Anschluss: Hitler's bloodless conquest of Austria

Austria emerged from the First World War as a defeated and reduced state whose former imperial power had ended after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Under the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which was signed on 10 September 1919, Austria lost large areas and its independence, and its new republican government found itself isolated both diplomatically and economically.

The treaty specifically prohibited any political or economic union with Germany, yet many Austrians remained supportive of the idea of unification. 

During the 1920s, Austria struggled with serious political unrest that was caused by widespread poverty as successive governments failed to address the mounting social crisis.

Political divisions between the conservative Christian Social Party, the Social Democrats, and nationalist groups deepened each year, and paramilitary organisations, including the Heimwehr and the Republikanischer Schutzbund, clashed frequently in the streets.

The unstable democratic system began to collapse under the strain. After Chancellor Dollfuss’s assassination in July 1934, an event that exposed the weakness of Mussolini’s guarantee of Austrian independence. 

By 1933, Engelbert Dollfuss, who was Chancellor, suspended the Austrian parliament and began ruling by emergency decree.

He banned the Austrian Nazi Party and wanted to stabilise the nation by forming an authoritarian regime supported by the Heimwehr and aligned closely with Mussolini’s Italy.

However, the political violence continued to escalate. In July 1934, Dollfuss was assassinated during an attempted Nazi coup that failed but further exposed the Austrian state’s weakness.

His successor, Kurt Schuschnigg, maintained power through force and censorship, but his government relied heavily on Italian diplomatic support, and its authority kept weakening. 

After Hitler secured power in Germany in 1933, he began using both direct and indirect means to influence Austria’s internal affairs.

His goal of unifying all German-speaking peoples under the banner of a single Reich remained central to his foreign policy, and he viewed Austria as a natural and necessary extension of Germany.

Nazi propaganda targeted Austrian citizens by stirring nationalist sentiment and encouraging hostility toward the existing regime.

Despite the Austrian government's ban on Nazi organisations, local sympathisers continued to operate underground, often with financial and logistical support from Berlin.

Ernst Kaltenbrunner’s Austrian SS network in Vienna, for example, orchestrated street demonstrations and disinformation campaigns. 

In July 1936, the Austrian and German governments signed the so-called July Agreement in which Germany pledged to recognise Austria’s independence, and in return, Schuschnigg agreed to include Nazi sympathisers in the Austrian government.

The agreement allowed Hitler to strengthen Nazi influence in Austrian politics while avoiding military confrontation.

German agents increased their activities in Austria, spreading disinformation, intimidating political opponents, and preparing for future intervention. 

By early 1938, Hitler decided to escalate his demands and challenge Austria's independence directly.

On 12 February, he summoned Schuschnigg to the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and forced him to endure hours of threats and pressure.

Hitler insisted that Austria lift its ban on the Nazi Party and demanded that Arthur Seyss-Inquart, aged forty-five and previously Austria’s Minister of Justice, be appointed Minister of the Interior.

Sir Nevile Henderson, the British ambassador, recorded in his cable to London that the meeting had ended Austrian autonomy. 

In a last effort to maintain Austrian sovereignty, Schuschnigg announced a national plebiscite for 13 March 1938, asking voters “Do you agree to the reunification of Austria with the German Reich?”

He set the minimum voting age at twenty-four, thereby excluding younger men who were more likely to support the Nazis.

Hitler viewed this move as a direct challenge to his authority and responded immediately with an ultimatum. 

On 11 March, Hitler demanded Schuschnigg’s resignation and insisted that Seyss-Inquart be installed as Chancellor.

Schuschnigg resigned that evening, realising that Austria’s small army of twenty-four battalions and around one hundred light tanks could not withstand the German invasion force of around twenty-one divisions supported by roughly one thousand armoured vehicles.

President Wilhelm Miklas initially refused to appoint Seyss-Inquart, but under pressure from German agents and without foreign backing, he eventually gave way.

German troops entered Austria early on 12 March, greeted by cheering crowds in cities such as Linz and Salzburg. 

Hitler crossed into Austria later that day and arrived in Vienna to a hero’s welcome.

Austrians lined the streets, waved Nazi flags, and celebrated what they believed to be the fulfilment of national unity.

On 13 March, the German government formally declared the Anschluss, and Austria ceased to exist as an independent state.

A rigged vote took place on 10 April, with officials reporting over 99 percent in favour of annexation and turnout exceeding 99 percent, and Jews and political opponents were excluded from voting, and ballots were neither secret nor free. 

Following the annexation, Austria was renamed the Ostmark and absorbed into the German Reich as a provincial territory.

The Nazi regime tore down Austria’s independent institutions, purged the civil service, and absorbed the Austrian army into the German Wehrmacht.

Local officials were replaced by loyal Nazis, and all traces of the former republic were eliminated.

Political opponents, clergy, and intellectuals were arrested or silenced as the SS and Gestapo extended their operations across the country. 

Anti-Jewish measures began at once. On the very day of the German occupation, some 1,000 Jewish citizens in Vienna were forced to clean public streets under SS supervision while Nazi sympathisers jeered and spat at them.

Jewish-owned businesses were confiscated, professional licences were revoked, and homes were seized under a process known as Aryanisation.

Within months, synagogues were vandalised, schools were closed, and entire communities were marked for deportation. 

Austrian society underwent a process of enforced Nazification. Schools taught Nazi ideas in every subject, and the Hitler Youth expanded its membership to include Austrian boys and girls.

The Catholic Church, long influential in Austrian life, came under suspicion, and many priests faced arrest or surveillance.

All public expressions of Austrian national identity were banned, and symbols of the old republic were removed. 

On 15 March 1938, Hitler delivered his speech at Vienna’s Heldenplatz, declaring “With this shameful treaty gone, Austria stands restored to her true place in the German Reich.” 

The Anschluss demonstrated to Hitler that he could expand German territory without facing military opposition from Britain or France.

Western leaders issued diplomatic protests, but neither country took concrete action to defend Austria or punish Germany.

The League of Nations failed to intervene. Hitler interpreted this lack of resistance as a sign that his future plans would succeed without the risk of foreign interference. 

Germany’s control of Austria brought important strategic and military benefits.

The annexation increased Germany’s army strength by eighteen divisions and provided access to the Danube region’s ironworks and oil fields.

More importantly, it placed German forces in direct proximity to Czechoslovakia, whose Sudetenland region contained a large German-speaking population.

Hitler now had both the confidence and the supply position to demand further concessions from neighbouring states. 

The successful annexation also reinforced how the regime achieved territorial goals through coordinated political pressure and internal subversion bolstered by propaganda.

Hitler’s use of threats rather than war allowed him to present himself as a statesman rather than an aggressor.

In reality, he had dismantled an independent country through coercion and fraud.

Hitler now felt emboldened to press his demands elsewhere, and his next target lay just beyond Austria’s southern border.