- Headline
-
Hitler Seizes Austria After Threat; German Soldiers Invade Territory
- Sub-Headline
- Bloodless Revolution Removes Schuschnigg, Results In Nazi State
- Publication Date
- Saturday, March 12, 1938
- Historical Event
-
Germany Annexes Austria
This database includes 5,687 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Location
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- AP
- Article Text
- VIENNA, March 12 (Saturday)—German troops moved toward Vienna in the early morning hours today to back up Nazification of the Austrian state, accomplished in bloodless revolution by Chancellor Schuschnigg's capitulation to Germany's Fuehrer Hitler.
The troops, numbering about 1,000 men in trucks expected to reach the capital at noon (6 a. m. E. S. T.). They carried several pieces of light artillery, the gendarmerie commandant at Schoerding on the Bavarian border told the Associated Press by telephone.
They met no resistance, and were heading first for Linz where Nazis prepared an enthusiastic welcome. From there they were to proceed quickly to Vienna.
Earlier reports said German troops marched into Austrian territory at Salzburg, Kufstein, and Mittenwald.
Faced by Ultimatum
Faced by a German ultimatum threatening armed invasion unless the government were reorganized as Hitler wished, the government gave up its five year fight against the German fuehrer.
The bloodless revolution came after two days of violence throughout Austria. It was accomplished in eight hours.
Swept out of office by Germany's demands was Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, who had fought to preserve Austrian independence in the old course of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who was assassinated in a Nazi putsch July 25, 1934.
Succeeding him as chancellor and Austria's man of the hour was Austria's Nazi leader, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, political friend of Hitler.
Seyss-Inquart immediately formed a new cabinet, all but two of whom where Nazis.
Apparently Wilhelm Miklas still was president.
President Silent
The government radio told Vienna and other Austrian cities—where Nazis went wild in jubilant demonstrations—that Seys-Inquart had been appointed by Miklas.
But the president, who through his years in office had supported Schuschnigg, made no announcement to the Austrian people.
Also swept out of office was another leader of the old regime—Mayor Richard Schmitz of Vienna.
His city staged a demonstration that was probably without precedent.
Crowds who heard radio announcements that German troops were on their way into Austria stampeded through the streets. Swastikas appeared by the thousands, even flying from the chancellery and the city hall. Nazi crowds stormed the Fatherland Front building.
Windows were smashed, and dozens ofNazis hurled torches and tossed them inside. Firemen sprayed the building.
All Vienna seemed to be shouting:
"Heil Hitler!"
Schuschnigg himself, who yesterday called out 100,000 reserved and 30,00 guardsmen to supplement his regular army of 70,000 in the face of German troop mobilization, told Austria of Germany's ultimatum.
In an address last night, he declared that "we are not minded at any price to shed German blood" and ordered his troops to withdraw "in the case of invasion" by German forces.
Time Limit Set
The ultimatum set a time limit in which the president had to appoint a chancellor and government "according to the dictates of the German Reich."
It said that unless this were done within a few hours, German troops were on Austrian soil.
Reports that field Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Hitler's right-hand man, was in Vienna were denied in all authoritative quarters.
Defeat of Schuschnigg's dream of an independent Austria was foreshadowed yesterday afternoon. Then Schuschnigg postponed indefinitely the plebiscite he had ordered for Sunday to register Austria's opinion on independence or submission to Nazi demands.
It was Schuschnigg's sudden announcement Wednesday that the plebiscite would be held which precipitated two days and nights of turmoil throughout Austria.
Nazis assailed it as a violation of Schschnigg's agreement with Hitler at Berchtesgaden Feb. 12. The tension finally precipitated yesterday's street clashes and mobilization.
This was the way chancellery sources pictured the march of the bloodless revolution in its critical hours.
Early Demands Spurned
In the early afternoon yesterday, Wilhelm Keppler, German state secretary, arrived by airplane.
He went immediately to the chancellery and demanded that Schuschnigg's proposed plebiscite be postponed.
Miklas refused to yield to the ultimatum, saying he was an
Continued on Page 4—Column 1 - History Unfolded Contributor
- Steven B.
- Location of Research
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Learn More about this Historical Event: Germany Annexes Austria
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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.
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