What acts of violence happened during the Nazi German annexation of Austria in 1938?

score:8

Accepted answer

Every story has three sides. One side's truth, the other side's truth, and what actually happened.

Since 1933, Austria was a one-party state ruled by the Vaterländische Front, an Austrofascist party, with first Engelbert Dollfuss and then Kurt Schuschnigg as Chancellor with the power to rule by decree.

While they shared much of the same ideology with both the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis, the VF opposed an Anschluss of Austria, which put them at odds with the Austrian arm of the Nazi party supporting a unification with Germany. The Nazis were a growing force despite being banned, with supporters placed in internment camps together with other political dissenters.

In the years leading up to the Anschluss, Germany continued to lean heavily on Austria, both economically ("Tausend-Mark-Sperre", Germans had to pay 1000 Marks when entering Austria, severely punishing Austria's tourism industry) and politically (see e.g. July Putsch).

Eventually, in 1936, the Austrofascists buckled under the pressure and signed a treaty with Germany that lifted the ban on the "National Opposition", leaders of which now entered the Austrian cabinet. The pro-German movement in Austria continued to gather strength.

This all came to a head in 1938. Facing continued pressure by Germany, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a referendum on whether Austria should join Germany or not, intending to win a "no" majority, legitimating Austrias refusal of Anschluss. Hitler preempted this by sending an ultimatum: Schuschnigg was to hand over all power to the Austrian Nazis, or face invasion.

Hours before the scheduled invasion, Schuschnigg resigned, and Nazi politician Arthur Seyss-Inquart became Chancellor. A telegram reputedly sent by Seyss-Inquart asking for German troops to "restore order" was a forgery, and sent before Seyss-Inquart actually was declared Chancellor.

All this can hardly be called "peaceful", and there certainly was deceit and violence involved up to this point.

However, the Anschluss itself, the marching of German troops into Austria, was unopposed, the Bundesheer under orders not to resist. The German troops were met with cheers, Nazi flags, and flowers. The enthusiasm was so great that Hitler changed his initial plans of making Austria a puppet state with a government led by Seyss-Inquart, and actually incorporated Austria into the Reich.

tl;dr

There certainly was violence involved in the running-up to the Anschluss, the asking for German troops formally void, and as such German forces entered Austria effectively unbidden.

But the Anschluss was unopposed, met with no resistance, and Austria quite quickly aligned themselves with the NSDAP, because the main point of contention was the independence of Austria, not a disagreement on general political ideologies.

Calling the Anschluss "violent" like on that stone and painting the picture of an occupied territory forced at gunpoint to do what was done afterwards is part and parcel of the Austrian Opferthese, a washing of hands of responsibility for any Nazi crimes that were yet to happen on Austrian soil and by the hands of Austrian citizens. A kind of nation-wide claim of Befehlsnotstand.

Upvote:1

I think you are putting too much focus and emphasis on the one word translation of "gewaltsam". Yes, it can mean "violent", but it can just as well mean "forced" as in coerced under threat (most likely if nothing else is mentioned, the threat of violence).

There is no doubt that this annexation was forced. You quoted it yourself, the German military invaded. There is nothing friendly about an invasion. You cannot get voluntarily invaded.

Nazi Germany took Austria by force. That is what the stone and all your own quotes say.

Upvote:4

@nvoigt already did so, but I wanted to emphasise that an invasion is an act of violence.

Further, though we don't need any more evidence, the OP themselves quoted incidents where the German invaders acted against Austrians (their religious preference had nothing to do with whether they were Austrians) with ill intent:

March 11, 1938

On March 11–13, 1938, German troops invade Austria and incorporate Austria into the German Reich in what is known as the Anschluss.

A wave of street violence against Jewish persons and property followed in Vienna and other cities throughout the so-called Greater German Reich during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1938, culminating in the Kristallnacht riots and violence of November 9-10.
—US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Also, it's wrong to say that Austrians wholeheartedly approved on Anschluss. As an unbiased referendum was never carried out, we won't ever know the actual wishes of the people. Meanwhile, both civilian (e.g., Maier) and paramilitary (e.g., Carinthians) resistance groups fought against the Germans, vehemently disagreeing with Anschluss.

It is also relevant that the former Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, was imprisoned by the Germans after Anschluss, first in his house and later in concentration camps.

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