You’re missing the point. I’m not denying that Hitler was willing to use force to achieve his aims, but he didn’t have to because of the Austrians enthusiasm for the German army when they crossed the border. No resistance was presented so no force was needed so there was no invasion. There could have been an invasion, but that isn’t how things turned out.Sid Guttridge wrote: ↑15 Jan 2021, 00:36Hi GLG,
The fact that there was no planning in place was not down to Hitler. He is recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum of 5 November 1937 as saying that Austria was to be acquired. He ordered his army commanders to prepare plans for it in late 1937, but was surprised to find out on 10 March 1938 that they had not done so and had Manstein improvise them. Moreover, the political machinations behind the Anschluss had been going on since January. So it is not as if nobody saw it coming, Swastika bunting or no Swastika bunting!
Do you have any sources to back up your claims?I think we can safely say that the the speech of which you were looking was stage managed. Indeed, as numerous large, identical Swastika banners were already flying on 13 March, I think we can safely say that they did not appear by random accident either. The Nazis were very efficient in the background stage management, even with such little immediate notice.
You can speculate all you want.
Only one unhappy face has ever been found.What was not stage managed was the enthusiastic reaction of that minority of the population that did turn out. However, even here the crowds were self-selecting, the camera crews could choose what they did or did not shoot, and it could be further edited in the cutting room.
But nowhere in any of Austria was there any serious resistance.You post, "that doesn’t mean the “majority” of the people in Linz and Vienna were against the Anschluss." I certainly agree about Linz, though Vienna is more problematical, as it had very strong conservative and leftist traditions.
Indeed, even in Linz all may not have been quite what it seemed from the films. The British military attaché to Berlin reached a garage on the outskirts of Linz just before Hitler was due to pass in the opposite direction towards Vienna, so he decided to join the garage staff to watch. “Only a couple of minutes later a couple of large Mercedes, filled with SS bristling with tommy-guns and other lethal weapons, came by; they were closely followed by half a dozen super-cars containing Hitler and his immediate entourage and bodyguard. The garage proprietor and a few of the little knot of spectators which had gathered at the roadside gave the Nazi salute and squawked their “Heil Hitler!”, but the reaction of the majority appeared to be one of fatalistic resignation.”
I agree with you. The plebiscite doesn’t prove anything and we also know that public opinion differed at times with regards to support for the Anschluss.We simply don't know the real state of public opinion because we can't take as gospel the result of Hitler's multiply rigged plebiscite on Anschluss and we have no other remotely reliable measure of public sentiment at the time. However, I think we can safely say that it fell well short of 99.73% approval, don't you?
1. We’ll never truly know. What we do need to keep reminding ourselves is that support for the Anschluss in 1938 did not equate to support for the Nazis.You ask if I think it proves something. Yup. I think it is strong evidence that (1) the result of Hitler's plebiscite was some way from an accurate measure of overall popular sentiment and (2) the films and photos taken at the time were also some way from being an accurate representation of wider popular sentiment.
Do I think it proves that a majority of Austrians wouldn't have voted for Anschluss with Germany in a free and fair plebiscite? No. I think it just probably wouldn't have been the enormous landslide claimed.
Cheers,
Sid.
2. Hmmm... I’m not so sure about that. Do you have any photos or film footage of Austrians showing any disapproval of the Anschluss in 1938?