Austria at the Time of National Socialism
Encyclopedia
Austria at the time of National Socialism describes in particular the period of Austrian history
from March 12, 1938 when the German annexation of Austria
made Austria part of the German Third Reich until the end of World War II
in spring 1945.
, with the breakup of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire, and with the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy
, there were three major political groups competing with one another in the young republic of Austria: the Social Democratic Party of Austria
(SDAP), Christian Social Party (CS), and the nationalist Great German Union (Großdeutsche Vereinigung), which became the Greater German People's Party
(Großdeutsche Volkspartei, or GVP) in 1920. At the time, smaller parties such as the Communist Party of Austria
(Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, or KPÖ) and the Austrian National Socialists (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, or DNSAP) were neither present in the Reichsrat
(Imperial Council) nor the Nationalrat
(National Council).
SDAP, GVP, and DNSAP were clearly, although for different reasons, in favour a union of German Austria
with the German state, which was also a republic by that time (Weimar Republic
). The CS also tended to favour the union, but differed at first on a different subject - they were split on the idea of continuing the monarchy instead of a republic. Whereas only the KPÖ decidedly spoke against the annexation in the course of the 1920s and 1930s, the monarchists originally spoke up against the annexation and later turned to favor it, after the Bavarian Soviet Republic
had failed, and Germany had a conservative government. The Treaty of Saint-Germain, signed September 10, 1919 by Karl Renner
(SDAP), first chancellor of the republic, clearly forbade any union with Germany, abolished the monarchy, and clearly stated the Republic of Austria as an independent country.
, hyperinflation
) and a constantly increasing tension between the different political groups. From 1918 to 1920 the government was led by the Social Democratic Party and later by the Christian Social Party in coalition with the German nationalists.
On May 31, 1922, prelate
Ignaz Seipel
became Chancellor
of the Christian Social government. He succeeded in improving the economic situation with the financial help of the League of Nations
(monetary reform
). Ideologically, Seipel was clearly anti-communist
and did everything in his power to reduce, as far as possible, the influence of the Social Democrats - both sides saw this as a conflict between two social classes.
The military of Austria was restricted to 30,000 men by the allies and the police force was poorly equipped. Already by 1918 the first homeguards were established like the Kärntner Abwehrkampf. In 1920 in Tirol
the first Heimwehr
was put in duty under the command of Richard Steidle
with the help of the Bavaria
n organisation Escherich
. Soon other states followed. In 1923 members of the Monarchist “Ostara” shot a worker dead and the Social Democrats founded their own protective organization. Other paramilitary
groups were the formed from former active soldiers and members of the Roman Catholic Church
. The “Vaterländische Schutzbund” (Protectors of the Fatherland) were National Socialists though their swastikas were at first not taken seriously. Later they started the Austrian SA
.
The “German Workers Party” had already been founded in Bohemia
as early as 1903. It was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It supported German nationalism and anti-clericalism
but at first was not particularly anti-Semitic. This party stood mainly for making Austrians German. In 1909 lawyer, Walter Riehl
joined the party and he became leader in 1918. Soon after that the name was changed to the German National Socialist Workers Party. After the fall of the monarchy, the party split into a Czechoslovakian party and an Austrian party under Riehl. From 1920 onwards this Austrian party cooperated closely with the German Workers Party or German National Socialist workers party formed in Munich which Adolf Hitler
led after 1921. In 1923 Riehl’s party had about 23,000 members and was a marginal factor in Austrian politics. In 1924 there was another split and Karl Schulz led a splinter group. The two opposed each other. In 1926 Richard Suchenwirth founded the Austrian branch of Hitler’s German National Socialist party in Vienna. Around that time Benito Mussolini formed his Fascist dictatorship in Italy and became an important ally of the far right.
The Austrian National Socialists linked to Hitler (Nazis) got only 779 votes in the 1927 General Election. The strongest grouping besides the Social Democrats was the Unity Coalition led by the Christian Social Party but including German Nationalists and the groups of Riehl and Schulz. In the course of these years there were frequent serious acts of violence between the various armed factions and people were regularly killed. In the General Election of 1930, the Social Democrats were the largest single party. The Christian Social Party came second but stayed in office in a coalition with smaller parties. The Austrian National Socialists linked to Hitler (Nazis) got only 3.6% of the votes and failed to enter Parliament. In the following years the Nazis gained votes at the expense of the various German national groups which also wanted unity with Germany. After 1930 Hitler’s party doubled its membership every year because of the economic crisis. One of their slogans was, "500,000 Unemployed – 400,000 Jews
– Simple way out; vote National Socialist".
Engelbert Dollfuß had led them from 1932. The Social Democrats were no longer their only threat. The previous chancellor and priest Ignaz Seipel had worked towards an authoritarian state
. Seipel based this on the Papal Encyclical
s, Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno
(1931). Abolition of the parliamentary system
was necessary for this. A crisis in the Austrian parliament on the May 4, 1933 gave Dollfuß the opportunity he wanted.
Later in May 1933 the Christian Social Union was converted to the Patriotic Front
. The Patriotic Front was a political organisation, supposedly above partisan considerations, Roman Catholic and vehemently anti-Marxist. It purported to represent all Austrians who were true to their native land. Within a week the Austrian Communist Party was banned, and before the end of the month the republican paramilitary organisation and Freethinkers Organisations
were banned along with numerous other groups. Nazis failed to get more than 25% of the votes in local elections in most areas. In Zwettl
and Innsbruck
however they got more than 40%, and they tried to lever this into a basis for agitation against the ruling Patriotic Front. Nazi supporters generated a wave of terrorism which crested in early June with four deaths and 48 people injured.
In Germany
Hitler became Chancellor early in 1933. The Social Democrats deleted any intention to cooperate with Germany from its party programme. Nazis had fled to Bavaria after their party was banned in Austria and founded there the Austrian Legion. The Nazis there had military style camps and military training. Nazi terrorists in Austria received financial, logistic and material support from Germany. The German Government subjected Austria to systematic agitation. After the expulsion of the Bavarian Minister of Justice in May 1933 German citizens were required to pay a thousand marks to the German Government before travelling to Austria. The Austrian Nazi Party was banned in June after a hand grenade attack in Krems. Nazi terrorism abated after that though five more people were killed and 52 injured by the end of the year.
On February 12, 1934 there was a violent confrontation in Linz
with serious consequences. Members of a paramilitary group acting to assist the police wanted to enter a building belonging to the Social Democrats or a party member’s home. They wanted to find any weapons belonging to the Social Democrat paramilitary which had by then been banned. Violence spread to the whole country and developed into civil war. The police and their paramilitary supporters together with the army won the confrontation by the February 14. There were many arrests. Constitutional courts were abolished, trade unions and the Social Democrat Party were banned, and the death penalty was reintroduced. After political opposition had been suppressed the Austrian Republic was transformed into the Austrofast
Ständestaat. The authoritarian Maiverfassung (May Constitution) was proclaimed on May 1. Note: the 1st of May was traditionally an important day for Austrian, especially Viennese, Social Democrats. Choosing this day must have been seen as a deliberate humiliation.
under the leadership of the Austrian SS
. About 150 SS personnel forced their way into the Chancellor’s office in Vienna. Dollfuß was shot and died a few hours later from his wounds. Another group occupied the building of the Austrian National Radio and forced a statement that the Government of Dollfuß had fallen and Anton Rintelen
was the new head of government. Anton Rintelen belonged to the Christian Social Party but is suspected of Nazi sympathy. This false report was intended to start a Nazi uprising throughout the country but it was only partially successful.
There was considerable fighting in parts of Carinthia
, Styria and Upper Austria
and limited resistance in Salzburg
. In Carinthia and Styria the fighting lasted from the 27th to the 30th of July. Some members of the Austrian Legion tried to push out from Bavaria over the Mühlviertel
, a part of Upper Austria, and towards Linz
. They were forced back to the frontier at Kollerschlag. On July 26 a German courier was arrested at the Kollerschlag
pass in Upper Austria. He had with him documented instructions for the revolt. This so-called Kollerschlag Document demonstrated the connection of the July revolt to Bavaria clearly.
The army, the gendarmery and the police put down revolt with heavy casualties. On the government side there were 107 deaths and 500 injuries. On the rebel side there were 140 deaths and 600 injuries. 13 rebels were executed and 4,000 people were imprisoned without trial. Many thousand supporters of the Nazi party were arrested. Up to 4000 fled over the border to Germany and Yugoslavia
. Kurt Schuschnigg
became the new Chancellor.
In Bavaria many sections of the Austrian legion were officially closed. In reality they were only pushed further north and renamed, “North-West Assistance”. Fascist Italy was more closely tied to the regime in Vienna and sent troops to the Austrian border at Brenner to deter German troops from a possible invasion of Austria. The German government stated that it had nothing to do with the revolt. Germany only admitted that it was trying to subvert the Austrian political system through trusted people. They continued to support the illegal Nazi party but sympathizers who did not belong to the party were more significant. This included among others Taras Borodajkewycz
, Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
, Franz Langoth
, Walther Pembauer and Arthur Seyß-Inquart.
Italy began its conquest of Abyssinia
(the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
) in October 1935. After that Mussolini was an internationally isolated and strengthened relation with Hitler. The ruling Austrian Patriotic Front lost an important ally. Despite the murder of Engelbert Dollfuß, his successor Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg had to improve relations with the German government. Like his predecessor he wanted to maintain the independence of Austria. He saw Austria as the second German state and the better state as it was founded on Roman Catholicism.
In July 1936 Schuschnigg accepted the July Agreement with Germany. Imprisoned Nazis were released and some Nazi newspapers, which had been banned, were allowed into Austria. The Nazi Party remained banned. Schuschnigg undertook further to allow two people whom the Nazis trusted into the Government. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau became Minister for National Affairs and Guido Schmidt became Secretary of State in the Foreign Ministry. Arthur Seyß-Inquart was taken into the legislative Council of State. Germany rescinded the requirement for a payment of a thousand marks for entry into Austria. The transformation of the Austrofascist State through Nazis was furthered more in 1937 when it became possible for them to join the Patriotic Front. Throughout Austria political units were set up and some were led by Nazis. This was a legal disguise for the reorganization.
From 1937 it was clear that the Nazis considered it only a matter of time before Austria was annexed into the Greater German Reich
. Hitler was born an Austrian. On the first page of his book, Mein Kampf
he demanded that German Austria as he called it "must return to the great German motherland". His strategy included the subjugation of Austria and Tschechien, now in the Czech Republic as stated in November 1937.
In February 1938 Franz von Papen
, the German ambassador in Vienna arranged a meeting between Hitler and Schuschnigg at Obersalzberg
in Gaden in Bavaria. Hitler threatened repeatedly to invade Austria and forced Schuschnigg to implement a range of measures favourable to Austrian Nazism. The Agreement of Gaden guaranteed the Austrian Nazi Party political freedom and assisted Arthur Seyß-Inquart in becoming Home Secretary (Innenminister). Schuschnigg endeavoured to maintain Austrian national integrity despite steadily increasing German influence. On March 9, 1938 he announced that he wanted to hold a consultative referendum on the independence of Austria on the following Sunday. Hitler responded by mobilizing the 8th Army for the planned invasion. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
who was at the time in Berlin brought Hitler’s ultimatum from there and Göring reinforced it with a telephone message to Schuschnigg. The German government demanded the postponement or abandonment of the referendum. Schuschnigg conceded on the afternoon of March 11. Then Hitler demanded his resignation which happened on the same evening.
. On the morning of the March 12 heavily armed German troops and police crossed the Austrian frontier, in total about 65,000. Large sections of the Austrian population were very pleased to see them. In Vienna, Aspern met Heinrich Himmler
of the SS
accompanied by many police and SS officials to take over the Austrian police. Supporters of the Austrian Nazi Party together with members of the SS and SA
occupied public buildings and offices throughout Austria without a previously planned transition period. The formation of the Greater German Reich was announced from the balcony of the Council House in Linz. On the following day, March 13, 1938, the second session of the Government passed the “Reunification with Germany Law”. Federal President Miklas refused to endorse it and resigned. Seyß-Inquart was now functioning Head of State. He could make his own laws and publish them.
On March 15 Hitler, who had spent the previous two days in his birthtown of Braunau am Inn
, made a triumphal entry into Vienna and gave a speech on Heldenplatz
in front of tens of thousands of cheering people, in which he boasted his "greatest accomplishment": "Als Führer und Kanzler der deutschen Nation und des Reiches melde ich vor der deutschen Geschichte nunmehr den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich." Translation: "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." Ernst Kaltenbrunner
from Upper Austria
, sentenced to death in 1946 at the Nuremberg trials
, was promoted SS-Brigadeführer
and the leader of the SS-upper section Austria. Beginning on March 12 and during the subsequent weeks 72,000 people were arrested, primarily in Vienna, among them politicians of the First Republic, intellectuals and above all Jews. Jewish institutions were shuttered.
For April 10 a referendum was set for the already accomplished annexation. In those weeks leading to the referendum a kind of propaganda took place all over Austria in a way that had been never seen before. Hitler himself, Joseph Goebbels
, Hermann Göring
, Rudolf Hess
and many other leading figures of the Nazi regime had very squeamishly scheduled appearances in public to hold speeches. The controlled press and radio had no other topic than YES to the "Reunion of German and Austria". Prominent Austrians like Cardinal Theodor Innitzer who signed a declaration of the bishops with Heil Hitler, and the Social Democrat Karl Renner
promoted the approval. According to official records 99.73% voted YES in Austria and in the German Empire 99.08 voted for the annexation.
Excluded from the referendum were about 8% of the Austrian voters: about 200,000 Jews and roughly 177,000 Mischling
e (half-breeds) and all those who had already been arrested for "racial" or political reasons.
In many places assaults took place against Austrian Jews during those weeks. Many were dispossessed of their shops and apartments, into which moved those who had robbed them assisted by the SA and fanatics. Jews were forced to put on their best clothes and, on their hands and knees with brushes, to clean the sidewalks of anti-Anschluss slogans.
Being 8% of the population in the German Empire, 14% of the SS-members were of Austrian origin. 40% of the staff in the Extermination camps and 70% of Adolf Eichmann
's staff came from Austria.
Josef Bürckel
, previously Reichskommissar
for the reunion of the Saar (protectorate)
, was appointed "Reichskommissar for the reunification of Austria with the German Empire".
, about 1,700 motor vehicles were seized from their Jewish owners between March 11 and August 10, 1938. Until May 1939, the government seized about 44,000 apartments in Jewish possession.
complex, with more than 50 subcamps, among them the Ebensee concentration camp
, KZ – Nebenlager Bretstein, Steyr-Münichholz subcamp
and AFA-Werke. Euthanasia
was practised in Hartheim Castle near Linz
, where the killing program Action T4
took place, and in Am Spiegelgrund clinic
in Vienna, where more than 700 handicapped children were murdered.
, the film-makers Leon Askin
, Fritz Lang
, Josef von Sternberg
, Billy Wilder
, Max Reinhardt
, the actors Karl Farkas
and Gerhard Bronner
and the writers Hermann Broch
, Robert Musil
, Anton Kuh
and Franz Werfel
. Friedrich Torberg
, who witnessed the German invasion ("Anschluss") in Prague, did not return to Vienna. Erich Fried
flew with this mother to London after his father had been killed by the Gestapo in May 1938 during an interrogation. Stefan Zweig
escaped via London, New York, Argentina and Paraguay to Brazil where he committed suicide in February 1942, together with this wife Charlotte Altmann. 1936 Nobel laureate in medicine Otto Loewi
had to pay his prize money back before emigrating. Additional scientists going into exile were Sigmund Freud
, Erwin Schrödinger
, Kurt Gödel
, Martin Buber
, Karl Popper
and Lise Meitner
. Bruno Kreisky
, who had to leave the country for political reasons and because of his Jewish origin, emigrated to Sweden. After his comeback, he served as Austrian Chancellor from 1970 to 1983.
, almost 40 years after the end of war finally a memorial for the „Zigeuner-Anhaltelager“ was uncovered, the wish for a memorial in Kemeten
has not yet been fulfilled. Prior to the war, 200 Romanies lived in Kemeten. They were deported in the year 1941, only five of them came back in 1945.
In Summer 2004, the question about how to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the death of Robert Bernardis
, who was shot on August 8, 1944 after being involved in the July 20 plot
against Hitler, led to a political conflict. Politicians of the opposition (SPÖ
, Grüne
) as well as some celebrities suggested renaming a barrack to „Robert Bernardis-Kaserne“, which was turned down by the governing ÖVP
and FPÖ
. The defence minister
Günther Platter
(ÖVP) finally decided to build a memorial in the yard of the Towarek-Barrack in Enns
. The Green Politician Terezija Stoisits pointed out that a barrack has been named after an Austrian sarge called Anton Schmid
in Germany on the 8th May 2004. Schmid was fated to die at the court-martial by the Wehrmacht and was shot on 13 April 1942, after he saved the life of hundred Jews in the Vilnius Ghetto.
In the first years after the war, many memorials were built in several places, commemorating the dead soldiers of World War II who allegedly fought for their country. For the victims of the Nazi regime, memorials have only been built at a much later time.
As from 1992, there is the possibility of doing Zivildienst
(alternative National Service) in the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
. Approximately 15 people are deployed in the archive of the concentration camp memorial Mauthausen and alternatively in the camp itself. On the 1st September 1992, the first Austrian holocaust memorial servant started his service in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
. Andreas Maislinger
has taken over the idea from Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
. Annually approximately 30 civil servants are sent to holocaust-memorials and connected institutions in Europe, Israel, USA, South-America and China by the Holocaust Memorial Service.
The biggest Austrian Memorial for the remembrance of National-Socialism crimes is the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
. A part of the Contemporary History Museum Ebensee
, emerged by private initiative in 2001, reminds of the victims of the Ebensee concentration camp
.
History of Austria
The history of Austria covers the history of the current country of Austria and predecessor states, from the Iron Age, through to a sovereign state, annexation by the German Third Reich, partition after the Second World War and later developments until the present day...
from March 12, 1938 when the German annexation of Austria
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
made Austria part of the German Third Reich until the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in spring 1945.
Early history
In 1918, at the end of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, with the breakup of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire, and with the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
, there were three major political groups competing with one another in the young republic of Austria: the Social Democratic Party of Austria
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
(SDAP), Christian Social Party (CS), and the nationalist Great German Union (Großdeutsche Vereinigung), which became the Greater German People's Party
Greater German People's Party
The Greater German People's Party was a German nationalist and national liberal party during the First Republic of Austria.-Foundation:...
(Großdeutsche Volkspartei, or GVP) in 1920. At the time, smaller parties such as the Communist Party of Austria
Communist Party of Austria
The Communist Party of Austria is a communist party based in Austria. Established in 1918, it was banned between 1933 and 1945 under both the Austrofascist regime, and German control of Austria during World War II...
(Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, or KPÖ) and the Austrian National Socialists (Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, or DNSAP) were neither present in the Reichsrat
Reichsrat (Austria)
The Imperial Council of Austria from 1867 to 1918 was the parliament of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a bicameral legislature, consisting of the Herrenhaus and the Abgeordnetenhaus...
(Imperial Council) nor the Nationalrat
National Council of Austria
The National Council is one of the two houses of the Austrian parliament. According to the constitution, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council are peers...
(National Council).
SDAP, GVP, and DNSAP were clearly, although for different reasons, in favour a union of German Austria
German Austria
Republic of German Austria was created following World War I as the initial rump state for areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within what had been the Austro-Hungarian Empire, without the Kingdom of Hungary, which in 1918 had become the Hungarian Democratic Republic.German...
with the German state, which was also a republic by that time (Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
). The CS also tended to favour the union, but differed at first on a different subject - they were split on the idea of continuing the monarchy instead of a republic. Whereas only the KPÖ decidedly spoke against the annexation in the course of the 1920s and 1930s, the monarchists originally spoke up against the annexation and later turned to favor it, after the Bavarian Soviet Republic
Bavarian Soviet Republic
The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state in form of a council republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed...
had failed, and Germany had a conservative government. The Treaty of Saint-Germain, signed September 10, 1919 by Karl Renner
Karl Renner
Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...
(SDAP), first chancellor of the republic, clearly forbade any union with Germany, abolished the monarchy, and clearly stated the Republic of Austria as an independent country.
First Republic
Life and politics in the early years were marked by serious economic problems (the loss of industrial areas and natural resources in the now independent CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
) and a constantly increasing tension between the different political groups. From 1918 to 1920 the government was led by the Social Democratic Party and later by the Christian Social Party in coalition with the German nationalists.
On May 31, 1922, prelate
Prelate
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...
Ignaz Seipel
Ignaz Seipel
Ignaz Seipel was an Austrian prelate and politician who served as Chancellor during the 1920s.-Career:Seipel studied theology at the University of Vienna and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1899...
became Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the Christian Social government. He succeeded in improving the economic situation with the financial help of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
(monetary reform
Monetary reform
Monetary reform describes any movement or theory that proposes a different system of supplying money and financing the economy from the current system.Monetary reformers may advocate any of the following, among other proposals:...
). Ideologically, Seipel was clearly anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
and did everything in his power to reduce, as far as possible, the influence of the Social Democrats - both sides saw this as a conflict between two social classes.
The military of Austria was restricted to 30,000 men by the allies and the police force was poorly equipped. Already by 1918 the first homeguards were established like the Kärntner Abwehrkampf. In 1920 in Tirol
German Tyrol
German Tyrol is a historical region in the Alps now divided between Austria and Italy. It includes largely ethnic German areas of historical County of Tyrol: the Austrian state of Tyrol and the province of South Tyrol but not the largely Italian-speaking province of Trentino .-History:German...
the first Heimwehr
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr or sometimes Heimatschutz were a Nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating within Austria during the 1920s and 1930s; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's Freikorps...
was put in duty under the command of Richard Steidle
Richard Steidle
Richard Steidle was an Austrian lawyer and the leader of the paramilitary Heimwehr in Tyrol...
with the help of the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n organisation Escherich
Georg Escherich
Georg Escherich was a German politician, representative of the Bavarian People's Party. By profession he was a forester....
. Soon other states followed. In 1923 members of the Monarchist “Ostara” shot a worker dead and the Social Democrats founded their own protective organization. Other paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
groups were the formed from former active soldiers and members of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. The “Vaterländische Schutzbund” (Protectors of the Fatherland) were National Socialists though their swastikas were at first not taken seriously. Later they started the Austrian SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
.
The “German Workers Party” had already been founded in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
as early as 1903. It was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It supported German nationalism and anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
but at first was not particularly anti-Semitic. This party stood mainly for making Austrians German. In 1909 lawyer, Walter Riehl
Walter Riehl
Dr. Walter Riehl was an Austrian lawyer and politician who was an early exponent of Austrian National Socialism.-DNSAP:...
joined the party and he became leader in 1918. Soon after that the name was changed to the German National Socialist Workers Party. After the fall of the monarchy, the party split into a Czechoslovakian party and an Austrian party under Riehl. From 1920 onwards this Austrian party cooperated closely with the German Workers Party or German National Socialist workers party formed in Munich which Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
led after 1921. In 1923 Riehl’s party had about 23,000 members and was a marginal factor in Austrian politics. In 1924 there was another split and Karl Schulz led a splinter group. The two opposed each other. In 1926 Richard Suchenwirth founded the Austrian branch of Hitler’s German National Socialist party in Vienna. Around that time Benito Mussolini formed his Fascist dictatorship in Italy and became an important ally of the far right.
The Austrian National Socialists linked to Hitler (Nazis) got only 779 votes in the 1927 General Election. The strongest grouping besides the Social Democrats was the Unity Coalition led by the Christian Social Party but including German Nationalists and the groups of Riehl and Schulz. In the course of these years there were frequent serious acts of violence between the various armed factions and people were regularly killed. In the General Election of 1930, the Social Democrats were the largest single party. The Christian Social Party came second but stayed in office in a coalition with smaller parties. The Austrian National Socialists linked to Hitler (Nazis) got only 3.6% of the votes and failed to enter Parliament. In the following years the Nazis gained votes at the expense of the various German national groups which also wanted unity with Germany. After 1930 Hitler’s party doubled its membership every year because of the economic crisis. One of their slogans was, "500,000 Unemployed – 400,000 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
– Simple way out; vote National Socialist".
Dictatorship, civil war and banning the National Socialists
The Christian Social Party had ruled from 1932 and ChancellorChancellor of Austria
The Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...
Engelbert Dollfuß had led them from 1932. The Social Democrats were no longer their only threat. The previous chancellor and priest Ignaz Seipel had worked towards an authoritarian state
Austrofascism
Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...
. Seipel based this on the Papal Encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
s, Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno is an encyclical written by Pope Pius XI, issued 15 May 1931, 40 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. Unlike Leo XIII, who addressed the condition of workers, Pius XI discusses the ethical implications of the social and economic order...
(1931). Abolition of the parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
was necessary for this. A crisis in the Austrian parliament on the May 4, 1933 gave Dollfuß the opportunity he wanted.
Later in May 1933 the Christian Social Union was converted to the Patriotic Front
Fatherland's Front (Austria)
The Vaterländische Front was a right-wing, austrofascist Austrian political party. It was founded in 1933 by Engelbert Dollfuss to collect all "loyal Austrians" under one banner...
. The Patriotic Front was a political organisation, supposedly above partisan considerations, Roman Catholic and vehemently anti-Marxist. It purported to represent all Austrians who were true to their native land. Within a week the Austrian Communist Party was banned, and before the end of the month the republican paramilitary organisation and Freethinkers Organisations
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
were banned along with numerous other groups. Nazis failed to get more than 25% of the votes in local elections in most areas. In Zwettl
Zwettl
Zwettl is a town and district capital in Lower Austria. It is chiefly known as the location of Zwettl Abbey, first mentioned in October 1139.- Geography :...
and Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
however they got more than 40%, and they tried to lever this into a basis for agitation against the ruling Patriotic Front. Nazi supporters generated a wave of terrorism which crested in early June with four deaths and 48 people injured.
In Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
Hitler became Chancellor early in 1933. The Social Democrats deleted any intention to cooperate with Germany from its party programme. Nazis had fled to Bavaria after their party was banned in Austria and founded there the Austrian Legion. The Nazis there had military style camps and military training. Nazi terrorists in Austria received financial, logistic and material support from Germany. The German Government subjected Austria to systematic agitation. After the expulsion of the Bavarian Minister of Justice in May 1933 German citizens were required to pay a thousand marks to the German Government before travelling to Austria. The Austrian Nazi Party was banned in June after a hand grenade attack in Krems. Nazi terrorism abated after that though five more people were killed and 52 injured by the end of the year.
On February 12, 1934 there was a violent confrontation in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
with serious consequences. Members of a paramilitary group acting to assist the police wanted to enter a building belonging to the Social Democrats or a party member’s home. They wanted to find any weapons belonging to the Social Democrat paramilitary which had by then been banned. Violence spread to the whole country and developed into civil war. The police and their paramilitary supporters together with the army won the confrontation by the February 14. There were many arrests. Constitutional courts were abolished, trade unions and the Social Democrat Party were banned, and the death penalty was reintroduced. After political opposition had been suppressed the Austrian Republic was transformed into the Austrofast
Austrofascism
Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...
Ständestaat. The authoritarian Maiverfassung (May Constitution) was proclaimed on May 1. Note: the 1st of May was traditionally an important day for Austrian, especially Viennese, Social Democrats. Choosing this day must have been seen as a deliberate humiliation.
Attempted Nazi coup and growing German influence
From the start of 1934 there was a new wave of Nazi terrorist attacks in Austria. This time government institutions were targeted far more than individuals. In the first half of 1934, 17 people were killed and 171 injured. On July 25 the Nazis attempted a coupCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
under the leadership of the Austrian SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
. About 150 SS personnel forced their way into the Chancellor’s office in Vienna. Dollfuß was shot and died a few hours later from his wounds. Another group occupied the building of the Austrian National Radio and forced a statement that the Government of Dollfuß had fallen and Anton Rintelen
Anton Rintelen
Anton Rintelen was an Austrian academic, jurist and politician. Initially associated with the right wing Christian Social Party, he later became involved in a Nazi coup d'etat plot....
was the new head of government. Anton Rintelen belonged to the Christian Social Party but is suspected of Nazi sympathy. This false report was intended to start a Nazi uprising throughout the country but it was only partially successful.
There was considerable fighting in parts of Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
, Styria and Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
and limited resistance in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
. In Carinthia and Styria the fighting lasted from the 27th to the 30th of July. Some members of the Austrian Legion tried to push out from Bavaria over the Mühlviertel
Mühlviertel
The Mühlviertel is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria, the others being Hausruckviertel, Traunviertel, and Innviertel. It is named for the two rivers and .-Region:...
, a part of Upper Austria, and towards Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
. They were forced back to the frontier at Kollerschlag. On July 26 a German courier was arrested at the Kollerschlag
Kollerschlag
Kollerschlag is a municipality in the district of Rohrbach in Upper Austria, Austria....
pass in Upper Austria. He had with him documented instructions for the revolt. This so-called Kollerschlag Document demonstrated the connection of the July revolt to Bavaria clearly.
The army, the gendarmery and the police put down revolt with heavy casualties. On the government side there were 107 deaths and 500 injuries. On the rebel side there were 140 deaths and 600 injuries. 13 rebels were executed and 4,000 people were imprisoned without trial. Many thousand supporters of the Nazi party were arrested. Up to 4000 fled over the border to Germany and Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Germany’s invasion of Austria, , in March 1938...
became the new Chancellor.
In Bavaria many sections of the Austrian legion were officially closed. In reality they were only pushed further north and renamed, “North-West Assistance”. Fascist Italy was more closely tied to the regime in Vienna and sent troops to the Austrian border at Brenner to deter German troops from a possible invasion of Austria. The German government stated that it had nothing to do with the revolt. Germany only admitted that it was trying to subvert the Austrian political system through trusted people. They continued to support the illegal Nazi party but sympathizers who did not belong to the party were more significant. This included among others Taras Borodajkewycz
Taras Borodajkewycz
Taras Borodajkewycz , was a former member of the NSDAP and after World War II professor of economic history at the College of World Trade in Vienna .-Life:During the interwar years, he was an adherent of Catholic-national ideas which...
, Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
Edmund Glaise-Horstenau was an Austrian officer in the Bundesheer, last Vice-Chancellor of Austria before the 1938 Anschluss, and general in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.- Life :Born in Braunau am Inn the son of an officer, Glaise-Horstenau attended the Theresian Military...
, Franz Langoth
Franz Langoth
Franz Langoth was an Austrian nationalist politician who later became a leading figure in the country's Nazi movement.-Nationalist politics:...
, Walther Pembauer and Arthur Seyß-Inquart.
Italy began its conquest of Abyssinia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
(the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
) in October 1935. After that Mussolini was an internationally isolated and strengthened relation with Hitler. The ruling Austrian Patriotic Front lost an important ally. Despite the murder of Engelbert Dollfuß, his successor Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg had to improve relations with the German government. Like his predecessor he wanted to maintain the independence of Austria. He saw Austria as the second German state and the better state as it was founded on Roman Catholicism.
In July 1936 Schuschnigg accepted the July Agreement with Germany. Imprisoned Nazis were released and some Nazi newspapers, which had been banned, were allowed into Austria. The Nazi Party remained banned. Schuschnigg undertook further to allow two people whom the Nazis trusted into the Government. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau became Minister for National Affairs and Guido Schmidt became Secretary of State in the Foreign Ministry. Arthur Seyß-Inquart was taken into the legislative Council of State. Germany rescinded the requirement for a payment of a thousand marks for entry into Austria. The transformation of the Austrofascist State through Nazis was furthered more in 1937 when it became possible for them to join the Patriotic Front. Throughout Austria political units were set up and some were led by Nazis. This was a legal disguise for the reorganization.
From 1937 it was clear that the Nazis considered it only a matter of time before Austria was annexed into the Greater German Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Hitler was born an Austrian. On the first page of his book, Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
he demanded that German Austria as he called it "must return to the great German motherland". His strategy included the subjugation of Austria and Tschechien, now in the Czech Republic as stated in November 1937.
In February 1938 Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...
, the German ambassador in Vienna arranged a meeting between Hitler and Schuschnigg at Obersalzberg
Obersalzberg
Obersalzberg is a mountainside retreat situated above the market town of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany, located about southeast of Munich, close to the border with Austria...
in Gaden in Bavaria. Hitler threatened repeatedly to invade Austria and forced Schuschnigg to implement a range of measures favourable to Austrian Nazism. The Agreement of Gaden guaranteed the Austrian Nazi Party political freedom and assisted Arthur Seyß-Inquart in becoming Home Secretary (Innenminister). Schuschnigg endeavoured to maintain Austrian national integrity despite steadily increasing German influence. On March 9, 1938 he announced that he wanted to hold a consultative referendum on the independence of Austria on the following Sunday. Hitler responded by mobilizing the 8th Army for the planned invasion. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
Edmund Glaise-Horstenau was an Austrian officer in the Bundesheer, last Vice-Chancellor of Austria before the 1938 Anschluss, and general in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.- Life :Born in Braunau am Inn the son of an officer, Glaise-Horstenau attended the Theresian Military...
who was at the time in Berlin brought Hitler’s ultimatum from there and Göring reinforced it with a telephone message to Schuschnigg. The German government demanded the postponement or abandonment of the referendum. Schuschnigg conceded on the afternoon of March 11. Then Hitler demanded his resignation which happened on the same evening.
The "Anschluss"
After Schuschnigg left office, the federal president Wilhelm Miklas asked Arthur Seyß-Inquart to form a new government as the Germans demanded. From the 11th to the 13th of March he led the Austrian Government and completed the AnschlussAnschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
. On the morning of the March 12 heavily armed German troops and police crossed the Austrian frontier, in total about 65,000. Large sections of the Austrian population were very pleased to see them. In Vienna, Aspern met Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
accompanied by many police and SS officials to take over the Austrian police. Supporters of the Austrian Nazi Party together with members of the SS and SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
occupied public buildings and offices throughout Austria without a previously planned transition period. The formation of the Greater German Reich was announced from the balcony of the Council House in Linz. On the following day, March 13, 1938, the second session of the Government passed the “Reunification with Germany Law”. Federal President Miklas refused to endorse it and resigned. Seyß-Inquart was now functioning Head of State. He could make his own laws and publish them.
Integration into the Third Reich
Braunau am Inn
Braunau am Inn is a town in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria , the north-western state of Austria. It lies about 90 km west of Linz and about 60 km north of Salzburg, on the border with the German state of Bavaria. The population in 2001 was 16,372...
, made a triumphal entry into Vienna and gave a speech on Heldenplatz
Heldenplatz
The Heldenplatz is a historical plaza in Vienna. Many important actions took place here, most notably Adolf Hitler's announcement of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938.-The Plaza:...
in front of tens of thousands of cheering people, in which he boasted his "greatest accomplishment": "Als Führer und Kanzler der deutschen Nation und des Reiches melde ich vor der deutschen Geschichte nunmehr den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich." Translation: "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." Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany during World War II. Between January 1943 and May 1945, he held the offices of Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , President of Interpol and, as a Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS, he was the...
from Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, sentenced to death in 1946 at the Nuremberg trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
, was promoted SS-Brigadeführer
Ranks and insignia of the Schutzstaffel
The uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel were paramilitary ranks and uniforms used by the SS between 1925 and 1945 to differentiate that organization from the regular German armed forces, the German state, and the Nazi Party....
and the leader of the SS-upper section Austria. Beginning on March 12 and during the subsequent weeks 72,000 people were arrested, primarily in Vienna, among them politicians of the First Republic, intellectuals and above all Jews. Jewish institutions were shuttered.
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
, Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
and many other leading figures of the Nazi regime had very squeamishly scheduled appearances in public to hold speeches. The controlled press and radio had no other topic than YES to the "Reunion of German and Austria". Prominent Austrians like Cardinal Theodor Innitzer who signed a declaration of the bishops with Heil Hitler, and the Social Democrat Karl Renner
Karl Renner
Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...
promoted the approval. According to official records 99.73% voted YES in Austria and in the German Empire 99.08 voted for the annexation.
Excluded from the referendum were about 8% of the Austrian voters: about 200,000 Jews and roughly 177,000 Mischling
Mischling
Mischling was the German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have only partial Aryan ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as mestee in English, mestizo in Spanish and métis in French...
e (half-breeds) and all those who had already been arrested for "racial" or political reasons.
In many places assaults took place against Austrian Jews during those weeks. Many were dispossessed of their shops and apartments, into which moved those who had robbed them assisted by the SA and fanatics. Jews were forced to put on their best clothes and, on their hands and knees with brushes, to clean the sidewalks of anti-Anschluss slogans.
Being 8% of the population in the German Empire, 14% of the SS-members were of Austrian origin. 40% of the staff in the Extermination camps and 70% of Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
's staff came from Austria.
Josef Bürckel
Josef Bürckel
Joseph Bürckel was a German politician and a member of the German parliament...
, previously Reichskommissar
Reichskommissar
Reichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....
for the reunion of the Saar (protectorate)
Saar (protectorate)
The Saar Protectorate was a German borderland territory twice temporarily made a protectorate state. Since rejoining Germany the second time in 1957, it is the smallest Federal German Area State , the Saarland, not counting the city-states Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen...
, was appointed "Reichskommissar for the reunification of Austria with the German Empire".
Political crimes
In the process of aryanizationAryanization
Aryanization is a term coined during Nazism referring to the forced expulsion of so-called "non-Aryans", mainly Jews, from business life in Nazi Germany and the territories it controlled....
, about 1,700 motor vehicles were seized from their Jewish owners between March 11 and August 10, 1938. Until May 1939, the government seized about 44,000 apartments in Jewish possession.
Concentration camps and euthanasia
The largest concentration camp in Austria was the Mauthausen-GusenMauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
complex, with more than 50 subcamps, among them the Ebensee concentration camp
Ebensee concentration camp
The Ebensee concentration camp was established by the SS to build tunnels for armaments storage near the town of Ebensee, Austria in 1943. It was part of the Mauthausen network....
, KZ – Nebenlager Bretstein, Steyr-Münichholz subcamp
Steyr-Münichholz subcamp
The Steyr-Münichholz concentration camp was one in a number of subcamps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Upper Austria. Inmates were drawn from the main camp, in order to exploit their labor for producing arms in Steyr-Daimler-Puch corporation factories, and to build air-raid bunkers...
and AFA-Werke. Euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
was practised in Hartheim Castle near Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
, where the killing program Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
took place, and in Am Spiegelgrund clinic
Am Spiegelgrund clinic
Am Spiegelgrund was the name of a children's clinic in Vienna where hundreds of children were killed under the Nazi RegimeChildren's Euthanasia Program.-Context:Hitler's "Final Solution" was the order for the genocide of Jews in Europe...
in Vienna, where more than 700 handicapped children were murdered.
Active Austrians in the Nazi regime
Besides Hitler, the following Austrians were among those playing an active part in the Nazi regime:- Ernst KaltenbrunnerErnst KaltenbrunnerErnst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany during World War II. Between January 1943 and May 1945, he held the offices of Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , President of Interpol and, as a Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS, he was the...
replaced HeydrichReinhard HeydrichReinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
in 1943 as leader of Reichssicherheitshauptamt and Gestapo. - Arthur Seyß-Inquart organized or covered several Nazi crimes in the Netherlands.
- Odilo GlobocnikOdilo GlobocnikOdilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...
was SS and police leader from 1939 in Poland where he supervised the building of the four Polish extermination camps in BelzecBelzec extermination campBelzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...
, SobiborSobibórSobibór is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Włodawa, within Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies close to the Bug River, which forms the border with Belarus and Ukraine. Sobibór is approximately south-east of Włodawa and east of the regional capital...
, Treblinka and MajdanekMajdanekMajdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...
. He was one of the main responsibles of murdering about 2 millions of Polish Jews ("Aktion Reinhardt"). - August EigruberAugust EigruberAugust Eigruber was an Austrian-born Nazi Gauleiter of Oberdonau and Landeshauptmann of Upper Austria, later hanged by the Allies.-Early life and Nazi career:...
, GauleiterGauleiterA Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
of Upper Austria. - Alexander LöhrAlexander LöhrAlexander Löhr was an Austrian Air Force commander during the 1930s and, after the "Political Union of Germany and Austria" , he was a German Air Force commander...
, commander of Luftflotte 4Luftflotte 4Luftflotte 4 was one of the primary divisions of the German Luftwaffe in World War II. It was formed on March 18, 1939 from Luftwaffenkommando Österreich in Vienna. The Luftflotte was redesignated on April 21, 1945 to Luftwaffenkommando 4, and became subordinated to Luftflotte 6. It was the...
, carried out the bombing of BelgradeBombing of Belgrade in World War IIThe city of Belgrade was bombed during two campaigns in World War II, the first undertaken by the Luftwaffe in 1941, and the latter by Allied air forces in 1944.- German bombing :...
in April 1941. - Wolfgang AbelWolfgang AbelWolfgang Abel was an Austrian anthropologist and one of Nazi Germany's racial biologists. He was the son of the Austrian paleontologist Othenio Abel....
, professor of racial biology at the University of Berlin, was involved in compulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilizationCompulsory sterilization also known as forced sterilization programs are government policies which attempt to force people to undergo surgical sterilization...
of so-called Rhineland BastardRhineland BastardRhineland Bastard was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-German children of mixed German and African parentage who were fathered by Africans serving as French colonial troops occupying the Rhineland after World War I...
s. During the war, he carried out racial analyses on 7.000 Soviet prisoners of war on behalf of the high command of the ArmyOberkommando des HeeresThe Oberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
. - Heinrich GrossHeinrich GrossHeinrich Gross was an Austrian psychiatrist, medical doctor and neurologist, best known for his proven involvement in the killing of at least nine children with physical, mental and/or emotional/behavioral characteristics considered "unclean" by the Nazi regime, under its Euthanasia Program...
wrote expertises about "unworthy livesLife unworthy of lifeThe phrase "life unworthy of life" was a Nazi designation for the segments of populace which had no right to live and thus were to be "euthanized". The term included people with serious medical problems and those considered grossly inferior according to racial policy of the Third Reich...
" and carried out deadly experiments at Am Spiegelgrund with handicapped children. - Karl SilberbauerKarl SilberbauerKarl Josef Silberbauer was an Austrian SD officer holding the rank of SS-Oberscharführer , when, serving in the occupied Netherlands, he arrested Anne Frank and her family in their hiding place in 1944....
arrested Anne FrankAnne FrankAnnelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
in 1944. - The Austrian gauleiters Hugo JuryHugo JuryHugo Jury was an Austrian Nazi....
, Franz HoferFranz HoferFranz Hofer was, in the time of the Third Reich, the Nazi Gauleiter of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg....
and Friedrich RainerFriedrich RainerFriedrich W. Rainer was a leader in the Nazi Party, as well as an Austrian State governor of Salzburg and Carinthia. He is the only Austrian governor who has ever held the same office in two separate states...
also participated in Nazi crimes.
Austrians in exile
From March to November 1938, 130.000 people managed to escape legally or illegally from Austria. Among the most famous emigrating artists, there were the composers Arnold Schönberg and Robert StolzRobert Stolz
Robert Elisabeth Stolz was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.- Biography :...
, the film-makers Leon Askin
Leon Askin
Leon Askin was an Austrian actor best known for portraying the character "General Burkhalter" on the TV sitcom Hogan's Heroes.-Early life:...
, Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg — born Jonas Sternberg — was an Austrian-American film director. He is particularly noted for his distinctive mise en scène, use of lighting and soft lens, and seven-film collaboration with actress Marlene Dietrich.-Youth:Von Sternberg was born Jonas Sternberg to a Jewish...
, Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
, the actors Karl Farkas
Karl Farkas
Karl Farkas was an Austrian actor and cabaret performer.In accordance with the wishes of his parents, he was to study law, but decided to follow the call of the stage...
and Gerhard Bronner
Gerhard Bronner
Gerhard Bronner was an Austrian composer, writer, musician and a cabaret artist, known for his contribution to Austrian culture in the post-World War II period....
and the writers Hermann Broch
Hermann Broch
Hermann Broch was a 20th century Austrian writer, considered one of the major Modernists.-Life:Broch was born in Vienna to a prosperous Jewish family and worked for some time in his family's factory, though he maintained his literary interests privately...
, Robert Musil
Robert Musil
Robert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
, Anton Kuh
Anton Kuh
Anton Kuh was an Austrian-Jewish journalist and essayist.- External links :...
and Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...
. Friedrich Torberg
Friedrich Torberg
Friedrich Torberg is the pen-name of Friedrich Kantor, an Austrian writer.- Biography :...
, who witnessed the German invasion ("Anschluss") in Prague, did not return to Vienna. Erich Fried
Erich Fried
Erich Fried , an Austrian poet who settled in England, was known for his political-minded poetry. He was also a broadcaster, translator and essayist....
flew with this mother to London after his father had been killed by the Gestapo in May 1938 during an interrogation. Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
escaped via London, New York, Argentina and Paraguay to Brazil where he committed suicide in February 1942, together with this wife Charlotte Altmann. 1936 Nobel laureate in medicine Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi was a German born pharmacologist whose discovery of acetylcholine helped enhance medical therapy. The discovery earned for him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 which he shared with Sir Henry Dale, whom he met in 1902 when spending some months in Ernest Starling's...
had to pay his prize money back before emigrating. Additional scientists going into exile were Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
, Kurt Gödel
Kurt Gödel
Kurt Friedrich Gödel was an Austrian logician, mathematician and philosopher. Later in his life he emigrated to the United States to escape the effects of World War II. One of the most significant logicians of all time, Gödel made an immense impact upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the...
, Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
and Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner FRS was an Austrian-born, later Swedish, physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize...
. Bruno Kreisky
Bruno Kreisky
Bruno Kreisky was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II....
, who had to leave the country for political reasons and because of his Jewish origin, emigrated to Sweden. After his comeback, he served as Austrian Chancellor from 1970 to 1983.
Memory
How complicated the acquaintance with the past is, shows the example with the Burgenland Romanies. While 1984 in LackenbachLackenbach
Lackenbach is an Austrian municipality in the District of Oberpullendorf, Burgenland.- Geography :Lackenbach lies in the Oberpullendorf District, the Middle Burgenland and is not divided into any districts.- History :...
, almost 40 years after the end of war finally a memorial for the „Zigeuner-Anhaltelager“ was uncovered, the wish for a memorial in Kemeten
Kemeten
Kemeten is a town in the district of Oberwart in Burgenland in Austria....
has not yet been fulfilled. Prior to the war, 200 Romanies lived in Kemeten. They were deported in the year 1941, only five of them came back in 1945.
In Summer 2004, the question about how to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the death of Robert Bernardis
Robert Bernardis
Robert Bernardis was an Austrian resistance fighter involved in the attempt to kill German dictator Adolf Hitler in the July 20 Plot in 1944....
, who was shot on August 8, 1944 after being involved in the July 20 plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
against Hitler, led to a political conflict. Politicians of the opposition (SPÖ
SPO
- Technology :SPO: Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Cloud Computing, Office 365. See Microsoft Online Services-Economics:* Secondary Public Offering, an equity capital market instrument...
, Grüne
Grune
Grune may refer to:* Dick Grune, computer scientist* A character in the role-playing game Tales of Legendia...
) as well as some celebrities suggested renaming a barrack to „Robert Bernardis-Kaserne“, which was turned down by the governing ÖVP
OVP
OVP is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:*The Office of the Vice President of the United States*The Office of the Vice President of the Philippines*OVP , a light sub-machine gun developed in Italy...
and FPÖ
FPO
FPO may refer to:*Fleet Post Office, a "city" designation in military mail *Field post office, a term for military post offices in military mail systems *For position only, a designation for placeholder graphics...
. The defence minister
Defence minister
A defence minister is a person in a cabinet position in charge of a Ministry of Defence, which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations...
Günther Platter
Günther Platter
Günther Platter is an Austrian politician and is the current Governor of Tyrol after his predecessor Herwig van Staa lost more almost 10% of the votes in the regional elections. Before becoming Governor, Platter served as Interior Minister and as Minister of Defence in the cabinets of Gusenbauer...
(ÖVP) finally decided to build a memorial in the yard of the Towarek-Barrack in Enns
Enns
Enns may refer to:* Enns , Upper Austria, Austria* Enns , a surname* Enns , a southern tributary of the Danube River...
. The Green Politician Terezija Stoisits pointed out that a barrack has been named after an Austrian sarge called Anton Schmid
Anton Schmid
Anton Schmid was a German sergeant who, during World War II in Vilnius, Lithuania, was executed by his superiors for helping 250 Jewish men, women, and children escape from extermination by the Nazi SS during the European Jewish Holocaust...
in Germany on the 8th May 2004. Schmid was fated to die at the court-martial by the Wehrmacht and was shot on 13 April 1942, after he saved the life of hundred Jews in the Vilnius Ghetto.
In the first years after the war, many memorials were built in several places, commemorating the dead soldiers of World War II who allegedly fought for their country. For the victims of the Nazi regime, memorials have only been built at a much later time.
As from 1992, there is the possibility of doing Zivildienst
Zivildienst
Zivildienst is the civilian branch of the national service systems in Austria and Switzerland. In Germany as well Zivildienst was the alternative service to military service until suspension of conscription in 2011...
(alternative National Service) in the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
The Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service is an alternative to Austria's compulsory national military service / alternative service founded in 1992. Since 1998 it is part of the Austrian Service Abroad...
. Approximately 15 people are deployed in the archive of the concentration camp memorial Mauthausen and alternatively in the camp itself. On the 1st September 1992, the first Austrian holocaust memorial servant started his service in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a memorial and museum in Oświęcim, Poland , which includes the German concentration camps Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. It is devoted to the memory of the murders in both camps during World War II...
. Andreas Maislinger
Andreas Maislinger
Andreas Maislinger is an Austrian historian and founder of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service and Braunau Contemporary History Days.- Studying and learning :...
has taken over the idea from Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP)
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism.The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace was founded in 1958 by the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, driven by the efforts of Lothar Kreyssig...
. Annually approximately 30 civil servants are sent to holocaust-memorials and connected institutions in Europe, Israel, USA, South-America and China by the Holocaust Memorial Service.
The biggest Austrian Memorial for the remembrance of National-Socialism crimes is the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
. A part of the Contemporary History Museum Ebensee
Ebensee
Ebensee is a market town in the Traunviertel region of the Austrian state of Upper Austria, located within the Salzkammergut Mountains at the southern end of the Traunsee. The regional capital Linz lies approximately to the north, nearest towns are Gmunden and Bad Ischl...
, emerged by private initiative in 2001, reminds of the victims of the Ebensee concentration camp
Ebensee concentration camp
The Ebensee concentration camp was established by the SS to build tunnels for armaments storage near the town of Ebensee, Austria in 1943. It was part of the Mauthausen network....
.