Anschluss

Anschluss, German word for union, slogan applied to the goal of uniting Germany and Austria between the two world wars. Clauses of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles expressly forbade Anschluss, and were deeply resented in both countries, given that they had been part of the same Holy Roman Empire for centuries. In 1931 the bitterness was compounded when France vetoed an economic Anschluss; thereafter Nazi sympathizers set about destabilizing Austria, and a first unsuccessful “putsch” in July 1934 led to the assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss. This considerably dampened Austrian enthusiasm for Anschluss. By 1937 Hitler, himself an Austrian, was openly threatening the new Chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, and massing troops along the frontier. In February 1938 at Berchtesgaden, Hitler failed to impose Anschluss on von Schuschnigg, who in March sought a plebiscite in Austria to endorse his own policy of maintaining independence from Germany. This drew an ultimatum from Berlin, whereupon von Schuschnigg resigned and was replaced by the Austrian Nazi Artur Seyss-Inquart. On March 13, 1938, invited by Seyss-Inquart to prevent “disorder”, German troops and police flooded into Austria. They met no resistance. Hitler entered Vienna on March 14 to proclaim Anschluss, though to most observers the act looked more like straight annexation.