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“…ford every stream…follow every rainb…”
Ok, every time I hear of the Austrian Anschluss (which, admittedly, doesn’t make the news a lot), I can’t help but think of Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and the scene with Captain von Trapp tearing down the Nazi flag from the front of his home. In fact, I’ve probably seen the Von Trapp children frolicking around Salzburg in their “play clothes” more times than I’ve heard about the actual historical event which takes place in the movie.
But even if the The Sound of Music embellishes the real von Trapp story almost beyond recognition, the Anschluss itself was very real, and pretty simple in scope. Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi Party had been putting increasing pressure on Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg to grant more and more concessions to the Austrian Nazi Party. Some he did grant, like appointing Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a prominent Nazi, as Interior Minister. But on others, Schuschnigg hesitated.
And that was pretty much all the provocation the German dictator needed. Knowing full well that France and England would sit on the sidelines, knowing that Austria’s primary defender (Italy and Benito Mussolini) were already in his hip pocket, and knowing that many of the younger Austrians supported National Socialism, Hitler gave the embattled Chancellor two options: step down and name Seyss-Inquart as his successor immediately, or face invasion immediately.
Meanwhile, Hitler had worked with Seyss-Irquart and arranged that, when he became Chancellor, he would ask Hitler to send German troops across the border to maintain order.
Schuschnigg couldn’t stand the idea of bloodshed on either side so, on March 11, 1938, he stepped down as Chancellor. But Austria’s President, Wilhelm Miklas, refused to name Seyss-Irquart Chancellor. Tired of waiting, Hitler and Hermann Goering simply forged a telegram requesting military aid, said it came from the Austrian Government, and gave the military the go-ahead. The troops crossed the German-Austrian border on March 12, 1938, and the Rape of Austria, known as the Anschluss, was begun. Austria ceased to exist and did not regain full sovreignty as a nation until the mid 1950′s.
Recommended Reading: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – A History of Nazi Germany – I am not above recommending books more than once, because if you want to research a topic in greater depth, I want to provide you with a very good source of information. Shirer’s work is superb…believe me, you’ll see it again.
