Word: austrian
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Once on the Austrian side of the massive border barrier, many East Germans jumped from their cars and danced with...
...justifying rearmament in 1935, he declared, "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria or to conclude an Anschluss ((unification))." He even signed a treaty with Austria in 1936 promising not to interfere in its internal affairs. But he was an Austrian, after all, and the idea of uniting the two Germanic nations can never have been far from his mind. By 1937, when he called in his generals and told them to prepare for war, he said, "Our first objective . . . must be to overthrow Czechoslovakia and Austria...
...actually made an abortive attempt to seize Austria in 1934, when some 150 SS men dressed in Austrian army uniforms burst into the Chancellery in Vienna and shot down Conservative Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. That was supposed to be the start of a Nazi coup, but Justice Minister Kurt von Schuschnigg rallied the police and had the assassins arrested. Italy, which had guaranteed Austrian independence, mobilized four divisions on the frontier. Hitler backed down. By 1938, however, he had built a threatening army and had won the support of Italy's Mussolini (they had signed a secret protocol in 1936 creating...
Hitler's strategy was a classic example of what came to be known as a war of nerves. All through 1937, Austrian Nazis, armed and financed from Germany, staged demonstrations, street fights, midnight bombings. Schuschnigg, now Chancellor, banned the party and kept arresting its agents. In February 1938 Hitler invited the Austrian leader to his Alpine retreat in Berchtesgaden. There he stormed at his visitor, declaring that the Austrian problem must be solved or his army would demand its "just revenge." When Schuschnigg asked what it was that Hitler wanted, he was handed a typed "agreement" and told that...
...Nazi mobs had encircled the Chancellery, shrieking "Sieg Heil! Heil Hitler!" On the telephone from Berlin, Goring dictated a telegram to Seyss- Inquart in which "the provisional Austrian government" asked Germany to send troops to restore order. On March 12 the Wehrmacht came streaming across the border -- not only unopposed but warmly welcomed by thousands of Austrians who genuinely wanted union with Germany. Next day, Seyss-Inquart issued a decree that announced, "Austria is a province of the German Reich." Hitler returned in triumph to the Vienna where he had once lived as a virtual derelict. Papen described...