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StefenTower (talk | contribs) m Typo fixing + cleanups, typo(s) fixed: between 1934–1938 → between 1934 and 1938 (3), ’s → 's (2) |
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The '''{{lang|de|Anschluss}}''' ({{IPA-de|ˈʔanʃlʊs|lang|De-Anschluss.ogg}}, or '''{{lang|de|Anschluß}}''',<ref>[http://en.pons.eu/german-english/Anschluss Anschluss] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521104527/http://en.pons.eu/german-english/Anschluss |date=21 May 2013 }} PONS Online Dictionary</ref>{{Efn|before the [[German orthography reform of 1996]]}} {{literal translation|joining|connection}}), also known as the '''{{lang|de|Anschluß Österreichs}}''' ({{Audio|De-Anschluss_Österreichs.ogg|pronunciation}}, {{lang-en|Annexation of Austria}}), was the [[annexation]] of the [[Federal State of Austria]] into the [[Nazi Germany|German Reich]] on 13 March 1938.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-austria-nazis-anniversary/austrias-president-says-nazi-past-cant-be-forgotten-idUSBRE92B0NP20130312 |title=Austria's president says Nazi past can't be forgotten |last=Prodhan |first=Georgina |date=13 March 2013 |access-date=16 June 2023 |work=[[Reuters]]}}</ref>
The idea of an {{lang|de|Anschluss}} (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "[[German Question|Greater Germany]]"){{efn|After the [[Prussia]]n-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 [[Austria-Hungary|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.{{sfn|Low|1974|p=3}}}} arose after the [[unification of Germany|1871 unification of Germany]] excluded Austria and the German Austrians from the Prussian-dominated [[German Empire]]. It gained support after the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] fell in 1918. The new [[Republic of German-Austria]] attempted to form a union with Germany, but the 1919 [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)|Treaty of Saint Germain]] and [[Treaty of Versailles]] forbade both the union and the continued use of the name "German-Austria" ({{lang|de|Deutschösterreich}}); they also stripped Austria of some of its territories, such as the [[Sudetenland]]. This left Austria as a broken remnant, deprived of most of the territories it had ruled for centuries and amid economic crisis.
By the 1920s, the {{lang|de|Anschluss}} proposal had strong support in both Austria and Germany,{{sfn|Bukey|2002|p=11}} particularly to many Austrian citizens of the political left and center. One vehement supporter was [[Otto Bauer]], the prominent Social Democrat leader who served as Austria's Foreign Minister after the war. Support for unification with Germany came mainly from the belief that Austria, stripped of its imperial land, was not viable economically.<ref name="shepherd1">{{cite book|last=Brook-Shepherd |first=Gordon |title=Anschluss: The Rape of Austria |date=1963 |pages=15 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-81667-5 |isbn=978-1-349-81669-9 }}</ref> However, popular support for the unification faded with time, although it remained as a concept in the contemporary Austrian political discourse.<ref name="shepherd2">{{cite book|last=Brook-Shepherd |first=Gordon |title=Anschluss: The Rape of Austria |date=1963 |pages=16 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-81667-5 |isbn=978-1-349-81669-9 }}</ref>
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Hitler, an Austrian German by birth,{{sfn|Taylor|2001|p=257}}{{efn|Hitler was an [[Ethnic Germans|ethnic German]], but was not a [[German nationality law|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.<ref name="Lemons2005">{{cite book|first=Everette O.|last=Lemons|title=The Third Reich, A Revolution of Ideological Inhumanity|volume=I "The Power of Perception"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ONNqsg4OrXQC&pg=PA118|access-date=7 December 2012|year=2005|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1-4116-1932-6|page=118}}</ref>}} picked up his [[Pan-Germanism|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 [[Southern Germany|South German]] nation with Austria. In vehemently attacking the man's arguments he made an impression on the other party members with his oratorical skills and, according to Hitler, the "professor" left the hall acknowledging unequivocal defeat.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|page=75}} Impressed with Hitler, [[Anton Drexler]] invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919,{{sfn|Stackelberg|2007|p=9}} becoming the party's 55th member.<ref>Mitcham, Samuel (1996) ''Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich'' p. 67</ref> After becoming leader of the DAP, Hitler addressed a crowd on 24 February 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).{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|page=87}}
As its first point, the 1920 [[National Socialist Program]] stated, "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 Empire|German Reich]] had a single task of, "incorporating the ten million German-Austrians in the Empire and dethroning the Habsburgs, the most miserable dynasty ever ruling."<ref>Hamann, Brigitte (2010) ''Hitler's Vienna: A Portrait of the Tyrant as a Young Man''. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 107 {{isbn|9781848852778}}</ref> The [[Nazism|Nazis]] aimed to [[Heim ins Reich|re-unite all Germans]] who were either born in the ''Reich'' or living outside it in order 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.<ref name="Hitler2010">{{cite book|author-link=Adolf Hitler|author=Hitler, Adolf|title=Mein Kampf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBUBUEeUwxUC|date=2010|publisher=Bottom of the Hill|isbn=978-1-935785-07-1}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=August 2018}}
The [[First Austrian Republic]] was dominated from the late 1920s by the [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]] (CS), whose economic policies were based on the papal encyclical ''[[Rerum novarum]]''. The First Republic gradually disintegrated in 1933, when parliament was dissolved and power was centralized in the office of the [[Chancellor of Austria|chancellor]], who was empowered to [[rule by decree]]. Rival parties, including the Austrian National Socialists, were banned, and 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 (Austria)|Patriotic Front]]'').{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The new regime emphasized the Catholic elements of Austria's national identity and staunchly opposed union with [[Nazi Germany]].
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When Germany permitted residents of Austria to vote{{clarify|date=June 2016}}<!-- Austrian citizens living in Germany in German elections? Austrian citizens in Austria in German elections? --> on 5 March 1933, three special trains, boats and trucks brought such masses to [[Passau]] that the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] staged a ceremonial welcome.<ref>Rosmus, Anna (2015) ''Hitlers Nibelungen, Samples Grafenau'' pp.53ff</ref> Gunther wrote that by the end of 1933 Austrian public opinion about German annexation was at least 60% against.<ref name="gunther1936">{{cite book | url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16059565W/Inside_Europe | title=Inside Europe | publisher=Harper & Brothers | author=Gunther, John | year=1936 | pages=284–285, 317–318}}</ref> On 25 July 1934, chancellor 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.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}
Dollfuss's 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 camp]]s. The [[Austrofascism]] of Austria between
In an attempt to put Schuschnigg's mind at rest, Hitler delivered a speech at the [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]] and said, "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss."{{sfn|Shirer|1990|p=296}}
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According to Hungarian historian [[Oszkár Jászi]], writing in 1938, the idea of ''Anschluss'' was opposed amongst most political circles in Austria. Jászi noted that "the annihilation of the German labor movement showed to Austrian socialism what it could expect from an Anschluss under Nazi rule", while "Austrian Catholicism realized what its fate would be under a system which crushed the great Catholic Party of Germany, [[Catholic Center Party|the Centrum]]".<ref name="jaszi">{{cite journal |last1=Jászi|first1=Oszkár |author-link=Oszkár Jászi |date=September 1938 |title=Why Austria Perished |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40981630 |journal=Social Research |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=304–327 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |jstor=40981630 |access-date=June 27, 2023}}</ref> It was also opposed by other groups, such as the Austrian Jews as well as "old Hapsburgist officers and officials and by a considerable part of Austrian capitalism". Most contemporary writers estimated that about two-thirds of Austrians wanted Austria to remain independent.<ref name="jaszi"/>
How many Austrians behind closed doors were against the ''Anschluss'' remains unknown, but only one "unhappy face" of an Austrian in public when the Germans marched into Austria has ever been produced.{{sfn|Bukey|2002|p=33}} According to some [[Gestapo]] reports, only a quarter to a third of Austrian voters in Vienna were in favour of the ''Anschluss''.{{sfn|J. Evans|2006|p=655}} In most rural areas, especially in Tyrol, the support for the Anschluss was even lower.<ref name="Encarta">{{cite web|url=http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500064/1938_Austria.html |title=1938: Austria |publisher=MSN Encarta |access-date=11 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908024737/http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_461500064/1938_Austria.html |archive-date=8 September 2009 |url-status = dead}}</ref> According to Evan Burr Bukey, no more than one-third of Austrians ever fully supported Nazism during the existence of Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Bukey|2002|pp=33-34}} According to the estimates of the Austrian government, with the [[voting age]] of 24, about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve the Austrian independence.<ref name="knaur2" /> Czech-American historian [[:cz:Radomír Luža|Radomír Luža]] estimated that between 65% and 75% of Austrians supported the continuation of Austrian independence.<ref name="luza_52">{{cite book |last1=Luža|first1=Radomír |author-link=cz:Radomír Luža |date=21 September 1975 |title=Austro-German Relations in the Anschluss Era |url=https://archive.org/details/austrogermanrela0000luza |isbn=9780691075686 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=52}}</ref> About a quarter of the Austrian population was estimated to be supportive of the [[NSDAP]].<ref name="knaur2" />
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.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/attoc.html#at0047 Austria: A Country Study.] Select link on left for The Anschluss and World War II. Eric Solsten, ed. (Washington, D. C.: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 1993).</ref><ref>Emil Müller-Sturmheim ''99.7%: a plebiscite under Nazi rule'' [[Austrian Democratic Union]] London, England 1942</ref>
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=== Persecution of the Jews ===
[[File:Austrian Nazis and local residents watch as Jews are forced to scrub the pavement after Nazi annexation.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.20|Immediately after the ''Anschluss'',
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.<ref name="Snyder2015">{{cite book|last=Snyder|first=Timothy|title=Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning|year=2015|publisher=Crown/Archetype|isbn=978-1101903452|pages=77–81}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Photograph of Jews Cleaning Streets in Vienna|url=https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/photograph-of-jews-cleaning-streets-in-vienna|access-date=2022-02-04|website=perspectives.ushmm.org|language=en}}</ref> Jewish actresses from the [[Theater in der Josefstadt]] were forced to clean toilets by the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]]. The process of [[Aryanization (Nazism)|Aryanisation]] began, and Jews were driven out of public life within months.<ref name="KohlRobertson2006">{{cite book|last1=Maria Kohl|first1=Katrin|last2=Ritchie|first2=Robertson|title=A History of Austrian Literature 1918–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_BD-rogiJkC&pg=PA7|year=2006|publisher=Camden House|isbn=978-1-57113-276-5|page=7}}</ref> These events reached a climax in the [[Kristallnacht]] [[pogrom]] of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna were destroyed, as well as in other Austrian cities such as Salzburg. The [[Stadttempel]] was the sole survivor due to its location 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.<ref name="McKale2006">{{cite book|last=McKale|first=Donald|title=Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4IuvfX194C&pg=PA109|year=2006|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing|isbn=978-1-4616-3547-5|page=109}}</ref> 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 almost all professions, shut out of schools and universities, and forced to wear the [[Yellow badge]] from September 1941.<ref name="Wistrich1992">{{cite book|last=Wistrich|first=Robert S.|author-link=Robert S. Wistrich|title=Austrians and Jews in the Twentieth Century: From Franz Joseph to Waldheim|url={{Google books|an2uCwAAQBAJ|page=203|plainurl=yes}}|year=1992|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-22378-7|page=203}}</ref>
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[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-334, KZ Mauthausen, Garagenhofeinfahrt.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Gate to the garage yard in the [[Mauthausen-Gusen]] concentration camp]]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]].{{sfn|Gellately|2002|p=69}} The camp became notorious for its cruelty and barbarism. During its existence an estimated 200,000 people died, half of whom were directly killed.{{sfn|Gellately|2002|p=69}}
The [[Anti-Romanyism|antigypsy]] sentiment was implemented initially most harshly in Austria when between 1938
After breaking off the negotiations regarding the position of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal [[Theodor Innitzer]] (a political figure of the CS) was intimidated into supporting the Anschluss after being assaulted.<ref name="krieger">{{cite book|last=Krieger |first=Walter |title=Kardinal Dr. Theodor Innitzer und der Nationalsozialismus |date=1980 |pages=7–8 |language=de |url=https://www.pastoral.at/dl/MtlKJKJKLKKMnJqx4KJK/Theodor_Innitzer_und_der_Nationalsozialismus_pdf }}</ref> [[Vatican Radio]], however, broadcast a strong denunciation of the German action, and [[Pope Pius XII|Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli]], the [[Cardinal Secretary of State|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".{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} The Vatican newspaper reported that the German bishops' earlier statement had been issued without approval from Rome. The Vatican condemned Nazism in its newspaper [[L'Osservatore Romano]], and forbade Catholics from following their ideas or supporting Anschluss.<ref name="catholic_church">{{cite book|last=Phayer |first=John Michael |title=The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965 |date=2000 |pages=22 |publisher=Indiana University Press |url=http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/23461117-The-Catholic-Church-and-the-Holocaust.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117164625/http://www2.dsu.nodak.edu/users/dmeier/23461117-The-Catholic-Church-and-the-Holocaust.pdf |archive-date=17 January 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 11 March 1938, one day before the occupation of Austria by the Wehrmacht, the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna]] issued an appeal to Austrians: "As Austrian citizens, we stand and we fight for a free and independent Austria".<ref name="shepherd_202">{{cite book|last=Brook-Shepherd |first=Gordon |title=Anschluss: The Rape of Austria |date=1963 |page=202 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-81667-5 |isbn=978-1-349-81669-9 |quote="Exactly one week before, on March 11, the same Archdiocese of Vienna had issued the following glowing appeal in support of Schuschnigg's abortive anti-Hitler poll: 'As Austrian citizens, we stand and we fight for a free and independent Austria!"}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 192-269, KZ Mauthausen, Häftlinge im Steinbruch.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|"Stairs of Death" at [[Mauthausen-Gusen]] with prisoners forced to carry a granite block up 186 steps to the top of the quarry]]
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====Austrian identity and the "victim theory"====
{{Main|Austria — the Nazis' first victim}}
[[File:Rot-Weiss-Rot-Buch 1946.jpg|thumb|"Red-White-Red Book" published by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946 describes the events of Austria between
From 1949 to 1988, many [[Austrians]] sought comfort in the idea of Austria as being the [[Austria — the Nazis' first victim|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.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Beniston|first=Judith|year=2003|title= 'Hitler's First Victim'? – Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria: Introduction|journal=[[Austrian Studies (journal)|Austrian Studies]]|volume=11|pages=1–13|doi=10.1353/aus.2003.0018 |jstor=27944673|s2cid=160319529 }}</ref>
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===Sudetenland===
The occurrence of the [[Sudetenland#
==Austrian political and military leaders in Nazi Germany==
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