Der Anschluss

[Phil Nix]

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Pic shows Seyss-Inquart, Hitler, Dr. Karl Brandt, Josef Bürckel and Julius Schaub
Phil Nix

[DeutschesReich]

My father's impression as a teenager in 1938…
"How do you think I felt when I watched those Germans march into MY Austria"

Is / was your father a Jewish-Austrian? Most Austrians back then did not have that feeling but welcomed the Greater German Reich.

[history1]

Images from a old german booklet called "Der Anschluss"...

Nazi propaganda. What should they show else as "everybody" is fascinated from the NSDAP?
There are images from many european countries where german troops has been welcomed with pleasure, e.g. the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine... Everywhere where supporters and beneficiaries.

ohh yes all the austrians were in the Resistence.... plisss.

Did yo ever read how many Austrians died during this time as consequence of their opposition? Sure not! So do your homework first and not judge about a nation knowing nearly nothing about it.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Deutschesreich,

If most Austrians were in favour of the Greater German Reich, why, when Austrian Nazis attempted a coup and assassinated the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuß in July 1934, did the Austrian state have so little trouble in supressing them?

And why, if Hitler was so confident that most Austrians were in favour of the Greater German Reich, did he occupy the country in 1938 when the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg proposed putting a referendum on the subject of continued Austrian independence to the Austrian electorate?

And why, even after he had occupied Austria, did Hitler rig his own referendum on the subject of Austria joining the Greater German Reich? If you don't believe this, look at the distorted ballot paper, or read Göring's brother's account of the far from secret voting process.

I think it perfectly possible that a majority of Austrians may have been in favour of a Greater German Reich at various times, but it is clear that Hitler was far from confident of this.

And if Hitler wasn't confident, how can we be?

[Grisu]

The whole issue of the Anschulss and the so-called ballot (on an annexation that had, in effect, already happened before on various levels) is yet to be fully studied and understood. So far, research has elaborated some details on this, but (as far as I know) an extensive and conclusive study is yet to be published. My first thoughts, however, are how it felt to go to the polling station, to see various types of (local) national socialist powers and organizations there, making sure your vote is "correct", literally peeping over your shoulder. It is known that people who voted "no" were directly taken into custody ("Schutzhaft"), that the authorities did not count some "no" votes that "disappeared", that some known opponents were prevented to vote, that NS pre-ballot propaganda made promised it knew it couldn't keep (e.g., infrastructure) and so on, and so forth. I am not trying to whitewash anything or blame the overwhelming yes-vote to some external factors. I am just mentioning a few aspects that should be taken into consideration when discussing this.

And I suppose everyone knows what the ballot paper looked like:

[DeutschesReich]

Hi Deutschesreich,

If most Austrians were in favour of the Greater German Reich, why, when Austrian Nazis attempted a coup and assassinated the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuß in July 1934, did the Austrian state have so little trouble in supressing them?

And why, if Hitler was so confident that most Austrians were in favour of the Greater German Reich, did he occupy the country in 1938 when the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg proposed putting a referendum on the subject of continued Austrian independence to the Austrian electorate?

And why, even after he had occupied Austria, did Hitler rig his own referendum on the subject of Austria joining the Greater German Reich? If you don't believe this, look at the distorted ballot paper, or read Göring's brother's account of the far from secret voting process.

I think it pefectly possible that a majority of Austrians may have been in favour of a Greater German Reich at various times, but it is clear that Hitler was far from confident of this.

And if Hitler wasn't confident, how can we be?

He couldn't take it in 1934 because the government who was in control did not want Austria to give up it's land to Nazi Germany and the chances of another foreign country to go for Hitler, although the government in 1938 might not want to have the Anschluss take place the Austrian people certainly did, what do you think German Austria was all about in 1918?

[Bernaschek]

He couldn't take it in 1934 because the government who was in control did not want Austria to give up it's land to Nazi Germany and the chances of another foreign country to go for Hitler, although the government in 1938 might not want to have the Anschluss take place the Austrian people certainly did, what do you think German Austria was all about in 1918?

What a nonsense

"German" Austria of 1918 was the german speaking rest of the empire, considered by everybody not being able to survive.

By 1938 it had survived the economic breakdown after the War and the great depression, the currency was solid and nicknamed the "alpine dollar" (which on the other hand brought great poverty) and it is nowadays basically uncontested that Schuschnigg would have carried the referendum with about 2/3ds, especially as all the political left, who had been allowed back on the scene, was in favour for it.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Grisu,

Thanks.

One cannot show the distorted ballot paper for Hitler's Anschluss referendum too many times!

The manipulation is so outrageously blatant that if people today aren't shown it they often wouldn't believe it.

Incidentally, the Sudetenland referendum paper was composed in exactly the same distorted manner.

[phylo_roadking]

Incidentally, the Sudetenland referendum paper was composed in exactly the same distorted manner.

Sid, so was the domestic referendum held at the end of 1933 IIRC; it asked "Do you believe that what Herr Hitler has done has been for the good of Germany?"

...a voter couldn't actually say "no" unless they hadn't the good of Germany at heart! Morally, very few people would declare themselves a "traitor" in that sense!

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

I have only seen a copy of the Austrian anschluss ballot paper (see above) and a photo of the entrance to a polling booth in which one can clearly see a poster illustrating the Sudetenland ballot paper. Interestingly, the poster is in Czech (perhaps because the ballot paper itself was only in German?)

However, I have never seen a copy of any of the other plebiscite ballot papers used inside the Alt Reich. Do they have the same large central circle for a "Yes" and a smaller, off set circle for a "No"?

[phylo_roadking]

Sid, I haven't seen the papers themselves, just the discussion of the 1933 referendum and how the question was phrased in Metcalfe's 1933. I'll have to check tomorrow, but there was IIRC some discussion too about the privacy - or not! - of the ballots...thus it was all too obvious to electoral officials and party representatives in attendance what a voter voted for And the Brownshirts had long memories...

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

The following is something I posted on Feldgrau in 2004:

I have just come across confirmation of the lay-out of the Austrian plebiscite form in "Interrogations" by Richard Overy (Penguin, 2002). It is in a section on the Allied debriefing in 1945 of Albert Göring, Hermann's brother.

Albert was in Austria at the time and voted there. Quite apart from the skewed ballot paper illustrated above, he records other irregularities.

Each voter was meant to be given a ballot paper and an envelope. He was then to retire to a closed booth to make a secret vote, which he was then to seal in the envelope and put in the ballot box.

However, Albert says he was greeted by officials who handed out the ballot paper and envelope with "Heil Hitler" and told that, as he was going to vote "Yes", he might just as well place his "X" in the "Yes" circle there and then. Albert said that he insisted that proper procedure had to be followed and went to the closed booth, but that he was the only voter out of hundreds present who he observed vote secretly.


P.S. Incidentally, the ballot paper for the Saarland Plebiscite, which was composed by the League of Nations, is very different from the skewed ballot papers the Nazis prepared for the Austrian and Sudetenland plebiscites. Dieter Zinke posted an example elsewhere here on AHF.

[Vikki]

P.S. Incidentally, the ballot paper for the Saarland Plebiscite, which was composed by the League of Nations, is very different from the skewed ballot papers the Nazis prepared for the Austrian and Sudetenland plebiscites. Dieter Zinke posted an example elsewhere here on AHF.

See the last photo in this post: viewtopic.php?p=1473582#p1473582

~Vikki

[GermanicBrit]

My father's impression as a teenager in 1938…
"How do you think I felt when I watched those Germans march into MY Austria"

I take it your father was either an Austrian Jew (or of Jewish ancestry) or a person who opposed Hitler and the Third Reich (National Socialism)?

What your father says is not what most of the Austrians felt back then, the vast majority welcomed the annexing of Austria.

Austria was only excluded from Germany in 1866 that didn't mean the Austrians ceased to be Germans, they just between 1871-1938 and 1945-present were/are not born German citizens, they are still Germans (ethnically).

In Austria-Hungary the "Austrians" of today saw themselves as Germans. After WWI "Deutschösterreich" wanted to join the motherland Germany but the winners of the world war forbid it (Anschlussverbot and the Treaty of Versailles). They even forbid the word "Deutsch-" in the name of Deutschösterreich. In every political party there were politicians who wanted to join Germany. Ignaz Seipel for example said that on both sides of the river Inn (Austrian and Bavarian) is the same nation. He also said that when he is talking about Germans that he means both Germans from the Weimar Republic and the Austrian Germans from the Republic of German-Austria. Georg Ritter von Schönerer was an Austrian who was a strong German patriot and promoted Pan-Germanism, especially in Austria and reinforced the German nationalism of Austria (there was quite a few Pan-German parties in Austria in the late 19th and early 20th century). Engelbert DollfussD wanted Austria to be the "better German state" which in essence was to remain independent from Germany politically. Austria is not only ethnically German but also culturally, for example Austrians and Bavarians share a lot more in common than say Bavarians do with the Northern Germans. German-speaking Austrians (at present is 88.6% of the population - which would have been slightly more back then) were historically regarded as Germans and seen themselves as Germans, they and Austria were all part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and the German Confederation and are part of the concept of a Greater Germany which is to include all Germans under one big state as opposed to how Germany was unified the Little Germany without Austria and a few other southern German states.

Of course some of the votes was by propaganda but the vast majority of Austrians did welcome the Anschluss and were happy to be part of Germany.

But why do Austrians now think that they are an own national identity, nation and ethnicity from German?

Because of WWII and because of manipulation through education in schools.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi GB,

While I wouldn't question your assertion that "Austrians now think that they are an own national identity (and) nation", I would very much question the proposition that they think that there is a Austrian "ethnicity".

Austrians clearly do have their own national identity and nation (and history and culture), but their core ethnicity is unquestionably German. So is their language.

Cheers,

Sid.