, and on 12 November that year German
Austria was declared a republic. The provisional
national assembly drafted a provisional constitution
that stated that "German Austria is a democratic
republic" (Article 1) and "German Austria is a
component of the German Republic" (Article 2).
Later plebiscites in the German border provinces of
Tyrol and Salzburg yielded majorities of 98% and
99% in favor of a unification with the German (i.e. The dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918
Weimar) Republic.

In the aftermath of a prohibition of an Anschluss, the Germans in both Austria and Germany pointed out to a contradiction in the
national self-determination principle because it failed to grant it to the ethnic Germans (such as German Austrians and Sudeten
Germans) outside of the German Reich.[15][16]

The Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain (both signed in 1919) explicitly prohibited the political inclusion of Austria
in the German state. This measure was criticized by Hugo Preuss, the drafter of the German Weimar Constitution, who saw the
prohibition as a contradiction of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination of peoples, intended to help bring peace to Europe.[17]
Following the destruction of World War I, however, France and Britain feared the power of a larger Germany and had begun to
disempower the current one. Austrian particularism, especially among the nobility, also played a role in the decisions; Austria was
Roman Catholic, while Germany was dominated by Protestants, especially in government (the Prussian nobility, for example, was
Lutheran). The constitutions of the Weimar Republic and the First Austrian Republic included the political goal of unification, which
was widely supported by democratic parties. In the early 1930s, popular support in Austria for union with Germany remained
overwhelming, and the Austrian government looked to a possiblecustoms union with the German Republic in 1931.

Nazi Germany and Austria

When the Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, rose to power in the Weimar Republic, the Austrian government withdrew from economic ties.
Austria shared the economic turbulence of the Great Depression, with a high unemployment rate, and unstable commerce and
industry. During the 1920s it was a target for German investment capital. By 1937 rapid German rearmament increased Berlin's
interest in annexing Austria, rich in raw materials and labour. It supplied Germany with magnesium and the products of the iron,
textile and machine industries. It had gold and foreign currency reserves, many unemployed skilled workers, hundreds of idle
factories, and large potential hydroelectric resources.[18]

Hitler, an Austrian German by birth,[19][b] picked up his German nationalist ideas at a young age. Whilst infiltrating the German
Workers' Party (DAP), Hitler became involved in a heated political argument with a visitor, a Professor Baumann, who proposed that
Bavaria should break away from Prussia and found a new South German nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's
arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratory skills and, according to Hitler, the "professor" left the
hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat.[21] Impressed with Hitler, Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on September
12, 1919,[22] becoming the party's 55th member.[23] After becoming leader of the DAP, Hitler addressed a crowd on February 24,
1920, and in an effort to appeal to wider parts of the German population, the DAP was renamed the National Socialist German
Workers' Party (NSDAP).[24]

The 1920 National Socialist Program stated as its first point, "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 had a single task of,
"incorporating the ten million German-Austrians in the Empire and dethroning the Hapsburgs, the most miserable dynasty ever
ruling."[25] The Nazis aimed to re-unite all Germans either born or living outside of the Reich 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.[26]

The First Austrian Republic, dominated from the late 1920s

by the anti-Anschluss[27] Catholic nationalist Christian
Social Party (CS), gradually disintegrated from 1933
(dissolution of parliament and ban on the Austrian National
Socialists) to 1934 (Austrian Civil War in February and ban
on all remaining parties except the CS). The government
evolved into a corporatist, one-party government that
combined the CS and the paramilitary Heimwehr. It
controlled labor relations and the press. (See Austrofascism
and Patriotic Front).

Power was centralized in the office of the chancellor, who

was empowered to rule by decree. The dominance of the
Christian Social Party (whose economic policies were
German military map of Second World War, with no border based on the papal encyclical Rerum novarum) was an
between Germany and Austria (top right; also showing Austrian phenomenon. Austria's national identity had
Alsace as part of Germany as it was directly incorporated strong Catholic elements that were incorporated into the
into the Reich)
movement, by way of clerical authoritarian tendencies not
found in Nazism. Engelbert Dollfuss and his successor,
Kurt Schuschnigg, turned to Italy for inspiration and support. The statist corporatism often referred to as Austrofascism bore more
resemblance to Italian Fascism than to German National Socialism, and can be described as a form ofclerical fascism.

Benito Mussolini supported the independence of Austria, largely due to his concern that Hitler would eventually press for the return
of Italian territories once ruled by Austria. However, Mussolini needed German support in Ethiopia (see Second Italo-Abyssinian
War). After receiving a personal assurance from Hitler that Germany would not seek territorial concessions from Italy, Mussolini
began a client relationship with Berlin that began with the 1937Berlin–Rome Axis.

Austrian Civil War to Anschluss

The Austrian Nazi Party failed to win any seats in the
November 1930 general election, but its popularity grew in
Austria after Austrian-born Hitler came to power in Germany.
The idea of the country joining Germany also grew in
popularity, and Anschluss might have occurred by democratic
process had Austrian Nazis not begun a terrorism campaign.
John Gunther wrote in 1936, "In 1932 Austria was probably
eighty percent pro-Anschluss".[28]

When Germany permitted residents of Austria to vote on

March 5, 1933, three special trains, boats and trucks brought
such masses to Passau that the SS staged a ceremonial Soldiers of the Austrian Federal Army in Vienna, 12
welcome.[29] Gunther wrote that by the end of 1933 Austrian February 1934.
public opinion about German annexation was at least 60%
against.[28] On 25 July 1934, Dollfuss was assassinated by
Austrian Nazis in a failed coup. Afterwards, leading Austrian Nazis fled to Germany but they continued to push for unification from
there. The remaining Austrian Nazis continued terrorist attacks against Austrian governmental institutions, causing a death toll of
more than 800 between 1934 and 1938.
Dollfuss' successor was Kurt Schuschnigg, who followed a political course similar to his predecessor. In 1935 Schuschnigg used the
police to suppress Nazi supporters. Police actions under Schuschnigg included gathering Nazis (and Social Democrats) and holding
them in internment camps. The Austrofascism of Austria between 1934–1938 focused on the history of Austria and opposed the
absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany (according to the philosophy Austrians were "better Germans"). Schuschnigg called Austria
the "better German state" but struggled to keep Austria independent.

In an attempt to put Schuschnigg's mind at rest, Hitler delivered a speech at the Reichstag and said: "Germany neither intends nor
wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss."[30]

By 1936 the damage to Austria from the German boycott was too great. That summer Schuschnigg told Mussolini that his country
had to come to an agreement with Germany. On 11 July 1936 he signed an agreement with German ambassador Franz von Papen, in
which Schuschnigg agreed to the release of Nazis imprisoned in Austria and Germany promised to respect Austrian sovereignty.[28]
Under the terms of the Austro-German treaty, Austria declared itself a "German state" that would always follow Germany's lead in
foreign policy, and members of the "National Opposition" were allowed to enter the cabinet, in exchange for which the Austrian
Nazis promised to cease their terrorist attacks against the government. This did not satisfy Hitler and the pro-German Austrian Nazis
grew in strength.

In September 1936, Hitler launched the Four-Year Plan that called for a dramatic increase in military spending and to make Germany
as autarkic as possible with the aim of having the Reich ready to fight a world war by 1940.[31] The Four Year Plan required huge
investments in the Reichswerke steel works, a programme for developing synthetic oil that soon went wildly over budget, and
programmes for producing more chemicals and aluminium; the plan called for a policy of substituting imports and rationalizing
industry to achieve its goals that failed completely.[31] As the Four Year Plan fell further and further behind its targets, Hermann
Göring, the chief of the Four Year Plan office, began to press for an Anschluss as a way of securing Austria's iron and other raw
ear Plan.[32] The British historian SirIan Kershaw wrote:
materials as a solution to the problems with the Four Y

...above all, it was Hermann Göring, at this time close to the pinnacle of his power, who far more than Hitler,
throughout 1937 made the running and pushed the hardest for an early and radical solution to the 'Austrian Question'.
Göring was not simply operating as Hitler's agent in matters relating to the 'Austrian Question'. His approach differed
in emphasis in significant respects...But Göring's broad notions of foreign policy, which he pushed to a great extent
on his own initiative in the mid-1930s drew more on traditional pan-German concepts of nationalist power-politics to
.[32]
attain hegemony in Europe than on the racial dogmatism central to Hitler's ideology

Göring was far more interested in the return of the former German colonies in Africa than was Hitler, believed up to 1939 in the
possibility of an Anglo-German alliance (an idea that Hitler had abandoned by late 1937), and wanted all Eastern Europe in the
German economic sphere of influence.[33] Göring did not share Hitler's interest in Lebensraum ("living space") as for him, merely
having Eastern Europe in the German economic sphere of influence was sufficient.[32] In this context, having Austria annexed to
Grossraumwirtschaft ("greater economic space").[33]
Germany was the key towards bringing Eastern Europe into Göring's desired

Faced with problems in the Four Year Plan, Göring had become the loudest voice in Germany, calling for an Anschluss, even at the
risk of losing an alliance with Italy.[34] In April 1937, in a secret speech before a group of German industrialists, Göring stated that
the only solution to the problems with meeting the steel production tar
gets laid out by the Four Year Plan was to annex Austria, which
Göring noted was rich in iron.[34] Göring did not give a date for the Anschluss, but given that Four Year Plan's targets all had to be
met by September 1940, and the current problems with meeting the steel production targets, suggested that he wanted an Anschluss in
the very near-future.[34]

End of an independent Austria

Hitler told Goebbels in the late summer of 1937 that eventually Austria would have to be taken "by force".[35] On 5 November 1937,
Hitler called a meeting with the Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, the War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, the
Army commander General Werner von Fritsch, the Navy commander Admiral Erich Raeder and the Luftwaffe commander Herman
Göring recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum. At the conference, Hitler stated that economic problems were causing Germany to
fall behind in the arms race with Britain and France, and that the only solution was
to launch in the near-future a series of wars to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia,
whose economies would be plundered to give Germany the lead in the arms
race.[36][37] In early 1938, Hitler was seriously considering replacing Papen as
ambassador to Austria with either Colonel Hermann Kriebel, the German consul in
Shanghai or Albert Forster, the Gauleiter of Danzig.[38] Significantly, neither
Kriebel nor Forster were professional diplomats with Kriebel being one of the
leaders of 1923 Munich Beerhallputsch who had been appointed consul in Shanghai
to facilitate his work as an arms dealer in China while Forster was a Gauleiter who
had proven he could get along with the Poles in his position in the Free City of
Danzig; both men were Nazis who had shown some diplomatic skill.[38] On 25
January 1938, the Austrian police raided the Vienna headquarters of the Austrian
Nazi Party, arresting Gauleiter Leopold Tavs, the deputy to Captain Josef Leopold,
discovered a cache of arms and plans for aputsch.[38]

Following increasing violence and demands from Hitler that Austria agree to a
union, Schuschnigg met Hitler atBerchtesgaden on February 12, 1938, in an attempt Supporters of Schuschnigg
to avoid the takeover of Austria. Hitler presented Schuschnigg with a set of demands campaigning for the independence of
that included appointing Nazi sympathizers to positions of power in the government. Austria in March 1938, shortly before
The key appointment was that of Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Public the Anschluss.

Security, with full, unlimited control of the police. In return Hitler would publicly
reaffirm the treaty of 11 July 1936 and reaffirm his support for Austria's national
sovereignty. Browbeaten and threatened by Hitler, Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and put them into effect.[39]

Seyss-Inquart was a long-time supporter of the Nazis who sought the union of all Germans in one state. Leopold argues he was a
moderate who favoured an evolutionary approach to union. He opposed the violent tactics of the Austrian Nazis, cooperated with
.[40]
Catholic groups, and wanted to preserve a measure of Austrian identity within Nazi Germany

On 20 February, Hitler made a speech before the Reichstag which was broadcast live and which for the first time was relayed also by
the Austrian radio network. A key phrase in the speech which was aimed at the Germans living in Austria and Czechoslovakia was:
[41]
"… The German Reich is no longer willing to tolerate the suppression of ten million Germans across its borders."

Schuschnigg announces a referendum

On 9 March 1938, In the face of rioting by the small, but virulent, Austrian Nazi Party and ever-expanding German demands on
Austria, Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg called a referendum (plebiscite) on the issue, to be held on 13 March. Infuriated, on 11 March,
Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschnigg's resignation and the appointment of the
Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart as his replacement. Hitler's plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to
Austria's aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of this threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-
Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled.

On 9 March 1938, in an effort to preserve Austria's independence, Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite on the issue of unification for
13 March. To secure a large majority in the referendum, Schuschnigg dismantled the one-party state. He agreed to legalize the Social
[4] He also set the minimum voting age at 24 to exclude
Democrats and their trade unions in return for their support in the referendum.
younger voters because the Nazi movement was most popular among the young.[42] In contrast, Hitler had lowered the voting age for
German elections held under Nazi rule, largely to compensate for the removal of Jews and other ethnic minorities from the German
electorate following enactment of theNuremberg Laws in 1935.

The plan went awry when it became apparent that Hitler would not stand by while Austria declared its independence by public vote.
Hitler declared that the referendum would be subject to major fraud and that Germany would never accept it. In addition, the German
ministry of propaganda issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of the Austrian population were
 calling for
German
troops to
restore order.
Schuschnigg
immediately
responded
that reports of
riots were
false.[43]

The Dollfuss/Schuschnigg regime of Austrofascism fought to keep Austria as an independent country

.

Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March, demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazis or face an
invasion. The ultimatum was set to expire at noon, but was extended by two hours. Without waiting for an answer, Hitler had already
[44] Nevertheless, the German Führer underestimated his opposition.
signed the order to send troops into Austria at one o'clock.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edgar Ansel Mowrer, reporting from Paris for CBS, observed: "There is no one in all France
who does not believe that Hitler invaded Austria not to hold a genuine plebiscite, but to prevent the plebiscite planned by
Schusschnigg from demonstrating to the entire world just how little hold National Socialism really had on that tiny country."[45]
Clearly it was Hitler, and not Schuschnigg, who was terrified by the potential results of the scheduled plebiscite, and that was the best
indication of where Austrians' loyalty lay.

Schuschnigg desperately sought support for Austrian independence in the hours following the ultimatum. Realizing that neither
France nor Britain was willing to offer assistance, Schuschnigg resigned on the evening of 11 March, but President Wilhelm Miklas
refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At 8:45 pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, ordered the invasion to commence at dawn on 12
March regardless.[46] Around 10 pm, a forged telegram was sent in Seyss-Inquart's name asking for German troops, since he was not
yet Chancellor and was unable to do so himself. Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas
resigned himself to the inevitable.[44][4] In the radio broadcast in which he announced his resignation, he argued that he accepted the
changes and allowed the Nazis to take over the government 'to avoid the shedding of fraternal blood [Bruderblut]'.[47] Seyss-Inquart
was appointed chancellor after midnight on 12 March.

It is said that after listening to Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Hitler cried: "How can anyone say that Austria is not German! Is there
[48]
anything more German than our old pure Austrianness?"

German troops march into Austria

On the morning of 12 March, the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht
crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering
Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers.[49] For the
Wehrmacht, the invasion was the first big test of its machinery. Although
the invading forces were badly organized and coordination among the
units was poor, it mattered little because the Austrian government had
ordered the Austrian Bundesheer not to resist.[50]

That afternoon, Hitler, riding in a car, crossed the border at his

birthplace, Braunau am Inn, with a 4,000 man bodyguard.[45] In the
evening, he arrived at Linz and was given an enthusiastic welcome. The Cheering crowds greet the Nazis in Vienna.
enthusiasm displayed toward Hitler and the Germans surprised both
Nazis and non-Nazis, as most people had believed that a majority of
Austrians opposed Anschluss.[51][52] Many Germans from both Austria
and Germany welcomed the Anschluss as they saw it as completing the
complex and long overdue German unification of all Germans united
into one-state.[53] Hitler had intended to leave Austria as a puppet state
with Seyss-Inquart as head of a pro-Nazi government. However, the
overwhelming reception caused him to change course and absorb Austria
into the Reich. On 13 March Seyss-Inquart announced the revocation of
Article 88 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which prohibited the
unification of Austria and Germany, and approved the replacement of the
Austrian states with Reichsgaue.[51] The seizure of Austria demonstrated
Hitler crosses the border into Austria in March
once again Hitler's aggressive territorial ambitions, and, once again, the
1938.
failure of the British and the French to take action against him for
violating the Versailles Treaty. Their lack of will emboldened him toward
further aggression.[54]

Hitler's journey through Austria became a triumphal tour that climaxed

in Vienna on 15 March 1938, when around 200,000 cheering German
Austrians gathered around the Heldenplatz (Square of Heroes) to hear
Hitler say that "The oldest eastern province of the German people shall
be, from this point on, the newest bastion of the German Reich"[55]
followed by his "greatest accomplishment" (completing the annexing of
Austria to form a Greater German Reich) by saying "As leader and
chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history
now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich."[56][57] Hitler Hitler announces the Anschluss on the
later commented: "Certain foreign newspapers have said that we fell on Heldenplatz, Vienna, 15 March 1938.
Austria with brutal methods. I can only say: even in death they cannot
stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love
from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier (into Austria) there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced.
Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators."[58]

Hitler said as a personal note to the Anschluss: "I, myself, as Führer and Chancellor, will be happy to walk on the soil of the country
that is my home as a free German citizen."[59][60]

Hitler's popularity reached an unprecedented peak after he fulfilled the Anschluss because he had completed the long-awaited idea of
a Greater Germany. Bismarck had not chosen to include Austria in his 1871 reunification of Germany, and there was genuine support
from Germans in both Austria and Germany for anAnschluss.[53]
Hitler's forces suppressed all opposition. Before the first German soldier crossed the border, Heinrich Himmler and a few 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 theAnschluss and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats,
Communists, other potential political dissenters, and Jews, and imprisoned them or sent them to concentration camps. Within a few
days of 12 March, 70,000 people had been arrested. The disused northwest railway station in Vienna was converted into a makeshift
concentration camp.[61] The plebiscite was subject to large-scale propaganda and to the abrogation of the voting rights of around
[62]
400,000 people (nearly 10% of the eligible voting population), mainly former members of left-wing parties and Jews.

The newly installed Nazis, within two days, transferred power to Germany, and Wehrmacht troops entered Austria to enforce the
Anschluss. The Nazis held a controlled plebiscite (Volksabstimmung) in the whole Reich within the following month, asking the
people to ratify the fait accompli, and claimed that 99.7561% of the votes cast in Austria were in favor.[63][64] Austrian citizens of
Jewish or Gypsy origin were not allowed to vote.[65][66]

Although the Allies were committed to upholding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and those of St. Germain, which specifically
prohibited the union of Austria and Germany, their reaction was only verbal and moderate. No military confrontation took place, and
even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy, France, and Britain (the "Stresa Front") remained at peace.
The loudest verbal protest was voiced by the government ofMexico.[67]

Actions against the Jews

The campaign against the Jews began immediately after the Anschluss.
They were driven through the streets of Vienna, their homes and shops
were plundered. Jewish men and women were forced to wash away pro-
independence slogans painted on the streets of Vienna ahead of the failed
13 March plebiscite.[68] Jewish actresses from the Theater in der
Josefstadt were forced to clean toilets by the SA. The process of
Aryanisation began, and Jews were driven out of public life within
months.[69] These events reached a climax in the Kristallnacht pogrom
Immediately after the Anschluss, Vienna’s Jews of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna
were forced to wash pro-independence slogans were destroyed. The Stadttempel was the sole survivor due to its location
(Reibpartie) from the city’s pavements.
in a residential district which prevented it from being burned down. Most
Jewish shops were plundered and closed. Over 6,000 Jews were arrested
overnight, the majority deported to Dachau concentration camp in the following days.[70] The Nuremberg Laws applied in Austria
from May 1938, later reinforced with innumerable anti-Semitic decrees. Jews were gradually robbed of their freedoms, blocked from
Yellow badge from September 1941.[71]
almost all professions, shut out of schools and universities, and forced to wear the

The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate. Their plans succeeded—by the end of
1941, 130,000 Jews had left Vienna, 30,000 of whom went to the United States. They left behind all of their property
, but were forced
to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all émigrés from Nazi Germany; some received financial support from international aid
organisations so that they could pay this tax. The majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna eventually became victims of the
[72]
Holocaust. Of the more than 65,000 Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, little more than 2,000 survived.

Plebiscite
The Anschluss was given immediate effect by legislative act on 13 March, subject to ratification by a plebiscite. Austria became the
province of Ostmark, and Seyss-Inquart was appointed governor. The plebiscite was held on 10 April and officially recorded a
support of 99.7% of the voters.[62]

While historians concur that the votes were accurately counted, the process was neither free nor secret. Officials were present directly
beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand (in contrast to a secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a
closed box). In some remote areas of Austria, people voted to preserve the independence of Austria on 13 March (in Schuschnigg's
planned but cancelled plebiscite) despite the Wehrmacht's presence. For
instance, in the village of Innervillgraten, a majority of 95% voted for
Austria's independence.[73] However, in the plebiscite on 10 April, 73.3% of
votes in Innervillgraten were in favor of the Anschluss, which was still the
lowest number of all Austrian municipalities.[74] Although there is no doubt
that the plebiscite result was manipulated and rigged, there was
unquestionably a lot of genuine support for Hitler for carrying out the
Anschluss.[75]

Austria remained part of Germany until the end of World War II. A
provisional Austrian government declared the Anschluss "null und nichtig" Voting ballot from 10 April 1938. The ballot
(null and void) on 27 April 1945. Henceforth, Austria was recognized as a text reads "Do you agree with the
separate country, although it remained divided into occupation zones and reunification of Austria with the German
controlled by the Allied Commission until 1955, when the Austrian State Reich that was enacted on 13 March 1938,
and do you vote for the party of our leader
Treaty restored its sovereignty.
Adolf Hitler?" The large circle is labelled
"Yes", the smaller "No".
Banking and
assets
Germany, which had a shortage of steel and a weakbalance of payments, gained iron ore
mines in the Erzberg and 748 million RM in the reserves of Austria's central bank
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, more than twice its own cash.[51] In the years that
followed, some bank accounts were transferred from Austria to Germany as "enemy
property accounts".[76]

Reactions to the Anschluss

Austria in the first days of Nazi Germany's control had many contradictions: at one and
the same time, Hitler's regime began to tighten its grip in every aspect of society,
beginning with mass arrests as thousands of Austrians tried to escape; yet other
Seyss-Inquart and Hitler with Austrians cheered and welcomed the German troops entering their territory
.
Himmler and Heydrich to the right
in Vienna, March 1938 In March 1938 the local Gauleiter of Gmunden, Upper Austria, gave a speech to the
local Austrians and told them in plain terms that all "traitors" of Austria were to be
thrown into the newly opened concentration camp at Mauthausen-Gusen.[77] The camp
[77]
became notorious for its cruelty and barbarism. During its existence an estimated 200,000 people died, half of whom were killed.

The antigypsyism sentiment was implemented initially most harshly in Austria when between 1938-1939 the Nazis arrested around
2,000 Gypsy men whom were sent to Dachau and 1,000 Gypsy women whom were sent to Ravensbrück.[78] Starting in 1939,
Austrian Gypsies had to register themselves to local authorities.[79] The Nazis began to publish articles linking the Gypsies with
criminality.[79] Until 1942, the Nazis had made a distinction between "pure Gypsies" and "Gypsy Mischlinges.[80] However, Nazi
racial research claimed that 90% of Gypsies were of mixed ancestry. Subsequently, the Nazis ordered that the Gypsies were to be
treated on the same level as the Jews.[80]

Many Austrian political figures announced their support of the Anschluss and their relief that it happened without violence. Cardinal
Theodor Innitzer (a political figure of the CS) declared as early as 12 March: "The Viennese Catholics should thank the Lord for the
bloodless way this great political change has occurred, and they should pray for a great future for Austria. Needless to say, everyone
should obey the orders of the new institutions." The other Austrian bishops followed suit some days later. Vatican Radio, however,
broadcast a strong denunciation of the German action, and Cardinal Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State, ordered Innitzer to report
to Rome. Before meeting the Pope, Innitzer met Pacelli, who had been outraged by Innitzer's statement. He told Innitzer to retract his
statement; he was made to sign a new statement, issued on behalf of all the Austrian bishops, that stated: "The solemn declaration of
the Austrian bishops... was clearly not intended to be an approval of something that was not and is not compatible with God's law".
The Vatican newspaper reported that the Germanbishops' earlier statement had been issued without approval from Rome.

Robert Kauer, president of the minority Lutheran Church in Austria, greeted Hitler on
13 March as "saviour of the 350,000 German Protestants in Austria and liberator from a
five-year hardship". Karl Renner, the most famous Social Democrat of the First
Republic, announced his support for the Anschluss and appealed to all Austrians to vote
in favour of it on 10 April.[73]

The international response to the Anschluss was publicly moderate. The Times
commented that 300 years before, Scotland had joined England as well, and that this
event would not really differ much. On 14 March, the British Prime Minister, Neville
Chamberlain spoke about the "Austrian situation" in the House of Commons. He noted
that the British ambassador in Berlin objected to the use of "coercion, backed by force"
that would undermine Austria's independence.[81] Within this speech Chamberlain also
said, "The hard fact is that nothing could have arrested what has actually happened [in
[82]
Austria] unless this country and other countries had been prepared to use force."

The subdued reaction to the Anschluss (the U.S. issued a similar statement) led to
Gate to the garage yard in the
Hitler's conclusion that he could use more aggressive tactics in his "roadmap" to expand
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration
Nazi Germany, as he would later do in annexing theSudetenland.
camp
On March 18, 1938, the German government communicated to the Secretary General of
the League of Nations about the inclusion of Austria.[83] And next day in Geneva, the
Mexican Delegate to the International Office of Labor, Isidro Fabela, voiced an
energetic protest, stronger than that expressed by European countries,[84] denouncing
the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.[85][86]

Legacy

Anschluss: annexation or union?

The word Anschluss is properly translated as "joinder," "connection," "unification," or
"political union." In contrast, the German word Annektierung (military annexation) was
not, and is not commonly used now, to describe the union of Austria and Germany in
1938. The word Anschluss had been widespread before 1938 describing an incorporation
of Austria into Germany. Calling the incorporation of Austria into Germany an
"Stairs of Death" at Mauthausen-
"Anschluss," that is a "unification" or "joinder," was also part of the propaganda used in
Gusen with prisoners forced to
1938 by Nazi Germany to create the impression that the union was not coerced. Hitler carry a granite block up 186 steps
described the incorporation of Austria as a Heimkehr, a return to its original home.[87] to the top of the quarry.
The word Anschluss has endured since 1938, despite being a euphemism for what took
place.

Some sources, like theEncyclopædia Britannica, describe the Anschluss as an "annexation"[88] rather than a union.

Changes in Central Europe

The Anschluss was among the first major steps in Austrian-born Hitler's desire to create a Greater German Reich that was to include
all ethnic Germans and all the lands and territories that the German Empire had lost after the First World War. Although Austria was
predominantly ethnically German and had been part of the Holy Roman Empire until it dissolved in 1806 and the German
[89]
 Confederation[89] until 1866 after the defeat in the Austro-
Prussian War, it had never been a part of the German Empire.
The unification of Germany brought about by Otto von
Bismarck created that Prussian-dominated entity in 1871, with
Austria, Prussia's rival for dominance of the German states,
explicitly excluded.[90]

Prior to annexing Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany had

remilitarized the Rhineland, and the Saar region was returned
to Germany after 15 years of occupation through a plebiscite.
After the Anschluss, Hitler targeted Czechoslovakia, provoking
an international crisis which led to the Munich Agreement in
September 1938, giving Nazi Germany control of the industrial
A map showing the border changes of Germany in the Sudetenland, which had a predominantly ethnic German
various years 1933 (red), 1939 (pink) and 1943 population. In March 1939, Hitler then dismantled
(orange). Czechoslovakia by recognising the independence of Slovakia
and making the rest of the nation a protectorate. That same
year, Memelland was returned from Lithuania.

With the Anschluss, the Republic of Austria ceased to exist as an independent state. At the end of World War II, a Provisional
Austrian Government under Karl Renner was set up by conservatives, Social Democrats and Communists on 27 April 1945 (when
Vienna had already been occupied by the Red Army). It cancelled the Anschluss the same day and was legally recognized by the
Allies in the following months. In 1955 theAustrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state.

Second Republic

Moscow Declaration
The Moscow Declaration of 1943, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, included a "Declaration on
Austria", which stated the following:

The governments of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States of America are agreed that Austria,
the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression, shall be liberated from German domination.

They regard the annexation imposed on Austria by Germany on 15 March 1938, as null and void. They consider
themselves as in no way bound by any changes effected in Austria since that date. They declare that they wish to see
re-established a free and independent Austria and thereby to open the way for the Austrian people themselves, as well
as those neighbouring States which will be faced with similar problems, to find that political and economic security
which is the only basis for lasting peace.

Austria is reminded, however, that she has a responsibility, which she cannot evade, for participation in the war at the
side of Hitlerite Germany, and that in the final settlement account will inevitably be taken of her own contribution to
her liberation.[91][92]

The declaration was mostly intended to serve as propaganda aimed at stirring Austrian resistance. Although some Austrians aided
Jews and are counted as Righteous Among the Nations, there never was an effective Austrian armed resistance of the sort found in
other countries under German occupation.
However, other occupied countries, such as Norway, Poland and France, had no such requirements to forcibly provide troops to the
Wehrmacht, and their resistance movements had virtually the entire male populace of those countries, to call upon. Also, even the
extremely few men, untouched by conscription in Austria, who might make up a resistance movement, would certainly know that
they would probably be killing fellow Austrians, forced into German service, with each and every resistance movement attack.

The Moscow Declaration is said to have a somewhat complex drafting history.[93] At Nuremberg, Arthur Seyss-Inquart[94] and Franz
von Papen,[95] in particular, were both indicted under count one (conspiracy to commit crimes against peace) specifically for their
activities in support of the Austrian Nazi Party and the Anschluss, but neither was convicted of this count. In acquitting von Papen,
the court noted that his actions were in its view political immoralities but not crimes under its charter. Seyss-Inquart was convicted of
other serious war crimes, most of which took place in Poland and the Netherlands, was sentenced to death and executed.

Austrian identity and the "victim theory"

After World War II many Austrians sought comfort in the idea of Austria as being
the first victim of the Nazis. Although the Nazi party was promptly banned, Austria
did not have the same thorough process of denazification that was imposed on
Germany. Lacking outside pressure for political reform, factions of Austrian society
tried for a long time to advance the view that the Anschluss was only an annexation
at the point of a bayonet.[96]

This view of the events of 1938 has deep roots in the 10 years of Allied occupation
and the struggle to regain Austrian sovereignty: the "victim theory" played an
essential role in the negotiations for the Austrian State Treaty with the Soviets, and
by pointing to the Moscow Declaration, Austrian politicians heavily relied on it to
achieve a solution for Austria different from the division of Germany into separate
Eastern and Western states. The state treaty, alongside the subsequent Austrian
declaration of permanent neutrality, marked important milestones for the
solidification of Austria's independent national identity during the course of the
following decades.[97]
"Red-White-Red Book" published by
As Austrian politicians of the left and right attempted to reconcile their differences the Austrian Ministry of Foreign
to avoid the violent conflict that had dominated the First Republic, discussions of Affairs in 1946 describes the events
of Austria between 1938-1945 by the
both Austrian Nazism and Austria's role during the Nazi-era were largely avoided.
Founders of the Second Austrian
Still, the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) had advanced, and still advances, the
Republic.
argument that the establishment of the Dollfuss dictatorship was necessary to
maintain Austrian independence. On the other hand, the Austrian Social Democratic
Party (SPÖ) argues that the Dollfuss dictatorship stripped the country of the democratic resources necessary to repel Hitler; yet it
[98]
ignores the fact that Hitler himself was a native of Austria.

It has also helped the Austrians develop their own national identity as before. After World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany the
political ideology of Pan-Germanism fell into disfavor and is now seen by the majority of German-speaking people as taboo. Unlike
earlier in the 20th century when there was no Austrian identity separate from a German one, in 1987 only 6% of the Austrians
identified themselves as "Germans."[99] A survey carried out in 2008 concluded that over 90% of Austrians considered themselves to
be an independent nation.[100]

Political events
For decades, the victim theory remained largely undisputed in Austria. The public was rarely forced to confront the legacy of Nazi
Germany. One of those occasions arose in 1965, when Taras Borodajkewycz, a professor of economic history, made anti-Semitic
remarks following the death of Ernst Kirchweger, a concentration camp survivor killed by a right-wing protester during riots. It was
not until the 1980s that Austrians confronted their mixed past on a large scale. The catalyst for the Vergangenheitsbewältigung
(struggle to come to terms with the past) was the Waldheim affair. Kurt Waldheim, a candidate in the presidential election and former
UN Secretary-General, was accused of having been a member of the Nazi party and of the infamous SA (he was later absolved of
direct involvement in war crimes). The Waldheim affair started the first serious discussions about Austria's past and theAnschluss.

Another factor was the rise ofJörg Haider and the Freedom Party of Austria(FPÖ) in the 1980s. The party had combined elements of
the pan-German right with free-market liberalism since its foundation in 1955, but after Haider ascended to the party chairmanship in
1986, the liberal elements became increasingly marginalized. Haider began to openly use nationalist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. He
was criticised for using the völkisch (ethnic) definition of national interest ("Austria for Austrians") and his apologetics for Austria's
past, notably calling members of the Waffen-SS "men of honour". Following a dramatic rise in electoral support in the 1990s that
peaked in the 1999 elections, the FPÖ entered a coalition with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), led by Wolfgang Schüssel. This
was condemned in 2000. The coalition prompted the regular Donnerstagsdemonstrationen (Thursday demonstrations) in protest
against the government, which took place on the Heldenplatz where Hitler had greeted the masses during the Anschluss. Haider's
tactics and rhetoric, often criticised as sympathetic to Nazism, forced Austrians to reconsider their relationship to the past. Haider's
coalition partner, former Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, in a 2000 interview with the Jerusalem Post, reiterated the "first victim"
theory.[101]

Literature
The political discussions and soul-searching were reflected in other aspects of culture. Thomas Bernhard's last play, Heldenplatz
(1988), generated controversy even before it was produced, fifty years after Hitler's entrance to the city. Bernhard made the historic
elimination of references to Hitler's reception in Vienna emblematic of Austrian attempts to claim its history and culture under
questionable criteria. Many politicians called Bernhard a Nestbeschmutzer (damaging the reputation of his country) and openly
demanded that the play should not be staged in Vienna's Burgtheater. Waldheim, still president, called the play "a crude insult to the
Austrian people".[102]

Historical Commission and outstanding legal issues

In the Federal Republic of Germany the Vergangenheitsbewältigung
("struggle to come to terms with the past") has been partially institutionalised
in literary, cultural, political, and educational contexts. Austria formed a
Historikerkommission[103] ("Historian's Commission" or "Historical
Commission") in 1998 with a mandate to review Austria's role in the Nazi
expropriation of Jewish property from a scholarly rather than legal
perspective, partly in response to continuing criticism of its handling of
property claims. Its membership was based on recommendations from
various quarters, including Simon Wiesenthal and Yad Vashem. The
Commission delivered its report in 2003.[104] Noted Holocaust historian
Raul Hilberg refused to participate in the Commission and in an interview he
stated his strenuous objections in terms both personal and in reference to
larger questions about Austrian culpability and liability, comparing what he
thought to be relative inattention by the World Jewish Congress to the
settlement governing the Swiss bank holdings of those who died or were
displaced by the Holocaust.[105]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center continues to criticise Austria (as recently as

June 2005) for its alleged historical and ongoing unwillingness aggressively
to pursue investigations and trials against Nazis for war crimes and crimes The SS raid a Jewish community center,
Vienna, March 1938.
against humanity from the 1970s onwards. Its 2001 report offered the
following characterization:
 Given the extensive participation of numerous Austrians, including at the highest levels, in the implementation of the
Final Solution and other Nazi crimes, Austria should have been a leader in the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators
over the course of the past four decades, as has been the case in Germany. Unfortunately relatively little has been
achieved by the Austrian authorities in this regard and in fact, with the exception of the case of Dr. Heinrich Gross
which was suspended this year under highly suspicious circumstances (he claimed to be medically unfit, but outside
the court proved to be healthy) not a single Nazi war crimes prosecution has been conducted in Austria since the mid-
1970s.[106]

In 2003, the Center launched a worldwide effort named "Operation: Last Chance" in order to collect further information about those
Nazis still alive that are potentially subject to prosecution. Although reports issued shortly thereafter credited Austria for initiating
large-scale investigations, there has been one case where criticism of Austrian authorities arose recently: The Center put 92-year-old
Croatian Milivoj Asner on its 2005 top ten list. Asner fled to Austria in 2004 after Croatia announced it would start investigations in
the case of war crimes he may have been involved in. In response to objections about Asner's continued freedom, Austria's federal
government deferred to either extradition requests from Croatia or prosecutorial actions from Klagenfurt, claiming reason of
dementia in 2008. Milivoj Ašner died on 14 June 201
1 at the age of 98 in his room in a Caritas nursing home still in Klagenfurt.

Austrian political and military leaders in Nazi Germany

Franz Böhme Adolf Hitler Julius Ringel
Alois Brunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Adolf Eichmann Alexander Löhr Otto Skorzeny
Hans Fischböck Erhard Raus Alfred Ritter von Hubicki
Odilo Globocnik Hanns Albin Rauter Anton Reinthaller
Amon Göth Lothar Rendulic

See also
Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
German occupation of Czechoslovakia
History of the Jews in Austria
History of the Jews in Vienna
King Ottokar's Sceptre (a fictitious account of the failed Bordurian coup d'état and invasion of their democratic
neighbour Syldavia, modeled on theAnschluss)
Munich Pact
The Great Dictator (a fictitious account of the invasion of "Osterlich" by "T
omania", modeled on theAnschluss)
The Sound of Music (a dramatization based on the memoir ofMaria von Trapp)

References
Informational notes

a. After the Prussian-dominated German nation-state was created in 1871 without Austria, the German question was
still very active in most parts of the ethnic German lands of the Austro-Hungarian and German empires; the Austrian
pan-Germans were in favour of a Pan-German vision of Austria joining Germany in order to create a "Greater
Germany" and the Germans inside the German Empire were in favour of all Germans being unified into a single
state.[5]
b. Hitler was an ethnic German, but was not a German citizen by birth since he had been born in the Austro-Hungarian
empire. He gave up his Austrian citizenship in 1925 and remained stateless for seven years before he became a
German citizen in 1932.[20]
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Bibliography

Art, David (2006). The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria
. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-
521-85683-6..
Faber, David (2010) Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II pp. 139–68
Gellately, Robert (2002). Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0192802917.
 Gellately, Robert (2001). Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton University Press.ISBN 0691086842.
Hildebrand, Klaus (1973)The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press
Bukey, Evan Burr (2002). Hitler's Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-1945 . University North Carolina.
ISBN 0807853631.
Kershaw, Ian (2001). Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis. Penguin. ISBN 0140272399.
Low, Alfred D. (1974). The Anschluss Movement, 1918–1919: And the Paris Peace Conference . American
Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0-87169-103-3.
Low, Alfred D. (1976) "The Anschluss Movement (1918–1938) in Recent Historical Writing: German Nationalism and
Austrian Patriotism," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism(1976) 3#2 pp 212–225, historiography
Ozment, Steven (2005)A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People . New York: Harper Perennial.
Pauley, Bruce F. (2000). From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism . Univ of North Carolina
Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-6376-3.
Shirer, William L. (1990). Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany . Simon & Schuster.
ISBN 0671728687.
Shirer, William L. (1984). Twentieth Century Journey, Volume 2, The Nightmare Years: 1930–1940. Boston: Little,
Brown & Company. ISBN 0-316-78703-5.
Speer, Albert (1997) Inside the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Stackelberg, Roderick (1999).Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies . Routledge & Kegan Paul.
ISBN 0415201152.</ref>
Steininger, Wolf (2008) Austria, Germany, and the Cold War: from the Anschluss to the State Treaty 1938–1955 New
York: Berghahn Books.ISBN 978-1-84545-326-8
Weinberg, Gerhard (1981).The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World W ar II. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. ISBN 0226885119.
Zeman, Zbynek (1973).Nazi Propaganda. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0192850601.
Further reading

Barnett, William P., and Michael Woywode. "From Red Vienna to the Anschluss: Ideological Competition among
Viennese Newspapers during the Rise of National Socialism," American Journal of Sociology(2004) 109#6
pp. 1452–1499 in JSTOR
Bukey, Evan Burr. Hitler's Hometown: Linz, Austria, 1908–1945(Indiana University Press, 1986)ISBN 0-253-32833-
0.
Gehl, Jürgen. Austria, Germany, and the Anschluss, 1931–1938 (1963), the standard scholarly monography
.
Luža, Radomir. Austro-German Relations in the Anschluss Era(1975) ISBN 0691075689.
Parkinson, F., ed. Conquering the Past: Austrian Nazism Yesterday and Today (Wayne State University Press,
1989). ISBN 0-8143-2054-6.
Pauley, Bruce F. Hitler and the Forgotten Nazis: A History of Austrian National Socialism
(University of North
Carolina Press, 1981) ISBN 0-8078-1456-3.
Rathkolb, Oliver. "The 'Anschluss' in the Rear-View Mirror, 1938–2008: Historical Memories Between Debate and
Transformation," Contemporary Austrian Studies(2009), Vol. 17, pp. 5–28, historiography.
Wright, Herbert. "The Legality of the Annexation of Austria by Germany," American Journal of International Law
(1944) 38#4 pp. 621–635in JSTOR
Gedye, George Eric Rowe. Betrayal in Central Europe. Austria and Czechoslovakia, the Fallen Bastions. New and
revised edition. Harper & Brothers, New Y
ork 1939. Paperback reissue, Faber & Faber
, 2009. ISBN 978-
0571251896.
Schuschnigg, Kurt. The brutal takeover: The Austrian ex-Chancellor's account of the Anschluss of Austria by Hitler
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971)ISBN 0-297-00321-6.

In German

Scheuch, Manfred (2005).Der Weg zum Heldenplatz: eine Geschichte der österreichischen Diktatur. 1933–1938.
ISBN 3-8258-7712-4.
Stuckel, Eva-Maria (2001).Österreich, Monarchie, Operette, und Anschluss: Antisemitismus, Faschismus, und
Nationalsozialismus im Fadenkreuz von Ingeborg Bachman und Elias Canetti. Kulturförderverein Ruhrgebiet.
ISBN 3-931300-09-9.
 Österreichs Weg zum Anschluss im März 1938," Wiener Zeitung, 25 May 1998 (detailed article on the events of the
Anschluss).
Die propagandistische Vorbereitung der Volksabstimmung," Austrian Resistance Archive, Vienna, 1988 (accessed
10 June 2005).

External links
The Crisis Year of 1934 Buchner, A. From the Destruction of the Socialist Lager to National Socialist Coup Attempt
(accessed 10 June 2005).
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Library Bibliography: Anschluss
Austrian Historical Commission
Encyclopædia Britannica,Anschluss article
BBC article by Robert Knight, who served on the Historikercommission
Full text of the Moscow Declaration
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Time magazine coverage of the events of theAnschluss
Pictures of Adolf Hitler in Vienna
Anschluss – a soundbite history of the German invasion into Austria
Map of Europe at time ofAnschluss at omniatlas.com

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