Hitler Invades Austria – Anschluss
Hitler Invades Austria - Anschluss
Hitler mentioned the union of Austria and Germany in the very paragraph of his book, Mein Kampf. One of the items was quite telling. If Austria became part of Germany, the Mittel-Europa dream would begin to be realized: The dream of an encircled Czechoslovakia, of a Nazi push into the broad plains of Hungary and beyond.
Since July 1936 Austro-German relations had been “regularized”; Germany promised to respect the independence of Austria and in return in return the Austrian Nazis were to be absorbed into Schuschnigg’s (Austrian Chancellor) patriotic organization, the Fatherland Front.
On February 12, 1938, Austria and the world were electrified toe hear that Chancellor Schuschnigg, had gone suddenly to Berchtesgaden to meet in conference with Adolf Hitler. He hoped to save Austria’s independence. Instead he got the boot.
In England, Mr. Eden was the foreign minister under Neville Chamberlain, the PM at the time. Mr. Eden and some of his assistants resigned suddenly from the cabinet. They felt that Chamberlain was too much of a pacifist in dealing with Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia.
The French government was busy dealing with a cabinet crisis. So, Hitler figured out that everybody was asleep and took immediate action.
He attached Austria to Germany in just few days, without the help of his army. In fact his generals were against an Austrian invasion. Italy was supposed to defend Austria; they had a pact. Italy did not respond; not against Hitler.
When Lord Halifax received news of the conquest of Austria he is said to have buried his face in his hands, muttering “Horrible, horrible!” When Mussolini heard the news, according to one report he sat in granite silence for some moments, then hurled a heavy paperweight through a picture frame. Hitler didn’t care to consult anyone, including his only allies and supporters, England and Italy. Halifax had already indicated to Hitler that Great Britain was not prepared to fight for Austria. Eden did his best, and then resigned.
Austrian Loot
The military, political, economic, and strategic gains to Hitler of the annexation of Austria were considerable. The population of the Reich increased over night to almost 75,000,000, making Germany the most powerful country in continental Europe.
Germany got Austria’s Alpin-Montagesellschaft, the biggest iron works in Central Europe, capable of producing at least 2,500,000 tons of iron ore a year. It got the munitions industries in Steyr and Hirtenberg, and the biggest deposits of magnesite - a mineral useful in airplane manufacture - in the world. It got a great reservoir of electric power, dairy industries, and above all timber. And by chance, the Austrian national bank had $90,000,000 worth of gold in its vaults. The amount of gold, incidentally, was four times the gold in possession by the entire Reich. Hitler took possession of the gold and immediately repudiated the Austrian external debt.
But the chief gains were political. By acquiring Austria, Hitler won his supreme triumph in foreign policy to date. “On March 12, 1938, Germany won the World War of 1924,” it was said. The German frontiers were extended to the Brenner Pass, and Czechoslovakia was virtually encircled. Germany now directly faced no fewer than eleven different countries across their frontiers.
Hitler and the Austrian Jews
Austria was a socialist democratic state. The acquisition of Austria with its 300,000 Jews gave fresh impetus to “new excesses” of anti-Semitism.
- Jews were barred from being real estate agents, traveling salesmen, and accountants.
- They were forbidden to enter the stock exchange.
- They were forbidden to go to their safety deposit vaults without police escort.
- Landlords were asked to expel Jewish doctors, and it was established that Jews could not live in flats with windows facing main streets.
- All Jews with property of more than 5000 marks had to declare it, even if it were held abroad.
- Jewish children were not allowed to go to state schools or universities.
- Aryan servants were not permitted to work in Jewish households.
- Forbade Jewish doctors to practice, except those who had had war service, in which case they were allowed to serve only Jewish families.
- No doctor was not allowed to receive foreign medical books or literature published by Jewish concerns.
- A new law obliged every Jew to adopt the name Sarah or Israel, while Jews born hereafter must be restricted to a given list of firs names.
Thousands of Jews managed to flee and many more committed “suicide.”
Hitler was not just against the Jews. He also closed down The Roman Catholic schools in Austria. He wanted no competition. He was GOD.
The best reference book I found is Inside Europe by John Gunther, a time capsule, the 1938 edition. 
