Anschluss: Germany annexes Austria

On March 12, 1938, German troops crossed the border into Austria, and the next day Adolf Hitler, who was born in Austria, proclaimed the country part of the German Reich. Crowds in Vienna and Linz greeted the soldiers, and on April 10 a plebiscite, held under Nazi control with Jews and many opponents barred from voting, reported 99.7 percent approval. The Anschluss, German for connection or annexation, was the first time Hitler absorbed a sovereign state, and it was done without a battle.¹²

After Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918, the new Republic of Austria was a small German-speaking state that many of its citizens doubted could survive alone. The peace treaties of 1919 forbade union with Germany, but the wish for it never disappeared. After the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, Austria's own Nazi party grew, and in 1934 Austrian Nazis assassinated Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup. His successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, tried to hold on with Italy's backing, but Mussolini moved closer to Hitler.¹

In February 1938 Hitler summoned Schuschnigg to his mountain residence and forced him to bring Nazis into the government. When Schuschnigg called a referendum on independence, Hitler demanded its cancellation and threatened invasion. Schuschnigg resigned on March 11, the Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart took over, and German forces entered at his supposed invitation. Britain and France protested but did nothing, which encouraged Hitler to move on Czechoslovakia that autumn. In Austria, persecution of Jews and political opponents began at once, with tens of thousands arrested within weeks.¹²