Annexations by hitler biography

It controlled labor relations and the press. See Austrofascism and Patriotic Front. Mussolini supported the independence of Austria, largely due to his concern that Hitler would eventually press for the return of Italian territories which had once been ruled by Austria. After receiving Hitler's personal assurance that Germany would not seek territorial concessions from Italy, Mussolini entered into a client relationship with Berlin that began with the formation of the Berlin—Rome Axis in The Austrian Nazi Party failed to win any seats in the November general election , but its popularity grew in Austria after Hitler came to power in Germany.

When Germany permitted residents of Austria to vote [ clarification needed ] on 5 March , three special trains, boats and trucks brought such masses to Passau that the SS staged a ceremonial welcome. 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 between and Dollfuss's successor was Kurt Schuschnigg , who followed a political course similar to his predecessor.

In Schuschnigg used the police to suppress Nazi supporters. Police actions under Schuschnigg included gathering Nazis and Social Democrats and holding them in internment camps. The Austrofascism of Austria between and focused on the history of Austria and opposed the absorption of Austria into Nazi Germany according to the philosophy Austrians were "superior Germans".

Schuschnigg called Austria the "better German state" but struggled to keep Austria independent. In an attempt to put Schuschnigg's mind at rest, Hitler delivered a speech at the Reichstag and said, "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss. By , the damage to Austria from the German boycott was too great.

On 11 July he signed an agreement with German ambassador Franz von Papen , in which Schuschnigg agreed to the release of Nazis imprisoned in Austria and Germany promised to respect Austrian sovereignty. This did not satisfy Hitler and the pro-German Austrian Nazis grew in strength. In September , Hitler launched the Four Year Plan that called for a dramatic increase in military spending and to make Germany as autarkic as possible with the aim of having the Reich ready to fight a world war by His approach differed in emphasis in significant respects Hitler told Goebbels in the late summer of that eventually Austria would have to be taken "by force".

At the conference, Hitler stated that economic problems were causing Germany to fall behind in the arms race with Britain and France, and that the only solution was to launch in the near-future a series of wars to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia , whose economies would be plundered to give Germany the lead in the arms race. Following increasing violence and demands from Hitler that Austria agree to a union, Schuschnigg met Hitler at Berchtesgaden on 12 February , in an attempt to avoid the takeover of Austria.

Hitler presented Schuschnigg with a set of demands including appointing Nazi sympathizers to positions of power in the government. The key appointment was that of Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Minister of Public Security, with full, unlimited control of the police. In return Hitler would publicly reaffirm the treaty of 11 July and reaffirm his support for Austria's national sovereignty.

Browbeaten and threatened by Hitler, Schuschnigg agreed to these demands and put them into effect. Seyss-Inquart was a long-time supporter of the Nazis who sought the union of all Germans in one state. Leopold argues he was a moderate who favoured an evolutionary approach to union. He opposed the violent tactics of the Austrian Nazis, cooperated with Catholic groups, and wanted to preserve a measure of Austrian identity within Nazi Germany.

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

On 3 March , Austrian Socialists offered to back Schuschnigg's government in exchange for political concessions, such as legalising socialist press, returning confiscated funds and "the lifting of the ban on the wearing of Social Democrat badges, show Social Democrat flags and standards and singing Social Democrat songs. The Social Democrats also declared their readiness to support Schuschnigg in the event of a plebiscite under the conditions that immediately after such a plebiscite a definite negotiation be begun to include them in the Government.

On 9 March , in the face of rioting by the small, but virulent, Austrian Nazi Party and ever-expanding German demands on Austria, Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg called a referendum plebiscite on the issue, to be held on 13 March. Infuriated, on 11 March, Adolf Hitler threatened invasion of Austria, and demanded Chancellor von Schuschnigg's resignation and the appointment of the Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart as his replacement.

Hitler's plan was for Seyss-Inquart to call immediately for German troops to rush to Austria's aid, restoring order and giving the invasion an air of legitimacy. In the face of this threat, Schuschnigg informed Seyss-Inquart that the plebiscite would be cancelled. To secure a large majority in the referendum, Schuschnigg dismantled the one-party state.

He agreed to legalize the Social Democrats and their trade unions in return for their support in the referendum. The plan went awry when it became apparent that Hitler would not stand by while Austria declared its independence by public vote. Hitler declared that the referendum would be subject to major fraud and that Germany would never accept it.

In addition, the German ministry of propaganda issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of the Austrian population were calling for German troops to restore order. Schuschnigg immediately responded that reports of riots were false. Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on 11 March, demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazis or face an invasion.

The ultimatum was set to expire at noon, but was extended by two hours. Without waiting for an answer, Hitler had already signed the order to send troops into Austria at one o'clock. As journalist Edgar Ansel Mowrer , reporting from Paris for CBS News , observed: "There is no one in all France who does not believe that Hitler invaded Austria not to hold a genuine plebiscite, but to prevent the plebiscite planned by Schuschnigg from demonstrating to the entire world just how little hold National Socialism really had on that tiny country.

Schuschnigg desperately sought support for Austrian independence in the hours following the ultimatum. Realizing that neither France nor Britain was willing to offer assistance, Schuschnigg resigned on the evening of 11 March, but President Wilhelm Miklas refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. At pm, Hitler, tired of waiting, ordered the invasion to commence at dawn on 12 March regardless.

Seyss-Inquart was not installed as Chancellor until after midnight, when Miklas resigned himself to the inevitable. Is there anything more German than our old pure Austrianness? On the morning of 12 March , the 8th Army of the German Wehrmacht crossed the border into Austria. The troops were greeted by cheering Austrians with Nazi salutes, Nazi flags, and flowers.

For the Wehrmacht , the invasion was the first big test of its machinery. Although the invading forces were badly organized and coordination among the units was poor, it mattered little because the Austrian government had ordered the Austrian Bundesheer not to resist. That afternoon, Hitler, riding in a car, crossed the border at his birthplace, Braunau am Inn , with a 4, man bodyguard.

However, the overwhelming reception caused him to change course and absorb Austria directly into the Reich. On 13 March Seyss-Inquart announced the abrogation of Article 88 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain , which prohibited the unification of Austria and Germany, and approved the replacement of the Austrian states with Reichsgaue.

Their lack of will emboldened him toward further aggression. Hitler's journey through Austria became a triumphal tour that climaxed in Vienna on 15 March , when around , cheering German Austrians gathered around the Heldenplatz Square of Heroes to hear Hitler say that "The oldest eastern province of the German people shall be, from this point on, the newest bastion of the German Reich" [ 65 ] followed by his "greatest accomplishment" completing the annexing of Austria to form a Greater German Reich by saying "As leader and chancellor of the German nation and Reich I announce to German history now the entry of my homeland into the German Reich.

I can only say: even in death they cannot stop lying. I have in the course of my political struggle won much love from my people, but when I crossed the former frontier into Austria there met me such a stream of love as I have never experienced. Not as tyrants have we come, but as liberators. Hitler's popularity reached an unprecedented peak after he fulfilled the Anschluss because he had completed the long-awaited idea of a Greater Germany.

Bismarck had not chosen to include Austria in his unification of Germany , and there was genuine support from Germans in both Austria and Germany for an Anschluss. Hitler's forces suppressed all opposition. During the few weeks between the Anschluss and the plebiscite, authorities rounded up Social Democrats, Communists, other potential political dissenters, and Austrian Jews , and imprisoned them or sent them to concentration camps.

Within a few days of 12 March, 70, people had been arrested. The disused northwest railway station in Vienna was converted into a makeshift concentration camp. The Austrians' support for the Anschluss was ambivalent; the Austrian population was given no choice and was subjected to extensive intimidation and suppression of the political opposition, as at the time of the plebiscite, the annexation of Austria was a 'fait accompli' as the German army had already occupied Austria and integrated it into Germany.

Low, one of the reasons why Germany did not allow the plebiscite to be held by the Austrian government was that the Nazi regime feared to be defeated at the polls; Low states that in , there was "majority support to Austria's independence". Most contemporary writers estimated that about two-thirds of Austrians wanted Austria to remain independent.

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. 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 Although the Allies were committed to upholding the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and those of St. Germain , which specifically prohibited the union of Austria and Germany, their reaction was only verbal and moderate.

No military confrontation took place, and even the strongest voices against the annexation, particularly Fascist Italy , France , and Britain the " Stresa Front " remained at peace. The loudest verbal protest was voiced by the government of Mexico. Germany, which had a shortage of steel and a weak balance of payments , gained iron ore mines in the Erzberg and million RM in the reserves of Austria's central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank , more than twice its own cash.

The campaign against the Jews began immediately after the Anschluss.

Annexations by hitler biography

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. The process of Aryanisation began, and Jews were driven out of public life within months. 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, Jews were arrested overnight, the majority deported to Dachau concentration camp in the following days. 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 The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate.

Their plans succeeded—by the end of , , Jews had left Vienna, 30, of whom went to the United States. The majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna eventually became victims of the Holocaust. Of the more than 65, Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, fewer than 2, survived. The Anschluss was given immediate effect by legislative act on 13 March, subject to ratification by a referendum.

Austria became the province of Ostmark , and Seyss-Inquart was appointed governor. The referendum was held on 10 April and officially recorded a support of While historians concur that the votes were accurately counted, the process was neither free nor secret. Officials were present directly beside the voting booths and received the voting ballot by hand in contrast to a secret vote where the voting ballot is inserted into a closed box.

In some remote areas of Austria, people voted to preserve the independence of Austria on 13 March in Schuschnigg's planned but cancelled referendum despite the Wehrmacht ' s presence. A provisional government in Allied-occupied Austria declared the Anschluss "null und nichtig" null and void on 27 April Austria in the first days of Nazi Germany's control had many contradictions: at one and the same time, Hitler's regime began to tighten its grip on every aspect of society, beginning with mass arrests as thousands of Austrians tried to escape; yet other Austrians cheered and welcomed the German troops entering their territory.

In March 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. During its existence an estimated , people died, half of whom were directly killed. Subsequently, the Nazis ordered that the Romani were to be treated on the same level as the Jews.

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. 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 The Vatican condemned Nazism in its newspaper L'Osservatore Romano , and forbade Catholics from following their ideas or supporting Anschluss.

Robert Kauer, president of the minority Lutheran Church in Austria, greeted Hitler on 13 March as "saviour of the , German Protestants in Austria and liberator from a five-year hardship". The international response to the Anschluss was publicly moderate. The Times commented that years before, Scotland had joined England as well and that this event would not really differ much.

He noted that the British ambassador in Berlin objected to the use of "coercion, backed by force" that would undermine Austria's independence. The word Anschluss is properly translated as "joinder", "connection", "unification", or "political union". In contrast, the German word Annektierung military annexation was not used, and is not commonly used now, to describe the union of Austria and Germany in The word Anschluss had been widespread before describing an incorporation of Austria into Germany.

Calling the incorporation of Austria into Germany an "Anschluss," that is a "unification" or "joinder", was also part of the propaganda used in by Nazi Germany to create the impression that the union was not coerced. Hitler described the incorporation of Austria as a Heimkehr , a return to its original home. From the beginning of his reign, he set Germany on a course for conflict, overseeing an increasingly aggressive foreign policy, dramatically increasing the size of the army, and using propaganda to promote the supposed inherent value of violence.

One of the most important actions in this process of militarization was the Anschluss, or annexation, of Austria in Before explaining Anschluss itself, it is crucial to understand Hitler's broader foreign policy goals. According to Hitler, the nature of the world was one of struggle, specifically struggle between races. A key component of one race winning over the others was having enough living space Lebensraum.

Therefore, Hitler believed that gaining access to living space in the East, specifically in the Soviet Union , was crucial for the "victory" of the so-called "Aryan race. However, before any such war began, Hitler needed to rearm and remilitarize Germany. At the beginning of Hitler's chancellorship, he publicly exalted the importance of peace and diplomacy, despite privately speaking of "ruthless Germanization" in the East.

His first controversial act, at least internationally, occurred when Germany left the League of Nations in October However, in January , Hitler ordered the foreign ministry to sign a peace treaty with Poland. The following year, Germany also signed a rapprochement agreement with the United Kingdom. The international community expressed concern, but little action was taken to prevent or oppose the annexation.

This lack of action emboldened Hitler and contributed to his belief that further aggression would not be met with strong resistance. For some Austrians, the Anschluss was perceived as a moment of national unity and a return to a greater German identity. However, others felt a loss of independence and feared the consequences of aligning with Nazi Germany.

Any potential opposition was swiftly suppressed by the German military. Czechoslovak Republic. Reichsgau Sudetenland. Gau East Prussia. Free City of Danzig. Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Danzig. Military Administration in Poland. Gau Silesia. Reichsgau Posen. Reichsgau West Prussia. Gau Cologne-Aachen. Military Administration of Luxembourg.

Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Luxembourg. Moselle , French State. Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Lorraine. Bas-Rhin , French State. Territory of the Chief of Civil Administration of Alsace. Haut-Rhin , French State. Military Administration in Yugoslavia. Military Administration in the Soviet Union.

Bialystok District. Grodno , Reichskommissariat Ostland. Reichsgau Flanders.