- Headline
-
Austria Is Forced To Capitulate To Hitler's Demands
- Sub-Headline
- Nazi Leader Is Placed In Command Of Police and Gendarmes
- Publication Date
- Wednesday, February 16, 1938
- Historical Event
-
Germany Annexes Austria
This database includes 5,687 articles about this event - Article Type
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- UP
- Article Text
- Vienna, Wednesday, Feb 16 (UP) Fuehrer Adolf Hitler of Germany backing up an ultimatum with strong military forces along Austria's northern frontier, early today forced Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to place five Austrian Nazis or Nazi-sympathizers in his cabinet.
Schuschnigg, long a bitter foe of Nazi penetration into Austria where the Nazi party has been outlawed since June 1933, announced his capitulation and submitted his new cabinet list to President Wilhelm Mikias after Hitler's three-day ultimatum expired at midnight.
In accordance with Der Fuehrer's foremost demand, he appointed Dr. Arthur Von Seyss-Inquart, a leader of the outlawed Austrian Nazis, to the major cabinet posts of minister of interior and public security.
By this one stroke, Hitler gained Nazi domination over the Austrian police and enabled the Nazis to regain a measure of their forfeited power and further suppress the activities of Austrian monarchists who want to place Archduke Otto on the Hapsburg throne.
The reconstructed cabinet, as announced officially, also contains pro-Nazis, although not in all instances actual part adherents, in the cabinet posts of labor, industry, justice and forestry.
"Hitler has conquered," said a prominent political leader of the Fatherland Front that has been Austria's only legal political organization for four years.
German Troops Reported on Border
Schuschnigg, who went secretly across the German frontier to Berchtesgaden last Saturday and conferred with Hitler on a "reconciliation of Austria and Germany under their July 11, 1939, pact of friendship, was said to have objected to naming Dr. Seyss-Inquart as minister of interior.
The Fatherland Front, of which Sschuschnigg is the chief, objected bitterly to such a complete capitulation to Hitler.
This wavering on Austira's part reportedly led to the massing of Germany army divisions along the Bavarian frontier.
Schuschnigg held a 20-minute telephone conversation with Premier Benito Mussolini of Italy, who is said to have advised him to accept Hitler's "modified" demands, altered somewhat during the last 24 hours.
Italy is allied, in separate pacts to both Germany and Austria.
It also reported that Premier Mussolini was concentrating troops on Brenner pass along Austria's southern frontier but this was denied in Rome.
The new cabinet took its oath of office during the early hours of today, while most Austrians—radio broadcasts were discontinued shortly after midnight—were unaware of what had transpired.
Others With Nazi Leanings
Others receiving cabinet posts and considered to have definite pro-Nazi sympathies are:
Prof. M. V. Adamovic, new minister of justice; Dr. Rudolf Neumayer, reappointed minister of finance; Franz Matschnigg, new minister of forestry, and Adolf Watzek, new secretary of state for labor.
However, considered even more pronounced in this direction is Dr. Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, a minister without portfolio who was appointed the pro-Nazi spokesman in the cabinet following the July, 1936 agreement.
The new cabinet was called into session immediately by Schuschnigg who proposed an amnesty decree covering all political crimes and reinstating pensions cancelled because of illegal Nazi activities.
Those freed will be on "paroles" until the end of 1942.
It was understood, however, that the amnesty would not include the 40,000 persons, mostly Nazis, who fled from Austria to escape punishment.
The official newspaper Weiner Zeitung explained, in eight lines, that the cabinet change meant a "concentration of positive elements" and that "important personalities have been summoned to collaborate in the new government."
Speculate Over Next Step
There was widespread speculation that Austria's next step might be adherence to the German-Italo-Japanese pact against Communism, inasmuch as Premier Benito Mussolini of
— (Please Turn To Page Two) - History Unfolded Contributor
- Charlene Y.
- Location of Research
- Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com)
Learn More about this Historical Event: Germany Annexes Austria
- Austria (Encyclopedia Article)
- Vienna (Encyclopedia Article)
- German Prewar Expansion (Encyclopedia Article)
Bibliography
Bukey, Evan Burr. Hitler’s Austria: Popular Sentiment in the Nazi Era, 1938-1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Fuchs, Martin. Showdown in Vienna: The Death of Austria. New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1939.
Low, Alfred. The Anschluss Movement, 1931-1938, and the Great Powers. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 1985.
Wagner, Dieter. Anschluss: The Week Hitler Seized Vienna. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1971.
Wimmer, Adi. Strangers at Home and Abroad: Recollections of Austrian Jews Who Escaped Hitler. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2000.
All articles about this event
Download the full newspaper page
See full image on newspapers.com
Newspaper images provided by Newspapers.com
